John Bramwell’s last scheduled show at the Temperance Bar in November was cancelled at the last minute - so late in fact that some ticket holders (yours truly included) only found out when they turned up to find the venue closed and a note on the door.

Tonight we found out why. It apparently all revolved around being blocked in at a rental cottage in Monmouth by a Land Rover, which came after, but may not be the direct consequence of, the owner of a Mercedes unwittingly defiling the interior of their vehicle after treading in a gift left behind by the singer’s crossbreed rescue dog Henry, ultimately costing him his £150 bond on the property.

And if that sounds longwinded then it wasn’t the only shaggy dog story (not all featuring Henry, although he has clearly become something of a muse) that the former I Am Kloot frontman related between songs during another wonderful performance at the cosy Leamington venue.

The banter is very much the comedic yin to the melancholic yang of Bramwell’s beguilingly beautiful tunes, elevating proceedings beyond typical singer-songwriter fare, almost to the point that you’d come for the jokes as much as the music. Almost. When you can reel off the likes of Bigger Wheels, Black And Blue (the first song he wrote), When The Lights Go Out (the most recent), From Your Favourite Sky, Leave No Traces, At The Sea (a request he enjoyed as much as the audience member who shouted for it) and more, there’s really no need to waste time telling us about how you mistakenly ordered nine pallets (as opposed to crates) of whisky while working at Tesco. That said, context is everything - he used his subsequent “redundancy” money to press up a vinyl single to give to John Peel - and it was all gloriously entertaining.

Ten years after going solo - Kloot never officially split up but he’d had enough of the music industry grind - Bramwell is clearly as content as he’s ever been. He claims songwriting and gigging are more important to him than making records, and he’s far happier playing intimate shows to larger venues (“even 200 people is a bit too big”). The smile on his face, and the response of a suitably enraptured audience, provided more than ample Proof.

5 stars

Reviewed by Steve Adams at the Temperance Bar, Leamington Spa, on Thursday 22 January.
John Bramwell plays the same venue again on 23 January. He also plays The Artisan Trap in Stoke-on-Trent (28 January), Katie Fitzgeralds in Stourbridge (16 April) and West Malvern Social Club in Malvern (18 April).