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It was a hot summer night, the beer was right and so were Jinski. Two charismatic lads (OK - a bit older than lads) from Geordieland who gave us a smooth and seamlessly crafted evening of mostly self penned songs. Although they are both from Geordieland now, Steve Jinski hails from Liverpool originally and way back with the surname of Jinski from Poland. He says, ‘My father was from Poland. He came to Liverpool after the war and met my mother on the dance floor of Reece's Ballroom in the heart of that old city. The Beatles are my first real musical memory and practising on a cardboard guitar was an unconventional start to a musical career. I stumbled through adolescence with the usual cuts and bruises . . . and the occasional broken string.'
Dave Kennedy, the other half of the duo, has been working with Steve for over two years. Whilst the guitar is Dave's first love he is also a multi instrumentalist and an accomplished producer/arranger. All of this became apparent as they performed two highly entertaining and well crafted sets for us.
They have released two albums; Hurry Home and King of the Radio, this last on is an EP.
Some of the songs we heard on Friday were from the albums but most were new. I particularly liked the country influenced ‘What’s Wrong’ with lines such as ‘compromise is just another way of giving in’ and ‘why can’t you be honest instead of being kind’.
They started the second set with ‘King of the Radio’ dedicated to late night radio as they drive home from gigs. This was followed by Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold’ with everyone singing along. ‘Take that Train’ encouraged the Woodman whistleblowers and shakers, and, with songs such as Hup, Hup, Hup with accompanying dog noises, we didn’t need any encouragement from Jinski to join in.
After a thoroughly entertaining night came the final song. ‘My Father’s Hands’ followed by the encore of ‘What happened to the weekend’.
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