HEAVY CELLO, ELECTRIFIED

Cannot quite place where Jo Quail‘s name cropped up because I’m no cello head or orchestra buff, but it was in passing in the past couple of years and was definitely metal/rock/prog adjacent. Must have been a rock mag feature*. Beyond that, I know nothing about her or her music.

Yet here we are, a two-hour drive through Storm Austen on 23/10/2026, straight north of Buxton for a gig in Shipley, West Yorkshire

and Jo Quail is not even the reason for going to a Jo Quail gig, but we’ll touch on that later. The big question is, what’s it like seeing her live when you’ve no bloody idea what’s coming?

Mind-blowing and revelatory, that’s what. Taking to the stage solo with an electric cello – which is a thing of art in itself, a goth-ish carving of hollows, curves and dark-arts conjuring – Jo creates fragments of sound and music which she records and loops into fresh-made musical beds. She then plays cello with those backdrops, adding or subtracting sounds as she sees fit. It’s a live band with one person. And, musically, it’s compelling and intense. It rocks hard with heavy menace, like a musical storm of colliding fronts. Powerful stuff.

This kind of performance has a virtuosity, intricacy and technical calibre far beyond my remit so if you need a proper musical insight, you better go elsewhere. All I can do is use emotional responses to impress on any rock or metal heads just how well Quail’s electric cello crosses over and satisfies anyone chasing a heavy, progressive, experimental fix. Rex, Butterfly Dance and KingFisher, from last year’s Notan album, are among the pieces played and each one captivates. Such playing – percussive, fragmented, physical – creates visual drama too, yet none of it is acted or choreographed … it’s all in the playing, the expression and the manipulation of sound in the moment. You watch as much as listen. SOLD. Check Butterfly Dance if you haven’t already.

So, the instigator of this Shipley night out is worriedaboutsatan, the support act. They used to be a duo but Gavin Miller has steered the ‘satan ship solo for many years now and he’s a pretty prolific creator/producer of, to nab his own Bandcamp tag, spectral electronica. Don’t be thinking it’s dungeon synth or hauntological soundscapes or anything ethereal, though – typically, it’s big, solid, mid- or downtempo beats, kosmische propulsion and/or psychedelic ambience with occasional techno heat. It’s spectral by way of the cool-not-cold misty edges and unhurried, slightly hushed atmospherics.

Anyway, Miller is very local and this patch isn’t far from where I grew up, just over the border in Colne, so this Leeds-to-Skipton stretch of West Yorkshire feels very much like home. This could have a subliminal influence on my interest, though that wouldn’t be enough if the music was shit to middling.

Which it isn’t. With Sophie Green joining on violin, we get a half-hour instrumental of gently hypnotic, slow-trance type pulsations, lush electronic layers and unfolding guitar accents. No visual spectacle here, it’s all pretty static on that front, and the track is a mystery – though I have fallen behind with ‘satan listening, assuming it belongs to an album – but it’s an immersive wash of textures. Feels good to finally get here and enjoy at volume, in the room.

Finally, a quick word about the venue, Kirkgate Community Centre (KCC): get there if you can.

A converted former Victorian school, it feels like a restored chapel and truly runs on community fuel. Very friendly and inclusive. Mercury Music Award nominees Knats play this week, and the day before Jo Quail it was Ye Gods. Back in July, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs played. So did The Wildhearts. Looks like Salford psychonauts Gnod play next year too so keep an eye on the listings and go support when poss. It’s shaping up to be a grass roots magnet for small, adventurous gigs.

*just happened to read Metal Hammer magazine’s review of ArcTanGent festival and Jo Quail gets a mention. Those are the circles she’s moving in

Other stuff to check:
worriedaboutsatan Bandcamp page

And on this blog:
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs gig review, Manchester 2025
Wildhearts Endless Nameless album review