Playing in a space normally reserved for up and coming bands, David Ford must qualify as a seasoned veteran. He was once in one of those bands. In 1996 he fronted indie pop trio Easyworld, who looked set to rival bands like Starsailor and Turin Brakes when indie bands with acoustic tendencies ruled the charts. But poor sales of the band’s two albums led Ford to disband the trio and go it alone.
He has subsequently released three solo albums. His first was back in 2005 and his latest, Let The Hard Times Roll, last February. He has since gathered a small following, but a dedicated one. Tonight, he’s sharing the bill with Teddy Thompson (son of folk legend Richard), but still plays to a pretty full room. Given that it’s Friday night and the O2 has a club night which kicks off at 10pm, this forces Ford to take to the stage at 7.15pm, making the turnout all the more impressive.
He has to concede the stage to Thompson at 8pm, so only gets to play nine songs. On a set taken from across his back catalogue, with one new track, his sound is the classic folk of Dylan meshed with Jeff Buckley-esque angst, with Panic, Song for the Road and I Don’t Care summing this up perfectly.
Ford finds himself in the same situation as singer songwriters like Tom McRae and James Yorkston. On one level it must be killing them to see the likes of Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson selling albums by the liner load, given they basically do the same things, just with lyrics about the beach, rather than the more downbeat subjects Ford opts for.
But, given that he has been at this for five years now, it seems unlikely he will have a lyrical lobotomy and start chasing sales. Turnouts like this at 7.15pm are probably reward enough.
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