I came by kindness to possess a ticket for Neil Halstead at the Winchester this evening, a lift from a friend and good company, omens for a fine evening. Now, I'd not previously been to the Winchester, although knew a lot of good things went on there. To say the Winchester is small wouldn't be a lie, a stage, a bar and a floor area, compact and bijou. Nice venue though.
Well, the music, it turns out it wasn't only Neil Halstead, but Mathew P and Richard Peacock as well; an evening of guitars, nice. Richard Peacock was up first. Kept his head down, a bit like Neil from the 'Young Ones', Liked his stuff though, nice tunes, with what I thought were some very 70's British flavours, one of his tunes particularly reminded me of 70's band 'The Audience'. No bad thing. Next up was Matthew P, a guy from Suffolk who provided some very nice tunes too, along with some jolly banter, funny chap. Matthew played groovy folk tracks with passion, which were mighty enjoyable, with some great lyrics and sentiments, well performed. I'll certainly be looking out for his album(s). But the star turn was certainly Mr Halstead, supported on bass at times by Matthew P. Matthew P. had previously described Neils work as a 'massage for your mind', a fairly apt description really. A great songwriter, singer and guitar player, with real stage presence, Neils voice was hypnotic from the off, taking your mind on a gentle journey to right out there somewhere with lyrically beautiful songs. I felt better for the journey. Being a bit of a johnny come lately, I'm quite new to Neils work, having only heard Palindrome Hunches, but enjoyed the evening so much I will be searching out his more of his albums.
Three performers with guitars. A simple format, man plus guitar, fantastic, works every time; well, nearly every time, but certainly every time tonight. All in all, an evening of mellow grooves, for which I was truly grateful. Would certainly go see them again. Nice :o)
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