The Magpie Arc – The Met, Bury: Live Review

At The Barrier

5 months ago

The Magpie Arc – The Met, Bury – Saturday 1st November 2025

THE MAGPIE ARC 3.0

On the last date of the current tour, The Magpie Arc 3.0 (taking 1.0 as the Adam Holmes version and 2.0 as the Martin Simpson era) arrive at The Met as a slimmed back quartet yet bolstered by the not inconsiderable presence of Sam Carter (well known to us in numerous guises including solo acoustic and electric folk rocking variations) in the fashionable role of ‘touring guitarist’.

Their opening blast of All I Planted does exactly that – plants the seed with Nancy Kerr possibly for the only time in her career, fronting a Rock band that has Sam and Findlay Napier cast as gurning face to face riff meisters, and sets out the stall for a set that goes Folk…Folk Rock…Heavy Folk Rock. Delivering what Findlay Napier refers to at one point in a typically Scots phrase, as”Some heft.” Possibly fuelled by Irn Bru (‘made in Scotland from garrrrdaaars’). Fin and Sam are seemingly enjoying riffing together. Tough As Teddy Gardner finds them hammering a three chord (? – I’m not technically minded) riff that The Offspring or Green Day might have nicked. Or just Smoke On The Water. Sam’s solo, and not his only one tonight, is mega. He clearly has some undetected Metal coursing through his veins.

SOME OLD SOME NEW

There’s also a new album imminent with pre-orders flying off the merch stand and online. Some tunes make the set tonight too, several inserted boldly into the first half; maybe the music stands giving a few reminders for new music that’s not yet in the muscle memory. The Burning Of Auchindoun is an early tester, Findlay’s broad Scots brogue offering the contrast to Nancy Kerr’s soaring higher register that follows on on Darling Charms. She introduces (and sings) another new one: The Ballad Of Rebecca Young. A song of a female rambling sailor and another one that has more heavy lifting courtesy of the twin guitars.

They end set one with The Mantle – the single that features Ian ‘Tull’ Anderson and Maddy ‘Steeleye’ Prior. “They can’t be here tonight due to …fame,” deadpans Tom, but quite some coup for TMA to have such a duo grace work due to a combo of a healthy respect and due diligence and ‘if you don’t ask you don’t get’ attitude from Alex Hunter. It’s what you’d expect from the collaboration, but onstage is pure Magpie sans the extra flute and voice.

On a night when there’s a lot of fun and banter, the challenge of not saying “ladies and gentlemen” or “derring do” (very difficult to avoid the latter in Folk song) fails miserably while Tom A Wright, always ready with a quip from behind the kit, gives the “Judas” shout as Findlay dons and acoustic guitar in a strange reversal of the famous Dylan episode. Lest anyone miss it, he also reminds us of the influence of the Midlands folk group, The Black Sabbath. When they head down the final straight with Wassail, you could even imagine Ozzy singing “bring us bread and bring us liquor as we move through the town.“

VERSATILITY

The versatility is often on show. Easily switching to some of their Folk or Courtney rock roots is aided and abetted by some bottlenecking. Sam’s Dark Days from his solo work and Sweet Liberties gets the Magpie treatment and it’s great in a very quirky and quivering Fun Boy Three way. And then , even The Grateful Dead get a namecheck… A recent Napier obsession and via a link with Pretty Peggy; Sam getting to deliver ‘more heft’ as he briefly channels Jerry Garcia.

Typical of the blast the quintet have is in the encore – thankfully adopting the ‘we’ll stay on stage and see if you want another by doing lots of claps and cheers’ philosophy. Don’t Leave The Door Open, already existing in a form built on a juddering pace, gets a Southern Rock/Folk boogie. More bottleneck from Sam, and Findlay is using his beard to gain the full ZZTop effect. Some may have been tempted to twirl their petticoats to Nancy’s fiddle before she’s overtaken by a bit of Bo Diddley. “A bit dull for you guys but we were having a great time,” says Fin. ‘Dull’?? He may have grossly underestimated the effect.

A real penchant for story telling in their songs, TMA give a totally refreshing outlook on modern folk music. The tasters of the new material show the future for The Magpie Arc is healthy and fans old and new will be anticipating the new release, Gil Brenton, which also has twelve minute epic title track to reveal.

And as the icing on the cake, a clap on the back for the band’s own choice of PA music during the breaks. Steven Wilson, Genesis, 90125 era Yes, 80s King Crimson. We were like a pig in the proverbial.