LIFESIGNS

VENUE TRADING BOUNDARIES, EAST SUSSEX

DATE 30/08/2019

“When we first played here, the audience comprised a man and a dog!” muses Lifesigns’ John Young. Tonight, underneath the venue’s billowing satins and silks, it’s a full house, a far cry from that first lonely night in East Sussex back in 2014 – though the band have been regular visitors here since then.

Kicking off their latest UK mini tour, it’s apparent that their recent break has worked wonders, as energy levels onstage are running high. Much of that energy emanates from the band’s co-founder, drummer Martin ‘Frosty’ Beedle, who’s immediately and visibly in the zone as he attacks the opening staccato beats above the swirling synth of Lighthouse’s intro. The return to the set of the opening track of their eponymous 2013 debut album is long overdue, its climactic closing passage a meeting place for rumbling bass, soaring guitar, seagulls and crashing waves.

Beedle and animated bass player Jon Poole are a steady foundation on which Young’s rich keyboard lines and warm, clear vocals, together with the cultured, fluid guitar of ‘newbie’ guitarist Dave Bainbridge, can build wonderfully. The sound’s exquisitely balanced by the band’s fifth member, sound engineer Steve Rispin.

Lifesigns deliver a stream of favourites tonight. Stand-outs include the haunting Voice In My Head; Young’s broadside to radio mediocrity, Touch; the ever-uplifting Cardington; radio-friendly Chasing Rainbows and the very prophetic though happy appraisal of Armageddon, At The End Of The World from the first album together with customary closer, Carousel, during which early technical gremlins are quickly rectified.

The confidence, virtuosity and vigour with which this foursome now play brings fresh, undiscovered insights into their music, especially with the arrival of Bainbridge, who has taken the band to a higher level of performance, mainly due to his intuitive rapport with Young.

The encore, the hauntingly moving The Last One Home, written by

Young, originally appeared on qango’s only album, Live In The

Hood. This ethereally beautiful ballad, hallmarked by Bainbridge’s spinetingling guitar solo, will be on the next Lifesigns album.

It’s fair to say that, judging by tonight’s reaction, few bands command affection and admiration in such equal measures as Lifesigns.

Young reveals that Lifesigns was a result of a bet made in a pub when he was challenged to create some fresh, original prog music. With the band increasingly the entry point for many non- or ex-proggers, he’s long overdue a jackpot return on that wager.