Seth Lakeman and Dan Donnelly

Dan Donnelly

Providing support for the main event tonight is Dan Donnelly and the venue is packed to the light rigs well before he arrives, so much so we’re forced up into the gallery to await the guitarist who provided so much fun at Beautiful Days.

He arrives looking dapper in a waistcoat and collared shirt rather different to his blitzed appearance with pants on his head at the festival. Although he’s still carrying a can of lager in his hand which he places beside his delay pedals and dons his guitar.


Rapidly using the aforementioned pedal he builds up a beat of repeated loops, tapping a bassline on the bodywork and picking a myriad of rhythms before delivering the words to a song about love and being pure of heart.

After a quick explanation of how he’d built up the song with his pedals, the charming Irishman repeats the process this time for a humorous song about boredom called ‘Spare Change’. Dan’s voice and delivery remind me of Elvis Costello but it’s more than merely the Celtic twang, it’s also the cleverly crafted lyrics.

It was only two weeks ago Seth and Dan played her to another sold out crowd, so it’s only natural for Dan to ask how many of us had seen him last time. He’s rather surprised to discover the answer is only two people right at the front and sums it up by saying Exeter clearly has more people than he thought. Certainly it seems Seth has a much bigger audience in Exeter and I imagine that even with another three or four nights at the same venue he would still have sold it out. I suspect next time Seth (and Dan) will be playing the larger venues of the University rather than the 300-capacity of the Phoenix tonight.

Dan’s a consummate performer and it’s astounding how much he holds the audience’s attention throughout. We’re all enthralled by him, laughing at his gags and enjoying songs like ‘Cigarette’ - about a girl waking up in the morning realizing beside her is the Michelin man with a tan! We’re opened up by the humour and suddenly floored by ‘Lovely Still,’ which is full of melancholy and laden with heartfelt emotion. It’s perfectly invocated and he has the audience in total silence as he uses delay to build up the rhythm. We’re spellbound and the silence at the end is magical. Dan thanks us deeply for the shared moment of grace.

Dan brings on his own special guest, the head boy, as New Model Army’s Reverend Hammer joins him on stage for some “acoustic speed metal or should that be slow wood!” and the Neil Diamond of folk adds his thick full voice to a song I’m not familiar with. It sounds like a classic old folk tune and has a reeling rhythm and mentions “The third of November and nothing and no one above.” It’s terrific and hopefully more collaborations between the two live in the future would be terrific, they’re a perfect vocal partnership!

Rev gets a huge round of applause as he heads off stage and Dan addresses us again asking are there many of the Lakeman clan in tonight. He get a loud response, so Dan dedicates ‘Shine’ to Seth and his brother who reminded Dan about Fleetwood Mac. It’s another emotional song about realizing your potential and he plays the acoustic guitar with vigour. He really opens up playing with pace and then to a ripple of laughter, he beats out the bassline to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ on the body of his guitar. The delay pedal repeats it, as with perfect timing Dan adds the rhythm guitar over it and then adds Mick Fleetwood’s drum pattern perfectly on top using the side of his guitar, before riffing up the lead and then finally he sticks on the vocals with repeated Stevie Nicks chorus!


Wow! It’s pretty hard to explain and definitely harder to do, but Dan has just completed the whole thing! Fifty percent (the older half) of the audience are grinning and fifty percent are shaking their heads to this familiar song.

Then finally comes Dan’s famous tune. He tells us he didn’t play it two weeks earlier, but I find that hard to believe, as he explains the story of how the song came about, I won’t spoil the story for you if you don’t already know, Dan has a habit of explaining everything. The head-wobble and the Baaaaa-bylon have the crowd in stitches as he lampoons ‘David Gray’, and to tremendous applause, Dan leaves us warmed up for Seth Lakeman.

Seth Lakeman

Now thing is, Dan’s over run and this reviewer needs a beer, so I go down to the bar to get one expecting Seth to be a bit later on, but nope by the time I’ve returned I’m told he’s on his third tune! Once again tonight isn’t just Seth but the rest of the band too. Big Ben Nicholls is on Double Bass, Seth’s brother Sean is on guitar, with Cormac Byrne on bodhran and assorted collection of drumming instruments.

By the time I get back Seth is putting down his mini guitar and picking up his fiddle and the band are by and large having a breather with only Cormac accompanying Seth’s flying fiddle as he sings ‘It's All Your World’ from his first lesser known album The Punch Bowl.


The band all return with Ben donning his banjo for ‘Blood Upon the Copper’ from Kitty Jay and last time I saw him do this song the crowd were dancing but tonight it’s far too rammed and there’s only a few moving in places. I wonder what the crowds will be like for Seth as he plays some bigger festivals this year - hopefully more lively than tonight’s crowd. Although to give them their due they may not be dancing but they’re clearly listening and certainly appreciative of the musicianship.

Seth’s playing and lyrics has the crowd captivated, and even the little kids in the audience remain silent. Before ‘King and Country’ from the new album Seth asks us how many were here two weeks ago and only a few holler back. The song itself flows from Seth and his band with such depth now that the new songs seem like old standards now.

However it’s clear that much of the crowd haven’t got the new album, a fact later confirmed by the vast number of them sold on the night, yet new tracks aired tonight have everyone animated at their conclusion and ‘The Riflemen of War’ see the band in full flow and Seth reaching extremes of fiddle playing! If I could move, I would dance!

I head to the bar for some breathing space and bump into Dan Donnelly who confirms he’s playing Beautiful Days this year, “with a band and it’s gonna be heavy!” On my way back in I notice the crowd are feeling the heat too and layers of clothes are being shed forming small mounds like mole hills.

Seth is keeping his intensity focused and infusing it with his guitar for the next few songs including favourite ‘Kitty Jay’. There’s a few feet tapping but the people are too conservative to dance, or perhaps, in the case of my neighbour, too shot away, as he sings the chorus over the verse!

Seth’s power on the fiddle increases every time I see him and tonight his skill is just jaw-dropping. Suddenly he has the crowd and from nowhere they come whooping and clapping and it’s a crescendo of applause come the end.


To finish they opt to play a Plymouth (oops - Seth quickly revises that to Exeter) drinking anthem, ‘The Scrumpy Song’, which Seth says we can dance to and sure enough we all do! At last! I long to be watching him at a festival where the crowd will be more up for a dance for this is where Seth’s strength lies as we jig to his furious fiddling.

Okay, so introspection and reflection is all very admirable, but I do like a dance every now and then. Seems Seth likes to see us moving too as the band join him again for the night’s finale, dedicated to the scruffy set for them to have a dance. Seth doesn’t sing, focusing totally on his fiddle and they deliver a cantering reel so everyone’s dancing, superb!

It appears that Seth is continuing to develop his music with the band and has to be ready to take the mantle as our most vibrant acoustic musician. He can finally reclaim the violin back from Nigel Kennedy and return it to it’s home in folk.

FUTURE GIGS