Biddulph is a former mining town on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border and St Lawrence’s Church has a history steeped in folklore – Templar Knights, the English civil war and Viking destruction – and Victorian secret societies – all have a part in its story – and now, its regular use as a venue for touring roots acts is part of its next chapter.
Rod Picott is no stranger to the venue and the town – he’s played the church before in 2023 and the far less pretty, brutalist town hall, in 2018. Each time the audience numbers have increased so it’s fitting, that on his final tour, the audience numbers have gone up again and he’s playing in front of a packed church for his last time in these parts.
As it’s Rod’s last tour (read more about that here), it’s unsurprisingly a crowd pleasing and career-straddling one. The first set highlights include a raging ‘Puncher’s Chance’, a foreboding ‘Last man In Line’ and more tender moments encapsulated in ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘Lover’. Picott, isolated on stage, bedecked in blue against the warm red uplighting, allowed the songs to take on another level of fragility.
The mid-set break gave Rod the chance to overcome a mental block to the lyrics of ‘Broke Down’ which opened the second part of the set to rapturous applause – and when he commented about the excellent quality of sound on stage and asked the audience if it was OK out front, one wag replied with “It’s better than Shrewsbury in 2007!” That geniality and camaraderie between artist and audience was warm and ongoing. The second set kept up the quality of the first – ‘Angels And Acrobats’, ‘Welding Burns’ and ‘Girl From Arkansas’ were all standouts. There was also the welcome interjection of one of Rod’s “dad” stories – those who follow Rod on social media will know of his tender, heart-warming and humorous stories about his father, which have attracted their own cult following – this one was about his dad’s lawnmower obsession and was touching and hilarious in equal measure.
‘River Runs’ was the final song of the set before a deserved ovation and encore – on this and other tours, Picott has drawn from the Springsteen catalogue – but on this occasion, he pulled a Bob Dylan gem deep from memory – the audience were treated to a fabulous and passionate version of Dylan’s ‘I Want You’ -and then the guitar was placed on its stand and the artist symbolically walked off the stage and through the audience to round off the night and his (musical) time in the venue.
Part wake, part celebration, this was a bitter-sweet night knowing that Rod Picott wouldn’t be performing on stages such as this again – but live music’s loss is literature’s gain. For a talented wordsmith like Picott, this just marks a stage of transition and of further and wider artistic and personal fulfilment. There’s an audience out there ready-made for what comes next – thank you Rod Picott and there’ll be glasses raised for the past and with all eyes on the future.
Photos by and with permission of Nick Barber
Just about to watch/listen to him in Leytonstone tonight. It’s a long way from Aberdeen to see one of my Americana favourites! 🙂 (OK, I may have had other stuff on in London but it is too good an opportunity to miss!)