BJ Cole, accompanied by a percussionist and digital musician, plays first and clearly he is an exceptional and well-respected pedal steel guitarist. Over the years he has collaborated with, amongst others, Scott Walker, John Cale, Beck, Richard Thompson, Björk and Emmylou Harris but the audience find it difficult to engage with the ambient sounds, the laptop driven backing tracks and computerised floaty female vocals.
To be fair most of the audience are here for Duke Special whose fanbase is steadily growing, helped by a recent appearance on Jools Hollands Later show. Almost two years ago to the day, the dreadlocked and kohl-eyed Duke Special, aka Peter Wilson, was supporting Aqualung at the Queen Elizabeth Hall next door. Since then he has toured constantly around Ireland and the UK, earned prestigious support slots with Rufus Wainwright, Van Morrison, Beautiful South and, most recently, The Divine Comedy, signed a deal with V2, and released an album of Songs from the Deep Forest to critical acclaim.
The Duke is backed tonight with outstanding percussion from Chip Bailey, guitars from Ben Hales and Paul Wilkinson (of the Amazing Pilots) and clarinet and saxophone from the inimitable Ben Castle, son of the legendary Roy. These fine musicians create an eclectic sound and at the heart are Peters piano, sweet soulful vocals with a soft Northern Irish accent and poetic songs. The band bewitch us with a set comprising most of the songs from Dukes current album, including the last two singles, the quirky Portrait and the epic Last Night I Nearly Died. Other highlights are - I Let You Down - a dramatic crescendo of thumping drums and crashing cymbals, with Chip on the cheese grater and whisk, as well as the unique stumpf fiddle, which incorporates bike horns, pie tins, and bells.
Freewheel , which will be the next single, is enhanced by BJ Coles pedal steel guitar and backing vocals from David Ford, another exceptional singer-songwriter. There is a very lovely and emotive rendition of I Drove All Night, the song made famous by Roy Orbison, a rousing and passionate Salvation Tambourine, and were treated to a show-stoppingly beautiful brand new song (Duke has the handwritten lyrics on the piano to refer to) called Careless Heart.
The band are in high spirits and the encore finishes with a very playful, seasonal (mostly) medley, which the audience sing along to, comprising White Christmas/Last Christmas/Feed the World/Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer/The Ace of Spades(!) and Silent Night featuring some sublime saxophone playing from Ben Castle. There are smiles all round as the band receive a standing ovation before they finally leave the stage.
Duke Special has had quite a journey to get to this place and its good to see him in a theatre setting in front of a sell out crowd. He thoroughly deserves the recognition hes getting at the moment - long may it continue!
article by: Helen O'Sullivan
photos by: Helen O'Sullivan
published: 15/12/2006 14:27
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.