Super Furry Animals wow York with brilliant comeback show

REASONS to be cheerful, one, two, three, as the summer sounds of the city changed from John Smith’s race day on Knavesmire to Live At York Museum Gardens and onwards to the pubs of York once Saturday night turned into Sunday morning’s Hey Jude.

Kick-off time for day three of Live At York Museum Gardens had been moved forward by 30 minutes to accommodate England’s 10pm quarter-final clash with Leeds-born Erling Haaland’s Norway.

Saturday’s bill boasted five acts, one more than for Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Self Esteem’s equally diverse evening line-ups on Thursday and Friday. Three bands from the Land of Song, the Super Furries, fellow seasoned Cardiff combo Los Campesinos! and Pys Melyn, from Pen Llŷn, North Wales, were joined by Nottingham’s Divorce and Buckinghamshire/West London-raised Baxter Dury.

Pictured, Divorce’s Tiger Cohen-Towell on song at Live At York Museum Gardens. (Image: Devon Chambers.)

Your reviewer arrived midway through Divorce’s set of confessional indie-folk rock and alt-country songs reminiscent of Mojave 3 and The Broken Family Band, drawn to the fiddle-playing as much as to the double-barrelled duo of bassist Tiger Cohen-Towell and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow alternating lead vocals.

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“Enjoy the rest of the day. Keep drinking water,” advised Mackenzie-Barrow. Messages on the screens to either side of the stage urged the same action: Stay Hydrated, it counselled, highlighting the availability of free water points for re-filling and also of free sun cream in the First Aid tent.

“Welcome to the rock concert,” announced Los Campesinos! lead singer Gareth David Paisley, drawing attention back to the stage.

Super Furry Animals wow York with brilliant comeback show – Pictured, Los Campesinos! lead vocalist Gareth David Paisey. (Image: Devon Chambers.)

Still favouring emo black attire, albeit in T-shirt and shorts form, they were hard working, earnest, political too in “standing up against the creeping fascism we see around as every day” and Freedom For Palestine banner.

The “Heart Swells” message on their stage backdrop was as much an invocation as the name of their record label, but the songs tended to be laborious, typified by 2008’s We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed failing to match the epic promise of its none-more-emo title.

Baxter Dury was in the mood to crack on, his three-piece band taking to the stage two minutes early, to be joined by the front man in yellow shirt and dark suit, strutting like a bull-baiting toreador. Behind him, keyboard player and vocalist Madelaine Hart did much of the melodic heavy-lifting, contrasting with his braggadocio spoken-word outbursts, as he hit you with his rhythm schtick.

Pys Melyn opening Saturday’s Live At York Museum Gardens concert. (Image: Devon Chambers.)

Super Furry Animals had never played York in 33 years together, but on this year’s return to the concert platform after a ten-year hiatus, what better setting could there be to revive Hello Sunshine (Come Into My Life) than in the botanical York Museum Gardens.

The day’s sunshine had mellowed by the time the Cardiff art-rockers opened with the embracing hug of (Drawing) Rings Around The World at 8.25pm, but their songs are marked as much by an orb of warmth as occasional weird edges, the musical style duly altering as often as frontman Gruff Rhys changed guitars.

Baxter Dury striking a pose in his provocative set at Live At York Museum Gardens. (Image: Devon Chambers.)

As for OMD’s set on Thursday, fast-moving video projections accompanied each number, mixing with live footage of Gruff in shades and peaked cap and linear stage lighting in colours to complement each song’s mood and the imagery.

This was an exemplary outdoor gig, stuffed with SFA highs such as Juxtaposed With U, Northern Lites and God! Show Me Magic, the Welsh-language wonder of Ymaelodi â’r Ymylon, and humorous visual flourishes, as impactful as in David Byrne’s shows, such as Rhys’s sign board switching from Applause to Louder And Ape Sh*t! or suddenly sporting a high-viz jacket and Power Rangers-style helmet.

How else could they finish than with the magnificent mayhem of The Man Don’t Give A ***, climaxing with a return to the stage in long-haired furry animal costumes. Something spectacular 4 the weekend indeed.