I’m heading to Bradford from rural Scottish Borders…Arriving at Bradford Interchange is a bit of a culture shock. I pass Saint George’s Hall on the way into town, arriving at Centenary Square. I went searching for the remains of the Bradford Canal, which joined the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Shipley and was eventually closed in the 19th Century, due to it being a public health hazard [5.]. The obvious place to start was along what is now Canal Road, but there’s nothing there for most of the way because the canal was later filled in and is now just water flowing through an underground tunnel. When you get out to the Edge of Town, the canal appears but only has a cutting bounded by a stone wall with dense vegetation on the other side. Broken fences and barbed wire along the walk and heavy traffic coming in and out of town. It’s a post-industrial wasteland and missed heritage opportunities to bring back life to what the Victorians built…Some of the historic mill buildings also still stand by the canal, bringing to mind William Blake’s verse from 1804:
“And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?” [3]
Whether Blake was referring to the mills of industry or using the language symbolically to mean churches is a debate that continues between scholars of poetry. Sometimes it’s hard to find anything poetic about modern life, but the bands playing tonight know how to for sure, sometimes drawing references from the romantic poets, biblical inspiration and their roots here in West Yorkshire.
Post-industrial remnants of the Bradford Canal
It’s obvious that I’m not going to see a towpath today, so I turn around and head for Frizinghall metro station, where two women in hijabs help me with digital ticketing. We all wait but the train doesn’t come…announcements over the tannoy say that objects have hit the overhead power lines…train after train is cancelled and we have to find our own ways back to Bradford centre.
Stuck in Frizinghall
Objects on the power lines
All trains are cancelled
[6.]
I hoof it in the dark, back past the warehouses and car showrooms, lit up by the oncoming headlights from a steady stream of traffic.
Thanks to ‘Smorgasbord Coffee Bar’ and ‘Falafel ‘n’ Juice’ for the vegetarian and vegan sustenance today – welcome oases with plant-based offerings for a veggie leper wandering in a mostly-carnivorous desert! The hall is a short walk from my digs in a traditional hotel and there’s a queue outside for the gig, punters separated into seating and standing by roving stewards. It’s early days but it soon gets busy. The schedule is displayed outside – tight time scales for tonight.
St. George’s Hall and the band timings
My haiku for the gig:
Dark December night
Paradise Lost in Bradford
With My Dying Bride
[6.]
My Dying Bride came on as planned at 8. Aaron Stainthorpe resplendent in black shirt with white collar and cuffs – How dandy to wear cufflinks when you front a doom metal band! The guitar players are stage left (Neil Blanchett) and right (Andrew Craighan) with bass player Lena Abé on stage left, violin, keyboard player Shaun MacGowan on stage right and Dan Mullins on drums. “We are My Dying Bride, all the way from Bradford!” says Aaron by way of introduction. It’s a fantastic, atmospheric set, opening with ‘The Thrash Of Naked Limbs’, from their second EP. ‘Catherine Blake’, from their most recent album, ‘The Ghost Of Orion’, released in 2020, is the only nod to the recent past, as My Dying Bride mine the deep, rich veins of their doom metal archive. Aaron sings with much feeling throughout, crouching down like he’s in pain at times and comfortable switching between clean and growled vocals. ‘Like Gods Of The Sun’ is the highlight for me, reaching absolute perfection and raising things to a new level. The iconic ‘The Cry Of Mankind’, opening track from ‘The Angel and The Dark River’, follows that, the elegant tapped guitar melody running through the whole piece. They ‘Turn Loose The Swans’ just before the end of the set, Aaron noting the constraints of the timing and that they’ll play either one or two more. The lyrics behind the deep growl delivered in this song of crushing doom are beautiful poetry:
“My quill it aches
Turn loose the swans that drew my poets craft
I’ll dwell in desolate cities
You burned my wings
I leave this ode, splendid victorious through the carnage”
They finish with what we’re told is ‘one of our fastest songs’, ‘The Forever People’ from their debut album ‘As The Flower Withers’, and the high energy rock-out is a blistering way to finish the set. A brilliant performance and let’s hope My Dying Bride return to UK stages soon!
Embrace the darkness
Let the music wash over
Lose yourself in the black sound
[6.]
We have time to appreciate the majesty of the auditorium in St. George’s Hall while waiting for the headliners – It is truly the perfect setting for this special ‘homecoming’. As the house lights go down, the intro music ‘Deus Misereatur’ starts, the end at the beginning? Paradise Lost play the whole of their 1993 ‘Icon’ album, as advertised, and vocalist Nick Holmes makes jokes about how the audience know the setlist in advance: “There’s no need to shout out”, he says, “We knew what we were doing”. When the band first come on, Holmes greets the crowd with “Ey up! Are you a’ right?” and later says he spent most of his life in Bradford, his ‘miserable, shitty life’, he says, noting that he lived some of his time in Halifax – Worlds away? Well, not really for us folks from out with the area, but to locals, probably yes. “Is there anyone here from Frizinghall?” he says, and I think back to my afternoon activities above.
It’s quite a contrast to the My Dying Bride setlist – ‘Icon’ was somewhat a change in direction for the band at the time, moving away from their gothic doom sound and inviting comparisons to Metallica due to Holmes’ vocal delivery being reminiscent of James Hetfield’s. As it happens, Nick Holmes references a Metallica gig tonight, one he went to at St George’s Hall in 1986 – “Who was there?”, he asks the audience, and accuses some of lying when the response is too numerous. 
The last time Paradise Lost played in Bradford was 1995, recalls Holmes, noting how beautiful the building is – “I forgot”, he says. It’s a great performance of the album, not completely cold, as Holmes engages with the crowd between songs. Greg Mackintosh, lead guitarist, who is standing on stage right, definitely shines. Aaron Aedy, rhythm guitar and Stephen Edmondson, bass, take up stage left with ‘new boy’ Guido Montanarini on drums – Guido joined in 2022 and all other musicians have been members since the original band formed in 1988 – fairly unusual staying power in the world of rock’n’roll. Holmes jokes about their former drummer joining them for one song but says he’s f***ed off home home. Holmes says they have lots of friends in Bradford but none of them came to the gig – “They’re probably down the Wetherspoons in Centenary Square”, he jokes. The band go off after ‘Christendom’, unfortunately the female vocals delivered on a backing tape instead of live for that song, original session singer Denise Bernard not being present. A bit of crowd noise signals an encore, pre-planned of course, and Paradise Lost come back on for a few very well-chosen tunes: ‘Sweetness’, which was a bonus track on reissues of ‘Icon’, then the uptempo ‘Pity The Sadness’ from their third album ‘Shades Of God’ from 1992, with it’s infectious guitar riffing and the wrenching lyrics – “Life is there for me, Hell is there for me…I cried for God and I’ve cried for you”. The powerful, heavy, dark ‘No Hope In Sight’, opening track of 2015’s ‘The Plague Within’ is the penultimate, the band finishing with the fantastic ‘Ghosts’ from their excellent, most recent, album ‘Obsidian’, which is, in my opinion the best song of the night by Paradise Lost, driving, evocative and melodic:
“For the fire burns, deep within mistrust
For the ghosts, the ones to break me
For Jesus Christ”
[5.]
Then it’s over and we herd back out into the West Yorkshire night, dazed after this fantastic homecoming gig for two iconic doom and gothic metal bands. This was well worth travelling a long distance for, and the memory will linger on…
“I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,
Taught by the heav’nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend…”
John Milton, from ‘Paradise Lost’, 1667 [4.]
My Dying Bride setlist:
The Thrash of Naked Limbs
The Songless Bird
Catherine Blake
Like Gods of the Sun
The Cry of Mankind
She Is the Dark
Turn Loose the Swans
The Forever People
My Dying Bride – band:
Aaron Stainthorpe – vocals
Andrew Craighan – lead guitar
Lena Abé – bass
Shaun MacGowan – violin, keyboards
Neil Blanchett – guitar
Dan Mullins – drums
Paradise Lost setlist:
Intro music: Deus Misereatur
Embers Fire
Remembrance
Forging Sympathy
Joys of the Emptiness
Dying Freedom
Widow
Colossal Rains
Weeping Words
Poison
True Belief
Shallow Seasons
Christendom
Encore:
Sweetness
Pity the Sadness
No Hope in Sight
Ghosts
Paradise Lost – band:
Nick Holmes – vocals
Gregor Mackintosh – lead guitar
Aaron Aedy – rhythm guitar
Stephen Edmondson – bass
Guido Montanarini – drums
References:
1.https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/my-dying-bride/2023/st-georges-hall-bradford-england-5bae03f8.html
2. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paradise-lost/2023/st-georges-hall-bradford-england-4bae03fa.html
3. Blake, William (1804) ‘Jerusalem’
4. Milton, John (1667) ‘Paradise Lost’ 5. Bradford Canal – Wikipedia
5. Paradise Lost Facebook page
Eddie's Rock Music A-Z 