Rev Hammer: One man, a guitar, tall tales and great fun
REVIEW: Rev Hammer with support from The Ballaghs VENUE: South Douglas Old Friends' Association Club (Sunday, March 29) REVIEWER: John Gregory
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THE concept of one voice and an acoustic guitar is something that has always appealed to me.
We may live in an age of ever-changing and improving music technology but nothing has been able to beat a solitary voice, six strings and a story.
Rev Hammer's gig at the SDOFAC was a great example of how it should be done.
While, by necessity, a PA was used, I would have been more than happy hearing Rev's tales and fine songs completely acoustically round a table in a pub.
He certainly had some very interesting yarns and jokes to tell. These ranged from his neighbour in Devon beating up former US President George Bush, to having dinner with Jeffrey Archer to an hilarious skit which involved getting the audience to imagine what it would be like to get intimate with Van Morrison!
It was credit to Rev, who was brought over by JonnoPromotions, that he was in such an agreeable mood after a flight delay which meant he arrived at the venue only after the doors had already opened to the audience.
It was his debut gig here though not his inaugural visit – his trip in 1994 inspired him to write the song Ellan Vannin which he gave a great performance of.
The Van Morrison spiel came when he performed Van's beautiful And The Healing Has Begun which later metermorphosed into Stir It Up, first made popular by Bob Marley.
The story about Van The Man that accompanied it was one of those 'had to be there moments' and it was truly good fun.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the music his banter was just as interesting and he quickly built up a rapport with the audience.
Rev, who is a good friend of The Levellers and has recorded with them, was instantly likeable. Let's hope he returns – and without the travel delays or 15-year gap!
The Ballaghs opened the evening and it seemed everything was going all right for them until minutes before their performance was due to begin when frontman Mike Wade stood on fiddle player Katie Lawrence's instrument!
It was arguably not the best start when you are due to support one of your musical heroes!
But this little spanner in the works didn't stop the band from entertaining the audience with their foot-stomping 'folk 'n' roll' material.
The band played a number of their own impressive tunes which have a great Celtic folk feel as well as a fantastic version of The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues among others.
I need to declare an interest here: Mike is a colleague of mine and takes many of the photographs for What Where When. But this shouldn't stop me from being able to say how great a sound his band have.
And besides, I was contacted by a friend, who had seen The Ballaghs in Jaks earlier in the weekend, who told me to 'Tell Mike Wade that his band is one of the best I've ever seen ... superb.'
Sunday night proved to be a nice end to the weekend indeed.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Saturday 04 February 2012
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