Mr Percival

LIVE REVIEW
Northcote Social Club
Melbourne – Thursday 1 July 2010

Everyone gravitates to the floor of The Northcote Social Club when Mr.Percival (the person, not the pelican) takes the stage, kind of like kids at storytelling time. Mr.Percival doesn’t buy into our passive postures, however. He’s investing all his natural energy and charisma toward building a bonfire, slowly, from the dry remains of the traditional audience stance peculiar to this day and age: stationary, expressionless, arm closed. Not for long. Mr.Percival galumphs through the crowd, ploughing some deep groove within us and planting the seeds of funk. Hell, I mean: bonfires, tilling the stony audience-earth and manually planting little kernels of genre…You could almost take these figurative statements literally if you saw the extent we punters changed: from being detached observers enjoying the music to becoming inextricable, inexorable limbs of the rampaging Percival Beast.

I guess you had to be there…
Anyway. Mr.Percival is a one-man band, in one sense of the word. It’s him up on stage with a microphone or three and looping pedals. He basically does that Bobby McFerrin thing of recording and layering his voice – whether through beat-boxing, harmonising or simulating trumpets and cellos – over itself to create multitracks. He does it all live on stage. On the other hand, Mr.Percival is not a one-man band at all, at leats when he is performing live. For fear of sounding like a goddamn hippy. I’m going to say this simply and quickly: you feel love at a Mr.Percival gig. For God’s sake, we were all singing this at the top of our voices:

“I don’t have a problem with you,

You don’t have a problem with me.

If we get busy and love each other

Someday we’ll all be free”

Everybody! Meanwhile there’s Mr.Percival sweating and jumping around like a bullfrog on crack. It was a quasi-religious experience, or maybe like I’d jumped back into my childhood. I walked out smiling like a fool and humming Mr.Percival’s cover of Electric Avenue.
This was one of the best gigs I’ve been to in a long, long time. The flocks of people scrambling to have a chat to the man after the gig were testament to his infectious, affable awesomeness. Go to a future gig. I challenge anyone not to honestly enjoy it wholeheartedly.

Alice Body

"With the seemingly incongruous notion that you can meld grandeur and honesty, from Out Of The Loop comes Mr.Percival. As a testament to this bizarre notion, night after night at last year’s Woodford Folk Festival, Mr.Percival commanded standing ovations in celebration of an artist who must and will be in the hall of honour. A Capella, performance artist, sleight of hand. Call it what you wish, because he does defy pigeonholing, but one thing is for sure, Mr.Percival, with a voice created by angels, is a festival of talent in his own right."

Jane Burridge

"Occasionally you hear something that breaks a few rules - that's nice, that's exciting .... but what Mr.Percival does is so free, so purely musical, that rules don't even apply enough to be broken. This is music straight from the heart."

James Morrison

"Mr.Percival is a unique act. The things he does by himself on record as well as live I can't even begin to think about without being very confused. He is a great singer who has come up with a completely new way of presenting his songs and his spirit to the world . I for one am a fan and wait with anticipation to see what he will come up with next."

Jimmy Barnes

"Ah! Mr Percival - is what I'd describe as a walking, talking musical instrument.
A man who never ceases to amaze me with his gift , humor and generosity...
And he is as unique as Australia itself.
Love, light and melody. Ah! Melody..."

Marcia Hines

"Listening to the insanely beautiful vocal stylings of Mr.Percival can change the beat of my heart, it's that moving. See him live or hear any of his tracks and you too will become entranced. It's like he is the Piper and we are the rats."

Julia Morris

"Mr.Percival's voice is a remarkable instrument which exposes his soulful heart"

Vince Jones

“Mr.Percival is art for the ears”

Ken Done