Review: BYSEA AND THE NOISY MINERS ARTIST LAUNCH WITH B.S. ROBERTS SINGLE LAUNCH – ADELAIDE FRINGE at Wheatsheaf Hotel

Reviewed by Ray Smith, Saturday 20th February 2021.

The Wheaty Tin Shed at the Wheatsheaf Hotel is a very familiar Fringe venue, and tonight hosted the second presentation of BYSEA and the Noisy Miners Artist Launch with B.S. Roberts Single Launch.

The show started with a 45-minute solo set from B.S. Roberts, backing his resonant voice with the ukulele. He is perhaps best known for his work with Adelaide bands, the Timbers, and the Ukulele Death Squad, but tonight he was performing without a band and presenting songs from his upcoming EP, Live on the Heysen Trail.

The songs were well constructed, and Roberts' voice is strong and compelling, but his frequent lapses into a broad American accent I found very off-putting, and I found myself listening out for them, rather than enjoying the lyrics and the song's musicality. His descriptions of the songs and his general banter were personable and often humorous, but there still seemed to be a separation between the performer and his audience between songs that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

His ukulele playing is considerably more complex and skilled than Adelaide audiences are used to hearing, and his use of finger-picking and frailing, and claw-hammer techniques demonstrated his abilities, particularly during an instrumental offering, but the monotony of the instrument's tone in isolation led my attention to wander.

In the second half, the stage was yielded to Simon Basey's new outfit, for only its second live performance. BYSEA and the Noisy Miners is made up of: Simon Basey, on acoustic guitar and banjatar, an electric guitar banjo hybrid, Jason Coe, on keyboards and backing vocals, Andrew Buckingham, on bass and backing vocals, and Yahna Powel, on drums and silver flute.

Basey laid his heart and soul bare during this show, singing autobiographical songs of a deeply personal nature, of life events that have shaped him over the last fifteen years, and in chronological order. Each song was described and put into a personal context along a timeline that allowed the audience unfettered access to aspects of Basey's private life, and to that of his family. Uncertainties, fears, losses, and even feelings of despair, were juxtaposed with hopes, love, joy, and determination experienced over the decade and a half that the works cover.

I have personally known Simon Basey for some years, but some of the personal details of his life, that he spread out before us, were a revelation to me, let alone an audience of strangers. It was an extraordinarily brave thing to do.

The first song, Strangest People, gave us an insight into what was to come, as Basey's soft voice, the lush accompaniment from his guitar, and the Noisy Miners' instruments, were joined by close harmonies from Coe and Buckingham.

I have always enjoyed Basey's voice, it has a gentle persuasiveness that demands attention, but this show saw his voice extended into a more demanding role as the visibly emotional singer pushed through his deepest feelings to deliver the story that he simply had to tell.

Songs about his wife Emma, whom he described perfectly in the songs, Wild Flower, and Extraordinary, and their beautiful children, Mary and Harriet, who he declares his adoration for in Dads and Daughters.

It was fascinating to see Basey playing guitar and banjatar, rather than the keyboards and organ bass pedals that he is best known for in his work with the Timbers, and his fretboard work was fluent and unhurried.

The Noisy Miners' playing was understated and supportive, with no virtuoso solos or unnecessary flourishes and ornaments. Powel's flute playing changed the feel dramatically, as she abandoned the drum kit for a little while to add softer, legato lines to gently underpin the lingering lyrics of a gentler song.

This is a very new outfit and, while the playing was very tight in terms of rhythm and arrangement, it was also a little tight in terms of musicality, but as the band members get to know each other's live playing that will start to loosen, and more risks will be taken.

I was very much reminded of acoustic bands in Melbourne in the 1980s that were quintessentially and unapologetically Australian, such as the Whirling Furphies. Sadly there are very few exponents of this particular genre still playing on twenty-first-century stages, and BYSEA and the Noisy Miners were a breath of fresh air.

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