Joseph Arthur - Lou (etc) @ Dingwalls

On 15 October last year, I'm in Paris chatting to Joseph Arthur about music. When I mention my addiction to The Velvet Underground and Nico, he wows me with stories of his friendship with Lou Reed. So 12 days later, when I hear the news of Lou's passing, my first thought is of Joe. As sad as the news was for me and the countless fans who have been moved or inspired by Lou's work, for Joe it was the tragic loss of a beloved friend. His immediate response was a eulogy published in American Songwriter, so honest about past failures and regrets yet still so full of joyful moments that it brought me to tears.

I wasn't the only one moved by the eulogy. After reading it, Vanguard Records A&R man Bill Bentley invited Joe to record an album paying tribute to Lou. Simply titled Lou, the album consists of beautiful reimaginings of 12 songs from throughout Lou's career, some Velvets, some solo, from huge hits like 'Walk on the Wild Side' to more esoteric choices like 'Sword of Damocles'.

My first taste of Lou was over the Christmas holidays. Joe had just posted 'Coney Island Baby' on Soundcloud and I sat with my dad at the dining table listening to it on repeat. At that time we didn't even know there was an album in the pipeline; recording this stripped down version of his favourite Lou Reed song was just part of Joe's mourning process.

Then on 28 Feb, Rolling Stone Magazine shared Joe's stunning solo acoustic version of 'Walk on the Wild Side' and the news that a whole album would follow on May 13. At the time, and in many subsequent interviews, Joe expressed concern that people would see the album as him exploiting Lou's death, but for him, making music was the only way to honour the memory of his friend. He needn't have worried: the result is something Lou would certainly have been proud of. It showcases Lou's prodigious song-writing talent while Joe's inimitable musical style makes even the most famous tracks sound new and different.

To mark the release of Lou, Joe finally returned to London on 29 May to play Dingwalls in Camden, with Bill Dobrow on drums once again, and this time with Mike Mills of REM fame on bass. As special as it was to see Boogie Christ in a Hampstead church back in October, I was very happy to see Joe selling out a bigger - and much rockier - venue. Despite a 9-hour journey from Utrecht that morning and four straight days of performing and travelling, as usual Joe didn't let his energy falter for a second. 

While Joe soon diverted from the giant painted set-list or "map of possibilities" that he brought on stage with him, it nonetheless gives a good picture of the range we were treated to over the two hour concert: haunting renditions of Lou tracks, the full range of Ballad of Boogie Christ (including a 10-minute 'Black Flowers' freak-out culminating in a strobe lit guitar battle between Joe and Mike), and a few requests from the crowd for fan favourites 'A Smile That Explodes', 'Redemption's Son' and 'Black Lexus'. In the midst of all that, Joe made up a little ditty about London in his best Dick Van Dyke accent (perfected during his stay in Streatham Common in the mid 90s, or the "Oasis versus Blur years") and Mike Mills got to do 'Don't Go Back to Rockville', which has become a staple during their time touring together. 

Once again, the fans were left overwhelmed by the quality of the show Joe puts on, his guitar playing skills, his lyrical dexterity and his unbounded enthusiasm for performing. While he spent over an hour signing autographs, being photographed and chatting with fans, we all acknowledged what a rare treat such a musician is, and looked forward to welcoming him back to London again soon with even more new material.

Visit josepharthur.com for more information, tour dates and live recordings of gigs.

Paris: Joseph Arthur @ Galerie Chappe and Peter Gabriel @ Bercy

For three years since I left Paris, I've been waiting for an excuse to go back, so when Joseph Arthur suggested I should come to his gallery opening, in one of my more impulsive moments, I booked an overnight bus for the next evening and spent one incredible day in one of my favourite cities.

I arrived at 8am and began with something of a nostalgia tour, heading straight for St Eustache, a church that I always preferred to its more glamorous cousin Notre Dame. I then strolled through Ile de la Cité to my "fancy apartment on the Boulevard Saint Michel" (more like a nunnery in reality) and greatly confused the receptionist with my strange desire to wander around and reminisce. I got similarly nostalgic in les Jardins du Luxembourg, which I visited every day while I lived there, whether rushing through on my way to class, catching up on some work among the flowers or just people-watching.

Then in the evening I headed up into Montmartre to Galerie Chappe, "Paris' highest gallery", specialising in art related to music and film. While I'd seen many of Joe's paintings spread around Heath Street Baptist Church, it was amazing to be in a gallery packed full of them, ranging from intricate, detailed pieces to huge murals, all with Joe's signature figures. One of my favourites was a painting on the back of a door that Joe had found on the street and taken back to his hotel room. As well as enjoying the art, I got to chat to lots of interesting music people, including Joe himself, his band - Bill Dobrow and Rene Lopez - and Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Jesse Harris.

Joe performing Saint of Impossible Causes surrounded by his paintings:

I was incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time, because that night Joe's good friend and mentor Peter Gabriel was in town, playing the 17,000 seater stadium in Bercy, and I got to go along with Joe, Bill and other friends for free. While not a huge Gabriel fan by any means (I know Solsbury Hill obviously, and In Your Eyes from seminal 80s smush-fest Say Anything) but wow, the man knows how to put on a show! Gabriel bounded with incredible energy throughout, aided by Manu Katché on drums and a spectacular light show. I was completely swept up in the joy of it all and the enthusiasm of the enormous crowd of fans.

All in all it was an unforgettable evening, made even more special by the fact that it was totally unexpected. I should take spontaneous trips more often!

Boogie Christ: Joseph Arthur @ Heath Street Baptist Church

Christ would wear cowboy boots, Christ would have sex, Christ would eat pizza and cut blackjack decks...

Regularly readers will know that I find it hard to write objectively about something I love, but this - far too overdue - account of Joseph Arthur's reverential gig at Heath Street Baptist Church in Hampstead on 11 October may be even more laden with superlatives than usual.

I've been a HUGE fan of Joe's since my dad, in his infinite musical wisdom, advised me to go to his gig at Café de la Danse in Paris four years ago. Joe blew me away then, playing for two hours solid and then some more acoustic at the merch stand passed curfew. Since then, the prolific Arthur has released three more solo albums, as well as albums with supergroups Fistful of Mercy and RNDM. His latest solo effort, the semi-autobiographical The Ballad of Boogie Christ, "about redemption and what happens after you find it and lose it", is considered by many to be his best yet, and certainly one of my favourite albums of the last few years, so it was with great excitement that I headed off to a Hampstead church for a sermon of a very unusual kind.

As well as an incredible musician, singer/song-writer and poet, Joe is also an artist, so we found the church adorned with his Basquiatesque creations. I loved the juxtaposition of his somewhat deranged visions with the sombre religious iconography. If I had a few thousand pounds to spare, I would have very happily taken one home with me.

Fellow New-Yorker Rene Lopez opened the show in style with songs from his new Latin-tinged Let's Be Strangers Again EP, ending with an old classic Roosevelt Is Burning. It was a real struggle for me not to jump out of my pew and start dancing, but it didn't seem appropriate in a church, so I had to limit myself to grinning like a crazy person.

Then it was time for the main attraction, with Joe accompanied by Rene on bass and Bill Dobrow on drums/rebolo. The packed set showcased the impressive range of styles that feature on The Ballad of Boogie Christ - rock, folk, soul, sung poetry... - as well as his trademark live guitar solos, which make spectacular use of a whole floor of effects peddles and loops. Scattered among the new tracks were classics including In the Sun, Chicago (one of my favourites, partly because of my weakness for the harmonica), and the hauntingly beautiful Redemption's Son. Joe struggled to speak through the gig - a mixture of insomnia and being weirded out by being able to see everyone as the church left the lights on - but that only made him even more endearing.

As well as his exceptional talent, one of my favourite things about Joe is how well he treats his fan. No amount of fatigue would stop him satisfying our demands for autographs and photos. It's this mixture that makes fans so devoted to him - my pew neighbour had travelled from Spain just for the gig - and is why, as we waited to meet our hero, all you could hear was fellow fans asking each other incredulously how he isn't playing a bigger venue... while  being selfishly grateful for the privilege of such an intimate gig. With the next album promising to be even better than Boogie Christ, I'm sure we won't have him to ourselves for much longer!

Visit josepharthur.com for more information, tour dates and live recordings of gigs. For a great introduction to The Ballad of Boogie Christ, watch the interview and live performance at KEXP below.