NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said about
Michael Chapman
MICHAEL CHAPMAN
brings power back to the Allen Valley
When the lights went off over the East Allen valley just after 4:00 pm last Friday afternoon, several people wondered whether or not there would be a show at the King's Head. But seasoned entertainers like Michael Chapman, and seasoned promoters like those who organise the King's Head shows, weren't fazed in the slightest by the inconvenience.
It looked like a delightful acoustic set around flickering candles, upstairs in the intimate function room, with a cheerfully blazing fire, until suddenly just around 8:00 pm the lights flickered back on. There was just enough time to put the sound system together around the anticipatory audience before the show commenced.
And then, despite the romance attendant upon the power cut, it became clear that the sounds we were waiting for would be that much more powerful in an amplified state. And it had been quite a wait, after all, since Michael last graced the stage. Perhaps the devil was in the detail, but with each note, trill and tremolo reaching unstraining ears, the songs just got better and better.
Michael's voice has grown more growly over the years, with more raw emotive power, and his blues anthems grab your attention and never let you go. Songs of betrayal, interspersed with long delicate guitar instrumentals that nevertheless kept on driving hard throughout the night, or melancholy reminiscences of paradise, were sufficient to whet the appetite of the capacity audience for another longer set after the interval.
'If wishes were horses, beggars would ride' started us off again, and Michael moved into an extended guitar sequence which illustrated his magical mastery of the instrument. At times it was soft yearning, at others a hard knocking travellin' blues, and yet again an incredible sweetness of tone. All served to contrast with such titles as 'Wrecked again', or 'Shuffleboat River Farewell', to say nothing of the crowd-pleaser 'Sleeping in my clothes again'.
With the mesmeric 'Kodak Ghost', or was it 'Firewater Dreams', Michael Chapman finally finished his second set, but the audience couldn't let him go without a reprise of his guitar work, and so the evening finished on a delicious blues note with 'Fahey's Flag'. On the strength of this performance, and the audience appreciation, it can't be too long before this respected musician brings his powerful magic back to this popular entertainment venue.
