Mark Chadwick / Dan Donnelly

Bush Hall in London's Shepherds Bush is an amazing venue. I've never been before and from the outside it doesn’t look particularly special. But once inside, it's a different matter entirely with chandeliers swinging from a ceiling rich in crenelations to cast an intimate light over the restored dancehall.

Upstairs a mosaic floor leads to a great view of the stage and over the dancehall through the glass chandeliers and there’s a rooftop smoking area through the bar.



Dan Donnelly takes to the stage and although the crowd is pretty sparse, we're all captivated by his style. He lays down loops with a couple of riffs and slaps to the acoustic guitar body and plays his tunes over the live samples. This works pretty well and adds depth to the one-man show. The two tracks that stand out for me are 'Love Will Save The Day' and 'Emergency Brake', the latter from a forthcoming album due for release soon.

When Mark Chadwick takes the stage, the hall is still pretty empty and he invites us all to come closer so that he can lick us! He looks pretty nervous and there can't be more than 65 people here tonight. Mark is joined by Dan Donnelly, Ben Nicholls on bass and double bass, Toby May on drums, and Sean Lakeman on guitar. Sean also produced Mark's new 'All The Pieces' Album.

'Elephant Fayre' kicks off the evening. An insight into Marks early festival experiences and the effect it had on him. It's interesting to hear where it all started, and perhaps get an insight into some of the thought that has gone into Beautiful Days, a festival Mark helps organise with his fellow Levellers.



The rousing 'All The Pieces' ensures that we're all up and stomping. Despite a fairly empty room, the infectious tunes sweep from the stage and envelop us and fill the hall. This is one of those really catchy feel good tunes, which makes me smile. It's not a typical Levellers' sounding number, but much of Mark's solo album seems like a couple of steps in a different direction (though not far enough for it to rattle any die hard Levellers fans).

The bouncing 'Satellite' has Seth Lakeman on violin on the album version, but sounds great without the violin live. 'Confess', a Levellers track from the Truth and Lies album, is given an overhaul and sounds great for it. As expected, this is one the crowd are more familiar with and all take a share of the vocals.

'Say you're Gonna Be My Girl' maintains the pace with a pounding drum beat and great harmonies with Dan Donnelly. This is another one of those all enveloping smile fixing tracks – a real tribute to Mark’s song writing skills.



'The Great And The Dead', slows the pace right down, and although it's delivered brilliantly, I head to the bar. I'm not ready to slow down yet!

'Empty Now' approaches the subject of our over-fished seas and charges at it head on with horns raised. Delicate vocals mixed brilliantly with heavy subject matter. I'm not sure how much time the band has spent together but they seem really tight.

'Indians' is a really nice track and stops and starts and combines styles that make me think of Native American music. The lyrics often feel staccato but they make the rhythm where there is no drumbeat.

The night is rounded off with two Levellers' tracks, 'Drinking for England' which really gets the crowd going. The almost banjo like slide guitar sound of the dobro ensures that the party atmosphere goes up a notch. The evening finishes with one of my favourite Levellers tracks, 'Just The One'. Again the sliding strings sound amazing with this excess-fuelled song!

It's a shame that so few people turned out for tonight's gig. It was music brilliantly delivered by a great songwriter and fabulous musicians in beautiful surroundings. The album is a great piece of work, but I think it sounds even better live. If you get the chance to catch this tour, go for it, you won’t be sorry!

FUTURE GIGS