Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman: Liverpool Philharmonic: Live!

By Mike Ainscoe on 28th March 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman – The Music Room, Liverpool Philharmonic – Thursday 27th March 2025.

“WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOLD MY CANNONBALL…?”

Not quite in the same league we’d guess as Phil Collins’ multi million dollar Alamo collection, but Sean’s a Napoleon enthusiast you see. It explains in part the cannonball confession and the presence of a ‘Napoleon’ section to the set. But that’s to come…

With the recent K&S live album newly acquired for the shelves, Sean Lakeman and Kathryn Roberts’ 30th anniversary trip around the island (with a trip to Costa folk festival in Ibiza for good measure) is a must see. We’re lucky to find the Roberts/Lakeman duo having a ball, in fine spirits and fine form in Liverpool. Even after the trip up from Dartmoor and by their sky high standards that’s some compliment, but those thirty years have seen them acquire a wealth of material and stage craft.

CHERRY PICKING

They do very well to cherry pick from a vast catalogue that over the course of the evening tells the story of their music making time together whilst allowing us to tick off a couple of personal highlights. The bad boyfriend tale of The Robber Bridegroom and a stunning Night Visitor are our “oh yes!” moments. The latter as the second song in, sets the bar impossibly high. No place in the set yet for Bound To Stone from the last album, but having dropped the hint…

The set is perfectly crafted. The journey takes in a combination of their folk roots, intimate personal insights to which we can all relate – family life can be a constant inspiration – and songwriting that calls on the experiences of a touring musician. They certainly make the most of their nationwide jaunts. Maybe expect a song that includes llamas (they smell of weetabix apparently) on Dartmoor in the future.

TIME TRAVELLING

Casting their net across their legacy and making light of the ’30’ landmark, we time travel back to the first song Sean heard Kathryn sing. He recalls the curly haired pair of Yorkshire lasses as he and his brothers scouted out Sidmouth Folk Festival in 1993. It’s part of the Napoleon set as the duo combine The Plains Of Waterloo with Boney’s Defeat. The latter, sung unaccompanied on the Personae album, is embellished by some lovely echo treatment on the guitar and spot on, goosebump phrasing at the end of each line.

Bringing the story right up to date, there’s The Outside. A sort of postscript to update the sentiment of A Song To Live that’s a tender contrast to the jaunty solo and Sean’s guitar hero shapes thrown and impossibly complex chord shapes in Eavesdropper.

DARK TALES

The second set follows fashion – both in striking magenta tonight btw. Their return sees everyone thoroughly warmed back up with the devilishly dark murder ballad Child Owlet and the combo of Lovely Nancy and the equally dark The Street Of The Cats Who Dance. The latter fair warning to late night revelers in St Malo that Kathryn quips could be akin to something that might happen in modern day Barnsley. Despite the gruesome content, the verses are sublime.

More timeline markers are ticked off with memories of the formation of Equation and their fledgling efforts with Lovely Willie. Sean explains the song being “difficult to play – must have been nimble in our younger days…” Imagine the fuss that a 3xLakeman/Roberts/Rusby superpower would garner today. Almost like reforming Oasis… Meanwhile there’s very (Sgt) peppery vibe about Ropedancer and The Poison Club (“an alternative to the temperance society“). Quirky and bouncy, the perfect fairground flavouring that comes from a seemingly simple set up of one guitar, a keyboard and occasional flute.

HEALING POWERS

The curtain comes down with a finale of Pew Tor that’s a subtle and humble reminder of the healing power of special places and special music. Kathryn sings of “the silence of birds and breath of the air.” It’s all very restful and therapeutic. It feels like Dr Frasier Crane signing off from KACL and wishing us ‘good mental health’. If only they could bottle it.