So last night was the third night of going to gigs in a row for me, and another fantastic night out. This one, at The Troubadour, was part of the Andy Thorton/Evinsol records-hosted night called The Restless Horizon, and featured Andy, along with Cara Winter and Deacon Blue frontman, Ricky Ross.
Cara was up first – blimey, I wish I had that much talent at 19!! She’s obviously heavily Tori Amos influenced and had a batch of really nice songs, sung well. Bodes v. well for the future.
After that was Andy – as the more attentive of you will know, I’ve played with Andy lots, including being on his last album. We’ve even gigged together at the Troubadour a couple of times. Andy was showcasing a whole load of new songs, as well as a handful of favourites, and sounded great, as always. He also flagged up the Make Poverty History campaign, and wrist bands were available, which reminded me that I ought to do that with CDs from the shop… Anyway.
The headliner (and the reason tonight’s gig sold out a week in advance) was Ricky Ross – I was a big Deacon Blue fan back in the 80s/90s, and have seen Ricky solo live before, so knew he’d be good, but was still surprised at how good his new material is. He’s apparently been consuming a steady diet of Randy Newman for the last while, as the influence hang low over most of the new songs, but in a really good way. I mean, if you’re going to be influenced by someone, who better than one of the finest songwriters of the last 50 years?
Ricky’s a great performer and story-teller, and I’m really looking forward to his new album coming out.
And then I’ll be back at the troubadour for My gig with BJ Cole next Friday – so I hope to see you there!
Soundtrack – Juliet Turner, ‘Season Of The Hurricane’; King’s X, ‘Manic Moonlight’.