Cecil Sharp House plays host to the English Folk Dance And Song Society. Downstairs, a coterie of idiots are skipping around to the sound of a school assembly piano. Upstairs, a scary looking man with an Appalachian beard is singing songs about death and sex. Will 'Bonnie Prince Billy' Oldham has a wonderful sense of humour.
He also has a seemingly limitless collection of original modern blues classics, which he performs sparsely tonight - just the man and his guitar - in front of a hushed, awed group of fans hypnotised by this incredible presence. Oldham is like a character from a storybook, like 'Rumpelstiltskin', emerging from legend to entertain us with spooky folk songs and the occasional twitch of his facial hair. (It's incredible, actually, how expressive that knot of beard is...)
His charm, confidence and weird unknowable-ness combine to create an effect we imagine is similar to that of Dylan in the mid-'60s - Oldham has such an inimitable songbook, and such an edgy glint in his eye, that anything is possible, just like Sir Bob in his heyday. The two hour set is rambling and shambolic - he takes requests, then has to get audience members to help him remember the words - but utterly electrifying.
A beautiful 'Just To See My Holly Home', a playful 'I Am A Cinematographer', and an almost unrecognisable 'I See A Darkness' are just a few of the moments which have you thinking this may evolve into one of those classic, "I was there" gigs. It gets increasingly surreal as audience members shout out requests and he tries to make sense of a back catalogue littered with spook-folk masterpieces. Forgetting the words to one, he spins off into a hilarious monologue: "Failure hangs over me like a black cloud...puking up rain...reminding me of...my mother..."
Later, someone shouts, "Smile, Will!" and he fires back, "Make me," before breaking into a mild smirk. "Okay, you did," he responds, then goes stoney-faced: "Now make me come." The twin pinnacles of his art are 'Death To Everyone' and 'Little Boy Blue' - both quite different songs, but both revealing how he's brilliantly combined a provocative lyrical attack with a uniquely wistful melodic ability. Tonight they sound - like everything else emanating from this strange skinny stranger from the backwoods - like the works of a genius.
