The Blackheart Orchestra
The Monastery, Manchester
6 April 2025
I thought I would miss The Blackheart Orchestra this year. There were a couple of dates on the tour I could maybe make, with an effort, but I'm trying to cut down on travelling so reluctantly decided to give them a miss. Then two things happened: first, I listened to Hotel Utopia again for the first time in a while, and remembered how good this band was in concert when I first discovered them last year. Second, they announced an extra date, an end-of-tour celebration in Mancester (more-or-less home turf for them, I think). So I didn't really have a choice. Trains booked, and here I am in Manchester.
The Monastery isn't an easy place to get to. It's well out of the centre, and the long walk from Victoria takes in some dodgy industrial back streets. But when you get here, it's worth it. It's a magnificent church on an epic scale, almost a cathedral. I wish I had taken more time to read the information boards inside, because there are many questions hanging over it—for example, why's it called The Monastery when it doesn't seem to have been one, and why is it aligned north-south? (The alignment means the light through the windows does really interesting things as the afternoon wears on, but it's still wrong.) But sorry, I'm going off-topic. The important thing is that the epic size, stone walls, and empty interior gives it a magnificent acoustic. And the view of the stage from the seats is great, because there is a stage, unlike some other churches I've been to concerts in.
But isn't is awesome?
So, this is an afternoon concert, as I mentioned. It runs for a little over five hours, and there are four artists on in total, making it almost a mini-festival. Each support act plays for around 45 minutes, and The Blackheart Orchestra plays for almost 90 to close the event.
First on is Molly Tilston, a new name to me. Sings a mixture of traditional songs and her own songs, some with a guitar and some unaccompanied. A great voice, good songs, and it's strange that she doesn't seem to have any merch with her; I would have bought an album. If I had one minor criticism, it's that she doesn't use the microphone well, so her volume goes up and down. Maybe it's a deliberate choice, but it doesn't entirely work in these acoustics.
Next on is Dikajee, who I do know but haven't seen live before. She plays with a piano, and her songs work really well when stripped of the dense instrumentation of the album versions, and somehow sound even more powerful even when not being driven by drums and rock arrangements. She also has another singer with her, and the second voice really adds a lot to the arrangements.
Third on is Megan Dixon Hood, another singer with a keyboard, though she uses more sounds than just piano. I don't know her again, and I gather she normally performs with a rock band, though her songs all sound fine with just a single keyboard arrangement. She has a powerful voice, and I'll be interested to hear (one day) how she sounds with a band.
Finally, The Blackheart Orchestra. For the uninitiated: it's not an orchesra, it's a duo. But they play about 20 instruments between them, including guitars, bass, keyboards, glockenspiel, electronic percussion, and probably some other electronics I haven't identified. They both sing, either separately or in harmony, and they have very different but perfectly complementary voices.
There's just something indescribably beautiful about their music. Part of my interest in seeing them is simply admiring their virtuosity and the way they flawlessly move around their multiple instruments in perfect synchronisation to make all these complex arrangements work with just four hands. But just admiration for their technical skill isn't what has put them on my must-see list. It's their songs. Such beautiful, thoughtful, emotionally satisfying songs, satisfying in both words and music. It's the kind of music that makes you cry, not because it's sad (though they do admit that most of their songs are sad) but just because it's so perfectly beautiful. Most of the songs are drawn from the last album, Hotel Utopia, but there are a couple of brand new ones which I am instantly in love with (even though, obviously, I've already forgotten the titles), and which tell me that this is going to be a favourite band for a long time to come.
As 6.30 arrives and they are just finishing, I know I might miss my train back to Newcastle, but I don't even consider leaving until they come back on for an encore. And even when—especially when—the encore is a ten-minute song and I know I will definitely miss the train, I'm not moving until the very last note finishes. Because this is just perfect music, and too important to miss. This is the best concert I've ever seen.