Local Music Scene

It was Friday night at Leicester's Y Theatre and I had dragged a friend along to see the next big thing. A ginger, dreadlocked, singer songwriter by the name of Newton Faulkner.

Newton played a cover of Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' and I was stunned. How could one guy do that with just an acoustic guitar?

That he transfers such a haunting piece of electronica and pulls it off so beautifully is incredible. 

I've followed the media buzz ever since, finally going to see the man live at The Y Theatre, bringing along my friend to convert to the ginger dreadlocked cause.

Praying that all the build up wouldn't be for nought.

Thankfully I wasn't disappointed. But we'll get back to Newton in a moment; after all, there were two supporting acts that deserve more than a mere name check.

Rushmore

Often a support act will be something to grind your teeth through.

Rushmore are supporting James Morrison

In the case of rock acts, a cacophony of messiness that sounded so much more promising on CD. Rushmore and Phil Campbell were thankfully not of that mould.

Rushmore, a wonderfully engaging, upbeat, country rock quartet left me bouncing on the spot, ruing the fact that I'd missed the opening 15 minutes of their set.

The lads were lively and had the crowd hooked and heavily involved by the end of their set.

Frankly, what more could you possibly want from an opening act other than the boundless energy these guys brought to the occasion.

Their set was epitomised by their song 'Last Chance', a catchy piece of exuberant country with a streak of defiant optimism. 

Phil Campbell

Next up was Phil Campbell a Scottish singer songwriter. Campbell has a voice with the melancholic tone of a man who has seen too much of life's darker side.

This perhaps goes someway to explaining the influence of Tom Waits.

A promising talent for nearly a decade, Campbell now looks to have finally become all he promised.

Where Rushmore had the crowd hooked, Campbell had them enraptured with songs such as 'Cold Engines', a song with some truly wonderful lyrical flourishes. Scottish melancholy has rarely sounded so good.

Enter Newton

Part hobo, total guitar virtuoso.

Usually when you see singer songwriters the guitar seems to take a back seat to the voice, often fading into obscurity as listeners are treated to the same chords over and over again.

"Too eclectic to pin down."

With Newton it takes centre stage as he makes use of every inch of his guitar, beating the body or fingering the fret board with an incredible level of speed and skill.

It comes as no surprise then that he cites Django Reindhardt, the two fingered jazz maestro when talking about people who can ‘really’ play guitar.

Many people have been referring to him as an English Jack Johnson. They are maybe a little wide of the mark.

Granted tracks such as 'People Should Smile More' and 'Ageing Superhero' have a similar ponderous optimism but tracks like 'UFO' and his quite incredible cover of Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' drag him firmly away from such territory.

He is simply too eclectic to pin down. 

Newton seemed to revel in the wonderfully personal space of The Y Theatre where a quite visibly loved up crowd lapped up eagerly everything he played, from the thoughtful 'I need Something' to the funk 'Full Fat' and finally the sublimely ridiculous rendition of 'Spongebob Squarepants'.