Review: Harp and a monkey

Thornton Hough Village Club and Bar, 28 March 2025

As a photographer and scrapbooker my whole life is documented to some degree. I love taking photographs that tell stories, that mark a moment in my life. My greatest joy is doing that at a gig. I have thousands of photographs that take me back to a song or a moment in a gig, where I feel like I captured the essence of the performer, to be held on file forever, to allow me to instantly recall the feeling.

Every now and then I go to a gig where my camera is not enough. Where no matter how hard I try I cannot capture that essence. Last night’s gig at Thornton Hough Village Club & Bar by Harp and a monkey was one of those gigs. And it’s not the first time! Every time we see this band I am transfixed, by the stories, by the history, by the sheer love for their craft that oozes from the stage. Mostly I am captivated by Martin Purdy and his obvious joy in performing, a joy that just radiates out into the audience.

I can hardly shift my attention to my camera because I might miss something, some nuance of a story I haven’t heard before, a phrase I’ve not noticed before. And so the total sum of my photographs from last night is five But what an experience.

The setlist was as varied as their back catalogue but highlights for me were Pilgrim’s Cross, The Molecatcher and Serenade For A Winters Day. Also Tupperware and Tinfoil which is regularly played and sung along to in our car