NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said about
Bernard Carney
Bernard Carney
Genius at King's Head
Teachers have a term for it: 'interpersonal intelligence'. To go along with the other kinds of intelligence: verbal, maths, spatial, kinetic, intrapersonal, and musical. We didn't have any evidence on the middle ones, but by last Saturday's account at the King's Head in Allendale, Bernard Carney is a genius in the first and last categories.
In the middle of an audience composed of touring cyclists, locals and an extended family from South Shields, you knew you were in the presence of genius when you realised, after splitting your sides in laughter, that suddenly you'd been transported to sublime and rapt attention as a love song, or a lullaby, were crooned out softly by a word wizard accompanied on sensitive and exquisite guitar.
Just a man and a guitar -- it seemed like a recipe for an ordinary evening. Yet Bernard grabbed our attention with his immediate and soft-spoken Australian humour, and interludes of George Formby, Scott Joplin, and political polemics, tossed together with his own compositions and comments on cycling, cricket and contemporary computer life opened our eyes to a different sort of live act. Opening windows, indeed!
In his upper-register, user-friendly baritone, alone in the centre of the room, Bernard enveloped his audience entirely, in the most cheerful and professional way. But we'd had advance notice of Bernard's talents, as Vin Garbutt had quietly dropped his name during his performance earlier in the year.
So it was another great night, and another vindication of the foresight of the promoters, Northumbrian Music Nights, who are beginning to realise that recommendations of music professionals are amongst the most sure of any guarantee of a good night out.
