Witness: Before the Calm
The town of Wigan has something of an illustrious musical history for a small northern town whose only other claim to fame is a large Heinz Baked Beans factory. In recent years, the Wigan region has produced the excellent Starsailor and the mighty Verve, and inevitably when the little-known Witness emerged from their converted chip shop/rehearsal room in the late 1990s with their debut single Quarantine they were greeted with caution and even dismissed by some as being Verve clones. Certainly, Ray Chan, the main guitarist is a personal friend of the Verve’s Nick McCabe and also has an improvised style of slide guitar, but Witness sound more like REM or some other soft rock/folk outfit from the States. Before the Calm is a stunning debut album that manages to take vocalist Gerard Starkie’s weed-induced musings and present them as deep, profound and ultimately moving.
