In Praise of Kate Tempest
Like most articles I write, this piece was inspired by a chance meeting outside a toilet at a club night, in a boxing gym in Brixton on New Year’s Eve. I say a chance meeting, but I actually saw this person on the top floor and followed her around the entire gym until I could engineer a meeting as if by accident. Having lived in London for three years I’m pretty blasé about meeting celebrities, and in fact openly roll my eyes at others’ tales of bumping into actors, reality TV ‘personalities’ and minor royalty. So, it would take a pretty exciting figure to send me off on a journey from the dance floor to the dark and disgusting portaloos outside.
That whole story, which ironically ended exactly like the plot of one of her songs, serves to illustrate without empty platitudes, what a fantastic figure Kate Tempest has become.
Although people who went to better schools than I had the pleasure of first encountering her performance poetry at A-Level, I’ll admit, I was late to the storm that surrounds Tempest. I first heard her album during her whirlwind (I’ll stop the weather puns now) rise to fame following Everybody Down being nominated for the Mercury Prize.
Despite being beaten to the prize by Young Fathers, the album remains my highlight of 2014. Chronicling the relationship of two characters, Pete and Becky, across 12 songs, Tempest manages a feat that is the sign of a master songwriter: making a narrative story about two fully-developed and specific characters seem universally relatable. The song Lonely Daze, for example, is a song about being young and lost up there with the greats of the genre like the Buzzcocks’ Boredom and Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now by The Smiths.
What I found most amazing, however, was the difference between the intimidating, young powerhouse of the record Everybody Down and the polite, almost reticent woman I met in Brixton.
Mind you, you’d be reticent too if you were approached by a clearly drunk, six foot music writer covered in glitter when you were just trying to enjoy your new year. So, apologies for that, Kate, the hug was appreciated though. (I wonder if Susan Sontag ever asked the rock stars she met whilst writing for Rolling Stone for a hug. If not, she seriously missed out.)
This gap between Tempest real and the Tempest of Everybody Down and its genius, lead single Circles is what makes her performances so captivating and ever-changing. As she says herself in that single, she’s ‘half bag lady, half Bagheera.’
A poets mind with a rapper’s mouth has always been a dynamite combination. From Patti Smith to Chuck D, Tricky and to others getting mainstream exposure in Tempest’s wake. Megan Beech for example, author of one of the Guardian’s picks for books of 2014. (I also went to uni with her, so I feel obliged to give her exposure after entertaining me through many otherwise tepid poetry readings).
Okay, so back to Kate Tempest and another apology to her, regarding New Year’s Eve. I may have also been talking to someone who I didn’t realize knew you and after I told them you were at the party, they out to find you, as apparently you had wronged them in some way. So if you’re reading, Kate, apologies if your night got a little daytime TV. It was however, exactly like a moment in one of your songs, so hopefully you at least get some material out of it.
Although tickets for Kate’s next London show at the Electric Brixton on February 15th sold out almost immediately, you can check out her upcoming UK tour dates here.
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