Jon Gomm

It's a quiet night in Wakefield, and The Hop is quiet too. This gig has not really been advertised, the poster still says TBC, but a few of us are ready for another night of Jon Gomm. Downstairs in the Hop has quite bad acoustics; it looks like a nice corner to play in but the speakers give off feedback and the whole area rumbles like thunder. This does not stop us loving the music though

Jon hits the stage at about 9.15pm, and it's straight into 'Temporary', a smooth song showing some of his guitar hitting talents, plus the added tuning key notes, where he turns the tuning keys to change the note played. Genius.



The set has a few new songs in it, especially the new 'Orville', named after Orville Wright of the flying Wright Brothers fame or Orville the Duck (who in fact is named after the pioneer too). This latter leads onto a story from Jon about how, after giving a scarily fine Orville impression (excuse being he originally comes from Blackpool which is near to the same place that bore Keith Harris), his lighting and stage friend, after a long summer of probably excruciating Orville shows, put a firework where Harris' hand normally goes on Orville and set the grounded bird on fire on stage! The song itself is a happy instrumental showcasing yet again Jon's amazing guitar skills, taking the instrument much further than being just a guitar, making it a full band; bass, drums and it's original purpose all in one at the same time.

The set has a few oldies too, with the trickle notes in 'Waterfall', the catchy 'Gloria', amazing instrumental 'Stupid Blues' and covers of The Police's 'Message In A Bottle' ("the only good song my mum had!" states Jon) and a hauntingly beautiful version of Bob Marley's 'Wait In Vain'. 'Everything' is a great song featuring a part of The Real Thing's 'You To Me Are Everything' and a part of Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)'.

The popular 'Hey Child' shows that you can turn a battered old guitar like Wilma here into an astounding electric wizard of a guitar in the right hands. This certainly shuts up the Hop regulars who are getting quite loud at the back of the room, one thing I know winds Jon up; although it's hard to keep people quiet if they have not paid into a gig (this is free) and have just gone out for a drink. That said more and more of them do wonder over before the end of the set, and once they actually see what Jon is doing, they shut up.

Temporary
Waterfall
Afterglow
Everything
Gloria
Stupid Blues
Topeka
Orville
Hey Child
Wait In Vain
Message In a Bottle
Big Yellow Taxi (snippet)

Weather Machine

FUTURE GIGS