Stick It In Your Ear webzine reviews "Palace Of Light"...

 A truly wonderful review of the latest Beau “Palace Of Light” album has just been published in the Stick It In Your Ear webzine! Many thanks to Brian Hinton!

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BEAU

"Palace Of Light"

Cherry Red BEAUPOL 1 - DL-only - (49:58)

..by Brian Hinton

Beau, aka Trevor Midgley, or briefly John Trevor was hand picked back in 1969 by John Peel for the now legendary Dandelion label, alongside other unique talents, Bridgett St John, Clifford T Ward and Kevin Coyne. It is Coyne with whom Beau’s later work most chimes, songs of anger and bitter humour. And of all of these troubadours from the post Dylan/Donovan musical revolution, Beau is surely the most prolific. This is his nineteenth download-only album released by Cherry Red. It is a true cottage industry, just Beau and his 12 string, homely recording studios and a seemingly endless supply of things to say. I went back to Beau’s first and its a fascinating contrast — the same mastery of 12 string, almost a one man orchestra, a mastery of storytelling with a twist and social comment, but the voice is now starker, more of a Northern timbre — Beau hails from Leeds, where his first local radio broadcast was with Jake Thackray and a budgie called Puck. Indeed there is humour here as well as a heavy dose of irony. Beau rails against the world of identity culture and celebrity culture like an updated Thackray, minus the pluminess and affectation.

 

Things kick off with ‘I Plagiarise Beethoven’ in which Beau imagines himself a superstar, whose classical appropriations have gone unnoticed (with little tweaks of musical quotations). It is a shame that Beau does not gig more, this would go down a storm. ‘Twenty-Twenty Vision’ is a blast against social media, and the inherent fascism in woke orthodoxy. Again the 12 string is a musical counterpoint. Masterly. “Sceptic tanks” indeed. These are lyrics which really deserve to be printed out. ‘Glimpse of Venus’ is so multi-layered that the listener can hardly keep up with the wordplay — | think of Alan Clayson and his similar fantasies of an alternative show biz sensation. ‘Green Hill’ makes climbing a hill a metaphor for lost hopes. ‘Cuckoo Land’ presents Beau at his most bitterly sarcastic, and his perfect diction merely makes each point sharper. ‘Opportunity Knocks’ revisits Hughie Green, though it opens with Machiavelli not the winking Canadian. Again the twelve string dances in counterpoint.

 

Beau says that an early influence was Tom Paxton. There is the same underlying compassion, but a sharp point made all the same. Humour leavens anger. Even if the next song is about a public hanging. For saying one word too many. ‘A Target On Your Back’ is so speedily sung that the listener can hardly keep up. But every word clear as a bell. I have a picture in my head of Beau as an updated Greek cynic, railing at the modern world from a dustbin. Relentless. So it is no surprise that this is followed by ‘Cultural Appropriation Blues’ which tells the story of a posh blues singer from Stoke Poges, rhyming chatter and Henley Regatta.

 

‘Epigram’ is the portrait of a man needing tranquillisers to keep going. ‘Lost For A Cliche’ is jaunty confession of a man obsessed with getting just the right form of words. Which turns out to be a hack journalist seeking out exactly the tritest cliche he can. ‘The Worshipful Company Of New April Fools’— now there’s a title — opens “We’re living in truly Onwellian times” and doesn’t let up. Blithely happy, this album is not. Give us a glimpse of hope, Beau. Even though you are undoubtedly right in your diagnosis of cultural malaise! Three to go. ‘Ballad Of The Rowdy Knave’ is about the new fascism. Masquerading as populism. ‘Celebrity Memorabilia’ imagines Beau’s cast offs coming under the hammer, “consomme stains from Watford Gap". Even Adele gets a mention! ‘The Song’ is the most wistful thing here, sung with passion, about music that can “bring a quiver” to the heart. A song about the power of memories and love. It’s an anthem. Beau has gathered a much deserved cult following. A man of clear sight in a country of the blind. The more I imbibe this album and then turn on the news, the more Beau’s lyrics hold true, and come to haunt me. I just hope that he cheers up now and then. And John Peel will be listening up in heaven, and thinking “the boy done well”.

 

Brian Hinton