Trees, Seas and Red Brick; Django Durrant at the Attic

"Let me take you on a journey."

This was the proposition Django Durrant made as he opened his set.

In reality, this journey started from stepping foot inside the building for this folk spectacular at The Attic as the opening leg of Durrant's album launch tour. 

The Attic itself was an ideal setting for the event. Warm and welcoming. Brick laden and housing sofas and a garden that was perfect for this toasty evening in the swan song of May. Wide staged and out of the way of the hustle and bustle of Leeds centre, it's a place that emanates folk and as such the lineup was a perfect fit.

The evening commenced with Meriel Paget with her amazingly talented back up band including Samwise Seidel (of Heart Shaped Logic fame), Leo Thomas owning the drums, and the remarkably talented Emily Keeble on Cello. Meriel's set consisted of fiddle pieces played alongside her band. Some instrumental, some accompanied by spellbinding lyrics both in English and in Welsh. The performance really expressed the timelessness of traditional folk music. Stirring and ancient yet not out of place in the urban jungle of Leeds, Paget made it approachable yet mystic, delicate yet powerful. 

Following Paget was Fig by Four. Separate from the traditional shaping of the performance before, Sarah Statham, the multi-instrumentalist behind the band, brought proceedings to the contemporary. The whole set was both grounded yet otherworldly. She combined lyrics that were personal, raw, yet relatable. A continual sense of the ethereal helped to create a wonderfully introspective and atmospheric set. The contrast between Fig by Four and Paget's set was notable yet not jarring. It aided in creating a wonderful sonic palette for the evening that Django Durrant slotted into the middle of.

As mentioned, Durrant's set was themed as a journey, much like his new album. The audience was escorted through forests to shipwrecks by the ocean, to Arthurian England, to the opening credits of the Detectorists TV show with an excellent cover, to the drug pushing dens of mythical creatures and back into the world being greeted by a yacht rocking fox with 'Walk On By'. The night ended with what can best be described as a prog-folk piece much in the vein of the Decemberist's 'Joan in The Garden'. Durrant left his set by showing he had more in the musical tank. 

Durrant's songs were as infectious as his charming stage presence. Confident, friendly and in control but never as pretentious as the lofty concepts of each track could allow for. He allowed for the audience to be brought along rather than dragged, ensuring the whole room was in step and enthralled. His band were tight and responsive, never missing a beat and performing with a quiet air of professional flourish that only provided an extra feeling of quality towards the evening. 

While it is hard to admit, given that he is the mind behind rival Leeds magazine Roots and told me to "Djang-piss off" at the end of the gig when I said we had to Djan"go" (he was joking, I think), Durrant masterfully crafted a great night of music for a genre and scene that can often feel niche and overlooked in the indie-heavy quagmire of the Leeds music world. It wasn't just the music that was incredible that evening, it was the atmosphere. You could palpably feel the goodwill that Django has within the Leeds scene. With Jamie of Contact Buzz recording the night, and cameos from bands like Hardware in the audience, the night felt like a celebration of Django's music and him as a person, both extremely well deserved.

Words by William Hatfield. Pictures by Natasha Dobson (@n_j_dphotography).