| Reviews 2023 | |||
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Woodman Folk Club - Reviews |
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| Pete Kelly |
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| Woody* | 27 Jan 2023 |
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Hi everyone Woody here again with a review of another fabulous night at
the Woodman Folk Club; and as the chimes of Left Bank Two by the
Noveltones faded into the distance the evening was opened by our MC, Mr
Bryn Phillips. For the third week in a row the audience was so large that
Debbie had to resort to counting the spare seats so she knew where to
direct the next people to come through the doors. This week our special guest was The Tipton Cowboy himself, Pete Kelly. Pete is an old friend of the club who has notched up ten previous visits to the club as a solo performer, not withstanding all his informal visits to singer’s nights etc over the years. Unusually he brought with him another old friend of the club as support, Emma Langford, thus giving our usual support personae an evening off. Emma too has made many visits to the club on singer’s nights but this was her first time as support, and what a treat it turned out to be. Emma is Tipton born and bred and made great use of her wonderful local accent to amuse the audience. I have to confess that as a “foreigner” in these parts I still have to have someone sitting beside me to translate on occasion. Her little stories and quips were hilarious and really captured the audience from the outset. However, when she sang the accent completely disappeared and we were able to listen to her mature, powerful voice with complete clarity. Having announced herself as a “covers singer” she did in fact sing two compositions of her own – “You” about how fate takes you from one situation/relationship to another and “The Fall” concerning living with anxiety. Both were tremendous. She opened with the Paul Simon classic “Slip Slidin’ Away” followed in no particular order by a slowed down version of “Walk On The Wild Side” from the Lou Reed album Transformer. Her rendition of the Marianne Faithful song “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan” originally by Dr. Hook and later Marianne Faithful from whom she took her version, ended her set. I must mention that she started to sing the Kinks’ number “Dead End Street” but stopped half way through because she had the maturity to realise that she did not know it well enough and should leave it until another time, rather than struggle to get it right. Well Done Emma. This of course entitles her to a Woodman record as being the only person to sing five and a half songs in a set. By the time the audience had sung “Happy Birthday” to club regular Gill, whose birthday it was today, Pete Kelly had made his way to the stage and was ready to go. It was thought by both Bryn and the audience that since we knew Pete so well we would also know all of the songs he was going to sing. Well we were all wrong because the first thing he did was to tell us he was going to open with a new song. He had he said he has written a goodbye song but “Together” was a hello song, replete with easy to learn chorus. Things returned to normal with “Reservation Road” imagining his yet to happen trip to Arizona and was followed by “The Tipton Pony” – requested by me I may add, a sad tale of animals left tethered on patches of grass to fend for themselves. A practice he was glad to say seemed to have now passed. What followed was completely unique in my many years of writing reviews – an intros quiz. Pete divided the room metaphorically into Chaps and Wenches and played eight or so intros to well known songs and invited or better challenged each group in turn to guess the title. Much fun was had by all. The final intro was to the Gordon Lightfoot song “If You Could Read My Mind Love” which he played beautifully. Another request followed from “Nasher” and Paul for “Room Of Dreams” from his last eponymous album, written to illustrate the sensations experienced in a room designed to aid children with special needs. The next was another new song entitled “Ode Magic” about a witch (or was she?) that Pete read about in The Black Country Bugle, which had the chorus “Don’t go near the upping stone, down by Dungle Yed”. I’m glad he explained it to us just so I can tell you. Pete’s first proper gig was at a pub in Tamworth in 1989 where he was paid £25 for the night. He met someone there who taught him a song which remains topical about pubs closing down or being converted into “plastic” pubs, this he followed with his one traditional Irish song. And so ended the first set. After the raffle – which I didn’t win – there followed the second half. As I recall we joined in everything he sang in both sets whether it had a chorus or now as it was with “The Folk Club” from the last album and a Rob O’Dell request “A Winter’s Night” from the previous album. “Racing With The Moon” an explanation for his mother about his youthful exploits against other youths in his area. “ What have you been doing son” – “I’ve been … Ma!”. We all know “Cowboy For A Day” which relates what he actually did on his Arizona holiday mentioned in the first half was accompanied by “The Kellytones” – Bryn, Rob, and Emma – trotting away on half coconuts provided by Pete for the rhythmic purpose. Except he only had 5 halves so Emma had to do with one half and a plastic bowl. Mmm!. I was hoping he would invite me up to play drums for him on the Phil Collins classic “Another Day In Paradise” but he didn’t need me. It’s a really touching song sung with only a guitar. And so we came to “The Last Song” of the evening, but you know by now what that means of course. Stephen Stills wrote “Love The One You’re With” but perhaps the best know version is from CSNY. We tried hard to harmonise and didn’t do too badly in the circumstances. Di. di, di, di, di, di di di. For the second week in succession we had two encores. And well deserved they were too. The PK song “Grandad’s Lead Guitar” was climaxed by Pete’s goodbye song “Time To Go Home” – what else? These reviews are becoming more and more difficult to write partly because there is so much to say it is difficult to know what to leave out and partly because it is becoming so difficult to express the wonder of the evening. Tonight was amazing. Fun from first to last, with music that is hard to surpass. Thanks Pete. And so, another evening came to an end and the audience wended their way home to return another day. I shall conclude as normal by saying. A Wonderful Night Was Had by All. Here’s to The Next One. * Notes taken by Les Jones, who also typed up the review, but the views expressed are those of Woody, the club mascot. |
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