Stone Foundation - Queens Hall, Nuneaton 18 Sept 2020

 

Stone Foundation - Queens Hall, Nuneaton 18 Sept 2020

by Pete Clemons

There is an often used expression along the lines of 'you don’t know what you’ve got until it's gone'. And this, I think, has applied to the music scene. In all truth, you knew what you had, you just never thought you’d lose it. We take things for granted on a daily basis, always with the assumption that whenever we need something, it will be there. But this pandemic had all but killed live music.

So when I heard that Stone Foundation were playing a series of indoor gigs at the Queens Hall in Nuneaton I was quick off the mark in securing tickets. It was certainly my first indoor gig since lockdown began. In fact this, as I understand, was one of the first in the country. A lot of stops were pulled out by venue in order to just put these gigs on. For example, tables were laid out with sufficient distancing and everyone entering had temperature taken. And, to be fair, it has to be said that the vast majority of the audience respected the rules. Having said that, since these gigs, the rules have been tweaked again.

The first night of these three special gigs was excellent. It was quite clear from early on that this eight, occasionally nine, piece band had missed live performance. As had the audience of course. Stone Foundation, who had not played since March, gave us a continuous set split into different sections. The first section saw the band perform the whole of their new album 'Is Love Enough'. This was immediately followed by a 'favourites' section that included 'The Limits of a Man', 'Back in the Game', 'Season of Change', 'Simplify the Situation' and a host of other great songs. And, finally, there were several encores that included a couple of crowd warming covers.

For many and varied reasons Paul Weller is not an artist who needs to offer his services in collaborating with just any group. In fact it all began when Paul Weller approached the band to add their talents to one of his tunes. And now, as he was on the bands previous release, 'Street Rituals', here is Paul once again featuring and collaborating on Stone Foundation's latest release, and where the band pose the question, 'Is Love Enough?'.

Additionally, Stone Foundation have also managed to secure the services of the likes of Mick Talbot, Steve White and a host others. Such is their ever growing reputation. 'Is Love Enough?' continues their fruitful collaboration with Paul Weller who produced 2017's 'Street Rituals' and played on 2018's 'Everybody Anyone'.

'Is Love Enough?' is the band's sixth studio album and was recorded at Paul's Black Barn Studios. This time however it has been produced by Stone Foundation's founding members Neil Jones and Neil Sheasby.

To give a fuller picture and to leave the reader under no illusions, in order to make the gigs work, they were rolled out over three nights with a reduced capacity. Ticket prices also had to be increased from where they would normally be. The band, as I understand, earned over the course of these three night, what they would normally have done in a single night. Such are the strange times we are currently in.