Stornoway

Stornoway Stornoway MP3s or CDs Stornoway on Spotify

While the tuneful folk-pop of Mumford And Sons and Noah And The Whale has broken through emphatically into the mainstream over the last couple of years, the similar and arguably even more talented Stornoway remain somewhat under the radar. But after opening on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury this year and topping the bill at last night’s Somerset House Summer Series concert in front of 3,000 people, it could well be their time is coming.

With its elegant Georgian architecture bordering a vast courtyard, Somerset House is certainly an impressive venue, especially on a balmy July evening when the buildings seem to glow as the sun sets over the Thames beyond. In such grand surroundings, Stornoway initially seemed a little overawed. Front man Brian Briggs, sporting an eccentric baggy brown suit, chattered nervously to the crowd before launching into Boats and Trains, one of the standout tracks from 2010 debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill.

It quickly became apparent that Stornoway’s quirky, often delicate songs are not a great fit for larger outdoor arenas, often sounding uncomfortably overstretched. With the speakers ramped up to the max, Briggs’s yearning tenor and his band mates’ sweet harmonies struggled to make themselves heard above a backing of thumping drums and piercing electric guitar.

The Oxford quartet started to hit their stride midway through the set with two new compositions that bode well for their next album. The absurdly catchy When You Touch Down From Outer Space has one of those choruses that lodges irresistibly in the brain from the very first listen; in contrast, The Bigger Picture, a delightful acoustic strum performed by Briggs solo, recalled '60s singer-songwriters such as Donovan. The purple patch continued with the wistful, lilting Fuel Up, a great example of how Stornoway can be quietly anthemic without assaulting the eardrums.

Unfortunately, the band’s momentum stalled again when they were joined by the usually excellent North Sea Radio Orchestra. A bold attempt to flesh out the group’s sound, adding yet more textures only served to swamp their subtleties even more. It seemed Stornoway felt they needed to throw the kitchen sink at the audience to justify their new status as a headline act at a major event rather than focusing on the more understated charms that got them there in the first place, although a rousing encore that included their most moving song, Long Distance Lullaby, and their best known, the soaring, infectious Zorbing, got the crowd singing along warmly and ensured the evening ended on a positive note.

Briggs’s awkward but endearing banter – ranging from ornithological references to earnest apologies for delays between songs – included a mention of the strawberry museum in Eastleigh, the sleepy Hampshire town that was the rather more humble location for their gig the previous evening. One suspects that for all their commercial potential, Stornoway are more at home on the smaller stage, and although their Somerset House performance was occasionally outstanding, it’s only in a more intimate setting that you’ll see them at their best.