Michael Chapman

Brudenell Social Club, Leeds  - 9.02.12

Benign hyprocrisy becomes me, it doesn't invoke any guilt. So I can happily make my way to my favourite music venue to mingle with learned musos, grizzled folk veterans and guitar afficionados and nod along in the right places, all the time looking as if I am cerebrally attached to the thought processes of people far cleverer than me. See what I did there? What a hypocrite.

The name of Michael Chapman was on the edge of my consciousness. I knew of his existence. It took a conversation with the highly professional musician Hans Chew last year to bring him into focus. So a New Yorker turned me onto a guy from my home town of Leeds (Hunslet to be precise).

The re-release of his 1970 LP 'Fully Qualified Survivor' and the announcement of his show at the Brudenell seemed the time for me to explore his work more fully and goodness me what an album it is. Mick Ronson's guitar lends it an unmistakeable Ziggy Stardust sound and the gravelly passion in the Chapman voice brings an authenticity that is neither folk or rock, just the personal genre of a man writing and singing about what he knows. No surprise that another of his albums is entitled 'Millstone Grit' - the stone out of which they built Leeds Town Hall.

It's another freezing night and the Brudenell is sparse. No matter, within minutes I'm talking to two people I've not seen for 15 years, just as my gig buddy for the night (Mark) arrives.

Chapman is a sprightly 71 and the stage is just him and two acoustic guitars. His playing is other worldly. I have no technical insight into his style or method but the complex and multi-layered soundscapes he conjures are hypnotic and beguiling. The atmospheres invoke worlds I have never visited and the smoky drawl of his half-spoken vocal speak of many lives lived. In between songs he takes us down some tales of life on the road and the many places he has been. He describes (without bitterness) how Jimmy Page used his song 'Kodak Ghosts' as the template for 'Stairway To Heaven'. As he plays it, they seem identical and I can't be the first to wonder how and why a lawyer has never been involved in proving so.  'The Twisted Road' he dedicates to peers and friends he has lost along the way. There is a warmth and humour to the show  - despite his observation that he gets more nervous playing in his home town than anywhere else.

I suppose he is the fully qualified survivor - but he wouldn't have known that all those years ago. The reception he gets from the quiet and knowledgable crowd is enthusiastic  - 90 minutes of stellar guitar exhibitionism that remains inherently natural and modest.

I'm pleased to have seen him, and to have put another small building block in place in my ongoing quest for guitar credibility.

http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk/index.htm