Kasim Sulton

So the name doesn't ring any bells? Then you're obviously not a music anorak who pours over the many names on album sleeves that name that album's participants.

Kasim Sulton's day job is guitarist to such luminaries as Meat Loaf and Todd Rundgren. Indeed just last night, he was playing to 15, 000 people as the erstwhile Mr Loaf strutted his stuff. Tonight it's the more humbler surroundings of Manchester's Night and Day Café, playing to around sixty people.

A couple of tours ago Meat Loaf asked Kasim to open for him. He, bravely donned his guitar and stood in front of thousands, opening for his band leader. Lesser mortals would have been put off by the experience. Not so Mr. Sulton. The whole thing exhilarated him and he began to do solo acoustic shows when his schedule permitted it.

Tonight is his first such show in Britain. After experiencing a support bill of five acoustic performers, each one blending into the other, I was losing the will to live and expecting the worst.

When Kasim did appear though it was more than a pleasant surprise. I guess it proves the adage that class shines through. It also proves that guitarists can have quite passable voices. In places Kasim reminded me of an early day Dennis De Young. He treated us to songs from his own repertoire such as the excellent Libertine, covered Jose Feliciano, and topped it all by covering one of his masters with a great version of Rundgren's Cliché.

Kasim appeared an unassuming chap who let his talent do his talking. It was a shame the crowd was so sparse but he did seem genuinely appreciative of those who were there. However, the calls for an encore threw him as he had played all the songs he had rehearsed, but he bravely attempted songs the audience requested albeit forgetting some of the words.

This was a reminder of music on its smallest scale. Stripped down to it's bare minimum, this was perhaps how music was meant to be played.

FUTURE GIGS

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