St. Catherine's Child & Ciaran Marshall

The Bodega, Nottingham - The dark days of winter are on their last legs. It doesn’t get dark now until five evening bells have chimed - and it’s almost March - when gig season really gets under way. Fortunately for me though someone is touring who hit a right chord with me when I first saw her last year as Support for The Deep Blue, but tonight she headlines - and with a full band.

Almost twelve months ago now, I got to photograph the Manchester Folk Festival - I’m lucky enough to get to do it all again this year too, but more on that on another day. Over three hectic days, I must have seen thirty or more bands and artists, and some stood out more than others. On what turned out to be a very rainy night in Manchester (it’s often the case), the Night & Day Cafe provided much needed relief and warmth on a Thursday evening. The Deep Blue were the headliners - and very good they were too, oh those harmonies ! - but the Support also raised a good few eyebrows, and she went straight on the ‘one to watch’ list.

The almost unheard of St. Catherine’s Child took to the stage, on her own, and after three of her nine songs, had Manchester captivated. It took a while for the Manchester crowd to work out her very dry sense of humour - or maybe they were distracted and still drying off from the rain - but once they’d got there, there were hooked and mightily appreciated what they were hearing. I love it when Supports demand attention - and get it.

Tonight, St. Catherine’s Child headlines but this time with a full band, and in the words of Tour Manager, Cal Williams… “I'm not just saying this, the band show is truly killer! You're in for a great night”. On this basis, how could I say no.

So, The Bodega in Nottingham. Downstairs it’s a trendy bar popular with those studenty types - of which there are many in a two uni city - and also those who’ve been there, done and finished education and are now making their way in the big, bad world or work. Upstairs is where the live music takes place. Capacity is around 220 and the ideal gaff for those who’re looking to get acquainted with the Nottingham music scene. Make it here and you get to move up a notch or two, to the Rescue Rooms. Make it there and you move next door to its big sister, Rock City and if you’re playing there, ‘you’ve hit the big time baby’.

One step at a time though, as everyone has to start somewhere and I’ve seen some decent bands and artists play here. It’s got a warmth to it, and an audience that shows its appreciation when it likes what it sees.

Tonight, there’s also a Support, and based on St. Catherine’s Child’s own success, there’s no pressure on Ciaran Marshall at all then - is there ! !

Let’s get on with it.

Ciaran Marshall - Background info on Marshall ahead of the gig is sketchy to say the least. The best I could find was “Ciaran Marshall is an indie-folk singer-songwriter and producer who recently formed a band to perform live in 2026. He’s known for tracks like ‘Sinful Shame’ and ‘Cut The Tether’. He is often active on Instagram”. I know not where I found it, so apologies for the non-credit.

Marshall takes to the stage at the sound of eight bells for a six track set, surrounded by the aforementioned band, looking as if they’re all straight out of high school, or they’re in their first year at Uni – a distinct possibility in a two uni city. He opens with Ain't No Use, which is over before you know it and he goes straight into You'll Always Be Alone. There’s some effort there, but stagecraft is something that is still being learned, I guess. The band have all very much got their heads down and are concentrating heavily on what they’re doing.

Marshall, on the other hand, is quite a chatty Fella, and tells us about the first time he came across Ilana, as he was running in the country, with her “in his ears” and stopped at the lines of one of her songs, he neglects to tell us which one, but it caused him to believe that he’s such a burden on everyone else. All this inspires him to write his third song of the night, Love and Mercy.

He seems to wear a lot of his heart on his sleeve as the chat in between songs would have you believe and his lyrics reflect that. He also has a lot to say about being fostered, without actually saying that he himself was, or someone very close to him was, either way, it’s a big thing for him. Sinful Shame is song four and the one he seems to be best known for, and it’s the strongest one of the set. He tells us that he’s proud of the fact that he has close to 30,000 followers on the socials, but a quick check on IG and you find he’s managed it with only 31 posts (!) – I have no idea how he’s managed that, but fair play to him.

Someone You Love tells the story of spending years in relationships where it isn’t worth it but you feel that you should stick it out - but then again there are times when you perhaps shouldn’t ! My Life Is Yours is heaviest song of the night with a few moves thrown in for good measure.

I can’t quite work out how long Marshall has been around, or together with his band, as they were there purely to play - there wasn’t a performance as such, but maybe this will come in time. Here’s hoping.

Ciaran Marshall Set List

1.       Ain’t No Use

2.       You’ll Always Be Alone

3.       Love and Mercy

4.       Sinful Shame

5.       Someone Like You

6.       My Life is Yours

St. Catherine’s Child - Now if you’ve written something once, you can at least use it twice apparently, so… Ilana Zsigmond, if you know her personally, is one of the rising stars of the Indie Folk / Americana scene and hales from New Haven in Connecticut, where, she says, ‘there’s nothing to see or do’. The local joke is that the only thing you can do in Connecticut is to go to New York, so she did and it was where she had her heart broken as a teenager - but this inspired her to write the song 'Connecticut River' so at least some good came out of it after all. There you go. God, I love copy and paste ! !

On that night, Ilana stood solo with just a guitar for company, but tonight she’s surrounded by bass, guitar, keys and an apparently handsome drummer - but more on him later.

The opening tune is The Other Side of 25 and is the start of six songs from the new album ‘This Might Affect You’, which, as Ms. Zsigmond tells us, is all about death, and in particular the death of her father.

There is an element of sunshine for a brief moment however, as song two ‘New Eden’ is a love song to that ‘handsome drummer’ I mentioned earlier and to whom ‘she’ll marry soon enough’ - the song being a thank you for supporting her through her loss. “It’s a pretty fucked up time to fall in love”, she explains.

She’s a very candid lady who also wears her heart on her sleeve – must be a night for that kind of person - and unapologetically says “If you’re not good with death and you want to leave; I won’t be upset”.

Negative Space is a powerful and emotional song, co-written with Manchester based folk singer-songwriter Toria Wooff, that delves into mourning and grief and the unpredictability that goes with it.

Solid Ground is one of the first songs she wrote, “before I knew what I was doing and before experience kicked in and took away the rawness of song writing” she says. She was 16 then and is 28 now. The song is performed only with Joe Smithson, the other band members went and stood by the Merch table – which was right next to the bar, funnily enough, so that might have been the attraction. Smithson stayed in place for a new song, Ariadne on the Shore, and is dedicated to every 28 year old women about a six thousand year old woman. In Greek mythology Ariadne as a Cretan princess and the daughter of King Minos of Crete, there you go, I Googled it for you !

Burden is a song that has been with her forever, by all accounts and starts with a chunky drum riff and is the fastest and loudest song of the night. Every Generation, the title track of her first EP, which her ‘Dad never got to hear’, tells the story of when she moved back to his home town  of Liverpool, and was the last song she wrote for three years before writing New Eden. For this she stands on her own, no band members, no guitar, no keyboard. Just Ilana and a microphone.

This was a lot of an emotional roller-coaster as gigs go. Zsigmond wasn’t apologetic in the slightest about the amount of death that runs throughout the new album, and therefore the promotional tour, and it must be difficult to perform the songs each night. Her deep, personal songwriting about such a difficult thing to come to terms with resonates throughout and how it’s affected her, her music and her lyrics. No one gets over the death of a parent; it just gets easier to deal with and maybe in time Ilana will feel that too and maybe that will be reflected in the lyrics of her next album.

Here’s hoping anyway, and I for one will be looking forward to it.

Until the next time…

St. Catherine’s Child Set List

1.       The Other Side of 25

2.       New Eden

3.       I Understand

4.       Leave a Light On

5.       Negative Space

6.       I'm Not Ready Yet

7.       Solid Ground

8.       Ariadne on the Shore

9.       Burden

10.  Every Generation