See you down the front

So far, the featured artists in this blog have been people I don’t know.

People I do know get a mention in the course of the post, but none of them have been on stage.

Until now.

This week I was at a show given by someone I’ve been watching for almost 30 years and who I’ve been lucky enough to get to know for about 28 of those.

Our local theatre, The Brindley, staged An Audience with Greg Oldfield – Greg being a local singer/songwriter who has been a fixture on our `scene’ (or whatever has passed for a scene) for three decades.

Unfortunately I only saw the second half being unable to get there until the interval, but even the final hour was worth the admission.

The audience was filled with familiar faces from 30 years of watching local bands and some good-natured banter from the bleachers punctuated the between-songs chat.

Greg treated us to some of the lesser-performed songs from his repertoire, each with a story attached – often self-deprecating, usually funny and occasionally extremely poignant.

He even dusted off two songs from the never-released album by the band he was in at the back end of the 80s – Great & Lady Soul – who signed to Virgin, released two singles and then…(see comments section for full story).

But Bad Weather and My Dictionary were a pleasure to hear again, as was the bluesy cover of Are `Friends’ Electric? which often featured as a G&LS encore back in the day. That band also featured other Tony who you may remember from this year’s Sound City post where he got to meet Sleaford Mods.

All in all, an enjoyable occasion that would bear repeating.