Birmingham Songwriters Festival, Ronnie Scotts, Wednesday 26 July 2000

To say that The Magnetic Fields are a cult act is something of an understatement, but their monumental triple album, '69 Love Songs', has certainly captured the imagination of a couple of hundred enthusiastic West Midlands CD buyers.

Stripped down to just singer /songwriter Stephin Merritt and pianist Claudia Gonson after a London gig with a full band the previous night, they aired truncated versions of the songs from the genre skipping '69' as well as tasters from the soon to be released follow-up, the less ambitious sounding 'Six'.
With a deeply resonant voice, New Yorker Merritt (whose mother travelled over to see him play) sipped brandy and chain-smoked throughout.
At times holding a cigarette while strumming, a pile of ash slowly built up on his thigh as he introduced us to tales of life s highs and lows.
His astute, witty, dry and bittersweet lyrical observations place him somewhere between the New York poetry of Lou Reed, the flair of Cole Porter and the canvas of Brecht.
From beautiful fragile odes to lost love, to Hank Williams styled country tragedies, to throw-away quips it was a mesmerising performance that had the audience demanding more and more. 'I Don t Believe In The Sun', 'All My Little Words', 'Busby Berkeley Dreams', 'Yeah! Oh Yeah!' and 'Papa Was A Rodeo' were greeted like old friends in a benchmark setting festival performance.
DF