Seth Lakeman to take Electric Palace by storm

IF you haven’t heard the name Seth Lakeman by now, chances are you’ve been living under a rock.

Now arguably folk’s biggest star, Seth is taking the genre mainstream.

He has seen his recent single The Courier playlisted on BBC Radio 2, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and won a Radio 2 folk award for his part in The Full English.

And it doesn’t hurt that his brooding good looks have led to him being described as ‘the poster boy of folk’ and his current series of shows ‘the musical equivalent of the bodice-ripping blockbuster’.

Steady, ladies.

Seth is speaking to me from his Tavistock home, where the rural idyll has turned into the hectic idyll, with his wife, year-old twins who are ‘always on the move’ and his springer spaniel dog Vernie.

Born and bred in Devon, it’s the county Seth can’t tear himself away from.

He has got a lot of gigging ahead of him over the next few months, with his tour even taking him, randomly, to Denmark to play four dates.

Seth said: “Sometimes music works out like that. There are little pockets where you become popular.

“For some reason that seems to have happened to me with Denmark and has also happened with Australia.

“As a singer you just have to take advantage of that.

“And I’m a fan of Danish bacon so I enjoy the food when I go over there.”

Multi-instrumentalist Seth has performed at the Electric Palace before, describing it as a ‘beautiful inspiring’ venue.

His audience can expect ‘a bit of a surprise’ during the gig, he says, without wanting to reveal too much.

“We do have a bit of a surprise up our sleeves but it’s whether we can do it or not.

“Even if we can’t pull that one off I’ll get my dog Vernie playing a tambourine or something.”

Seth has won over a lot of new fans this year who would have heard him sing for the first time.

He performed at the D-Day 50th anniversary commemorations with a song specially written in memory of his late granddad, also originally a musician, who was a hero of the Normandy landings.

Seth played the song at the Royal Albert Hall for Radio 2’s D-Day concert.

“I wrote King and Country based on his stories and it was nice to pay tribute to him, it was a very powerful and moving experience for the whole family.”

His latest album Word of Mouth was named one of the top folk albums of 2014.

The album was recorded at North Tamerton Church in East Cornwall, and straddles the folk tradition the contemporary folk movement that Seth is rapidly becoming known for.

Seth said: “I based it on interviews with people.

“One of the interviews that really stays with me was when I went down to the Bodmin Railway Preservation Society.

“I went to the Library Room and spoke to a man in his 80s who got quite emotional and quite teary eyed reminiscing about the days of steam.

“It drove me to tears because he is someone who was so passionate and articulate about things.

“I think that with this album there’s a lot of depth to it. It’s got a lot of life to it.”

With the music business constantly evolving and changing, Seth is happy to move with the constant rhythm.

“The music industry is changing and you need to keep churning out records, it’s important to do that but there’s not any money in that any more.

“It’s a tough business and people don’t really buy records any more.

“I’ve only been performing solo for a while and before that I wasn’t taking it so seriously, I was playing the fiddle and writing songs for people.

“I think at the moment it’s an exciting time for all styles of folk music.

“Folk is becoming more mainstream and we’ve got people like Ed Sheeran who are opening doors for us.

“It’s a very good time to be in folk.”

Local folk duo Ninebarrow who were crowned winners of the Larmer Tree Festival’s breakthrough act last year, will be providing support at the gig.

l Seth Lakeman is at the Electric Palace, Bridport, on Thursday, September 18.

Doors open at 7pm and the show starts at 8pm.