Well, actually it was the Grand Old Opera House in York and not the famous Nashville based radio program. I went to see the very excellent Richard Hawley who was ably supported by the most entertaining Vincent Vincent and the Villains.

The night started with a young man whose name escapes me who played a short acoustic set. He was closely followed by the Vincent dudes, the lead man resplendent in his gold braided matador jacket. They played a lively vibrant set and sounded like a cross between Gene Vincent and The Cramps. Have a listen here. Guitar driven 60s style pop with kicking drum patterns and rhythms. All that was missing was a bit of trumpet!

The curtain came down and the stage was hastily rearranged and cleared and then the curtain was lifted again. There were guitars as far as the eye could see (and quite a few quids worth of them too). Richard Hawley played both a Gretsch and a Gibson hollow body electric complete with Bigsby as well as an acoustic. The lead guitarist had at least 3 different ones including an Hawaiian which he played on his lap with a slide and a 12 string electric. The bassist alternated between his antique white Fender Precision and an upright.

We were treated to some new ones, a lot of old favourites, a couple of covers, a bit of rockabilly, some good old fashioned crooning and quite a bit of swearing. I took a couple of photos and even a video but since I was quite a long way away (up in a box in the grand circle) the quality leaves a little to be desired. The view wasn’t so good at all really but the sound was great - there was a rather large speaker about 3 feet from my left ear!

The set was long, the crack was great and the music divine. It blew me away!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 23:24 and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.