Way back in the 1980s, Catriona Irving and I grew up but one mile apart in rural Bedfordshire. We didn’t know each other. I stuck to my village, and she to hers. I now like to consider that we must have caught sight of one another in Shefford Gateway at some point, but I will never know for sure.
Fifteen years later, however, we certainly did meet. We’d both taken an eastwards sidestep and rebranded ourselves as Cambridge residents. Catriona was a hip young photography student, and I was, well – in all truth, a bit of a dork. Undeterred by my own social handicap, I was convinced that we were going to become great friends.
One day, I stumbled out of the office at the art-house cinema in which we were both working and heard what sounded like a lullaby drifting up the fire escape towards me. Disorientated by serene sounds coming from the place normally associated with tramp’s wee, I ventured towards the source not entirely sure of what I was about to find.
Sat on the bottom step was Catriona Irving singing a song which I was later to learn is called Hindsight. Enthralled, I sat a few steps up from Catriona and demanded that she played every song that she knew. To this day Hindsight is one of my all time favourite songs.
Years on, and Catriona’s career has blossomed. Following her collaboration with France’s Julian Plasir she is now revered in Paris and counts Lindsay Lohan amongst her celebrity admirers (!). She has released three EPs, all via independent label neednowater records, and there is talk of a debut album release towards the end of this year.
Taking some time out from writing, last night Catriona played her first gig of 2011. Making her way onto the makeshift stage of Steeles’ Jingle Jangle, Catriona looked a little nervous, glancing round at the assembled audience as if to check with them that they were quite sure they wanted to be there.
She needn’t have worried. As her lips parted to sing the first words of Divided By Two the crowd had hushed, seeming equally as enthralled as I had been all those years ago. Catriona meandered through old and new material, delighting with an acoustic version of Sitting on the Shelf Without Shelly then moving us with new track Somethings, a sorry tale of falling in love with someone you shouldn’t.
Endearing the crowd with her mid-song patter, Catriona is fast becoming not just a good, but a great, live act. Once shy, she now exhibits a contagious charm that earns her the audience’s fullest attention.
Closing the evening, Catriona sent us home to dream of times past with her most recent release Untitled, a tale of unrequited yet contented love. You can catch the video for that here:
The Camden Store Team X
Words: Pip Latimer
