Willy Mason / Marcus Foster

Marcus Foster is opening things tonight, and this London artist has the crowd that are here already transfixed. His David Gray / Jeff Buckley sound fills the room, creating a sound that seems to be from more than just him and his drummer buddy. This delightful venue; all parrot wallpaper and wooden pews with walls made of speakers and a huge disco ball is perfect for this sort of acoustic show.



It's been a while since Willy Mason travelled to this side of the pond, and he gets a very warm welcome here. Not only do we get the chilled out deep tones of Willy and the quiet but excellent drumming from his brother Sam, we also get some new songs! The album (or EP, does 5 songs constitute an album?) 'So Long Baby Shoes' contains more sombre songs than we have had in the past; whereas first album 'Where The Humans Eat' contained tracks still focusing on life's struggles but with more of an upbeat look about them, second album 'If The Ocean Gets Rough' looked upon it's views in a sadder way, and this EP carries on this theme.



Willy's friends and old band including Nina Violet, Matthew Cullen and Colin Ruel all helped with this album but are touring Nina's music in the States at the moment, so the two brothers are left to it as like the first tours. They share many a smile on stage and seem very connected to each other in terms of what to play and when.

The first few tracks are new from 'So Long Baby Shoes' like 'Restless Fugitive' and 'Looking for The Door', all slow paced but beautiful songs. It's not long until Willy heads to the past for 'Riptide' and then further back for 'So Long', 'Gotta Keep Moving' and 'Hard Hand To Hold'. A new song that is not included on any album, 'Pickup Truck', gives the indication that this CD release is just the start of something new.



'Save Myself' sparks off a huge singalong from the crowd, saying to me that many here got into the singer from the second album, tut tut! 'End Of The Race' keeps up the pace after Willy gets a neat whiskey down him thanks to a nice fan.

Sam, present on stage until now, leaves Willy to a few solo tracks like the unreleased 'Live It Up' and 'When the Leaves Have Fallen'. It's then time for an encore, and the brother’s are back with another couple of new tracks. Another fan, unfortunately being a drunken pain and talking throughout the whole quiet set (and who more unfortunately has the very same RATM Victory T shirt that I have on, and standing next to me makes me look like we are saddos together!) offers Willy a shot of Sambuca, which Willy replies to with "Whoo, take it easy, this is a sad song!" (he does drink it just to shut the guy up, which works for a couple of seconds). It's then into 'Carry On' (a new one that I can remember!), which is a sad song, and then it's time for more singalong with his biggest hit 'Oxegen'. Well done to Willy too for kicking the guy with the camera off stage before the end; he was blocking lots of paying punter's views trying to film his set (and very badly at that, as I was watching the gig through his camera most of the time as it was in my way!). A nice, relaxing gig that felt like old friends we're back but as Willy mentioned "We know each other but just need to warm up…" Don't leave it so long next time guys!

FUTURE GIGS