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With his new album ‘The Toothpaste and the Tube’, released December 1st , Beans on Toast plays Cardiff The Globe and is met with a dedicated crowd, many of who already know the lyrics for his new tracks.
His sixteenth album so far, Beans on Toast, aka Jay McAllister, has been performing since 2005 and therefore brings an established fanbase with a wide range of ages out to venues.
Warming up the crowd Tensheds play first, a one-man band playing elaborate bluesy piano, a synth beat pedal, and singing simultaneously. His rasping vocals are emotional, and the lyrics are melancholic, yet his improvisatory piano playing is joyful.
Next up, Bassie Gracie performs poetry for the audience, prefacing some of her work with her concern that music audiences do not want to hear poetry, and serious poets find her work trivial. However, her poetry was witty and empowering, moving between conversational sections to rapid rhymes, all while maintaining the audience’s attention.
Both Tensheds and Bassie Gracie – now playing bass – return to the stage, forming Beans on Toast’s band for the tour. He kicks the set off with ‘Work to do’ from the new album, signing about social problems such as plastic pollution, global conflict, and mental health. Between the upbeat folk-like melody, and focus on the work giving humanity purpose, the song manages to have a cheerful and optimistic character.
B.O.T succeeds in leading sing-a-longs without even trying, the entire audience swaying, cheering, and belting out lyrics to one of his more popular songs ‘Watching the World Go By’. The audience reaches such a volume, that McAllister shouts “F*ck Yeah Cardiff! See you are gonna try to make this the best night of the tour!”.
Many of his songs focus on social issues, and how as a community we can overcome them. An example of a song combining both light-hearted fun, and a serious message is the M.D.M. Amazing and ‘The Children of Bedford’ mashup. Halfway through the first song, he pauses to tell the tale of a young fan interaction, of how it shocked him and his band, and how it inspired him to write a song cautioning regular drug usage. After telling the story, he begins ‘The Children of Bedford’ before resuming ‘M.D.M. Amazing’ and imploring his crowd to listen to the message behind both tracks.
The communication between B.O.T. and the crowd is phenomenal. Just before he begins the song ‘The Greenwash’ he invites a member of his team as well as two people from the crowd to join the band and him on stage. They act as his backing singers, after being taught their line to chant, and he regularly runs over to prompt them to join with varying levels of success. Just like the rest of his act, his message is serious, and yet he is still able to create an unusual and entertaining way of performing, managing to get the crowd to laugh, listen, and dance – a skill that has had the crowds turning up for him for 18 years.
