The Magnetic Fields

There’s been great excitement here at Booknerd Towers these past couple of days, as The Magnetic Fields have been in town!

The band are the best-known outlet for the work of songwriting genius (yes, genius!) Stephin Merritt; although, not content with having just one band, he's also the driving force behind The Gothic Archies, Future Bible Heroes and The 6ths.

Merrit’s most famous work is undoubtedly The Magnetic Fields magnum opus ‘69 Love Songs’ (1999) - which does exactly what it says on the tin. Brilliantly.

But his latest work comes very close in scale. It's called ‘50 Song Memoir’ and it features songs inspired by the events of each of the first 50 years of his life (he's now 52).

The 7-piece band performed all 50 songs over 2 nights at the Philharmonic Hall and it was an absolute joy to experience!

If you're in the market for lugubrious yet droll songsmithery then the Magnetic Fields are the band for you!

Stephin Merrit’s songs can be both heartbreaking and hilarious - often within the same line - and he should surely appeal to anyone who likes John Grant. There's a similarity of voice, humour, gay sensibility, love of language and passion for both acoustic balladry and electro pop.

He performs his between-song banter with perfect poise and timing (see Extras for an example of his handwritten notes and lyrics, which I managed to snap during an Intermission) and the attention to detail in set-design and the accompanying films which play on a screen above the band during each song is just fabulous.

The band are all highly talented multi-instrumentalists but the basic instrumentation tends to be cello, viola, ukulele, guitar, percussion and keyboards. However, there's a lot of room for much more esoteric instruments, including a Stroh violin (essentially a violin with a horn), a toy accordion, a bowed saw, and what looked to my untrained eye like a circular saw (safety goggles were worn).

Photography is strongly discouraged at the venue and I've got into ‘a spot of bother’ about it previously, so I didn't dare try to take a picture of the band until they took their final bows. The result won't win any awards but it'll help me remember this special experience!

Left to right: Suzanne, Pinky, Stephin, Quince and Anthony. Apologies to Shirley and Chris who got cut-off in my haste to grab a quick snap!

Here's ‘A Cat Called Dionysus’ (the song for 1968, when Stephin was 3 years old) filmed at the Edinburgh International Festival just a week or so ago… www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ibs2MEnUQ

And here’s ‘Me and Fred and Dave and Ted’ (the song for 1993, when he was 28) www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AQNU4-SGY8

For further insight into the world of Stephin Merrit, here's a lovely little film about him and his house… www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJMGMc54rUA

Incidentally, it isn't only Merritt who’s a fascinating individual. All the band members are interesting in their own right; Pinkie Weitzman, for instance (who plays violin/viola and assorted other instruments) also serves as Deputy Digital Director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and was very involved in Bernie Sanders’ Presidential campaign. How different life could have been…