Seth Lakeman / Carus

Arriving slightly late this evening I have no chance of getting in the main room of the Cockpit to see Carus Thompson, usually of Carus and the True Believers. The West Australian has the crowd in the palm of his hand, from what I can hear anyway. It’s country rock with subjects about life on the road, and the guy is very infectious to watch (when you can catch a glimpse in here). The crowd are singing along in no time at all, and cheering on the one-man band with harmonica and guitar.

Seth Lakeman’s career is taking off big time, I’ve even heard his stuff on a TV advertisement! Appearing happy in this small venue (which he vows to make sweaty - steady on lad there’s a lot of females here not just for your music!) the Dartmoor folk star has plenty of help from his talented band, namely his dancing brother Sean, excellent double bass player Ben Nicholls and the constantly smiling Cormac Bryne on the bouncy-sounding bodhran and percussion.


There are only a couple of solo tracks played tonight by Seth, including ‘Lady of the Sea’ with his foot stomping and speedy fiddle playing. A lot of the setlist feature the songs from ‘Freedom Fields’, which has just been re-released by his new major label. ‘New single ‘White Hare’ is aired early, followed by ‘Final Lot’, ‘King and Country’ (that has all the ladies swooning. Yes, including me!) and ‘Take No Rogues’.



It’s hard to see why these lads are only just being recognised for their immense talents, as they have been in this game for a while now (check out band Equation, with the other Lakeman Sam and Cara Dillon). The final song tonight is an old folk jig, bringing with it some dancing and “Whooping!” from the crowd. Sean and co. look to be having a ball, and if the place was less crowded I would have joined them in a jig. They seem to be out growing the smaller venues with their old tales of mainly death and sadness sang to catchy, modern folk.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.