MATTHEW JAY + LITTLE NIKITA + HOWARD1st April 2001The first act of the night was Howard Moody who has been living in Peterborough for the last 8 years or so. Howard has always played acoustic sets solo which started off in Whitby where he grew up. Howard played mainly country and western as in the mid 80’s that’s all that there was on an acoustic level. Howard’s main influences are The Kinks, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. He is heavily into song writing and is inspired by events in the local area, protests and characters. His songs are very story-like in the way they are portrayed. Howard took to the stage looking very confident and pulled off a very light-hearted, well-received performance. His music had a nice happy melodical approach to it and that is what you need on a Sunday evening after a hard weekend. Howard’s songs are all very interesting, small tales that delve into their own mysteries. The second act of the night was another local favourite of mine, Little Nikita. My first thought to them playing an acoustic set was a little bit dazed as these guys just totally rock out on a normal gig night, so it proved to be a fascinating sight. The lads mounted the stage a bag of nerves but soon settled down. We heard some familiars like The Little Hobo, Girl Next Door, A Golden Oldie, Tank Girl Cover and Phil’s award winning college work thrown in for the twist. The performance was overwhelming, Phil and Danny generated some real heartfelt, powerful vocals backed up by mellow and vibrant acoustic guitar and bass whilst Marc at the back was setting the path with some soft vivacious percussion. Their whole set was very soothing and this sort of music sets the emotions running high. Is there anything these guys aren’t capable of? The last act of the night and the one who most people were there to see was Matthew Jay who had come along this particular night without his band. Matthew Jay formed in 1999 and have influences ranging from Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Dr Dre. They are currently signed to Food Records which basically came about by the band sending lots of tapes off to various labels. This year they plan to tour Europe, America and Japan and are set to release an album at the end of the year. Onstage eventually Matthew Jay performed his 45 minutes with some real quality tunes that filtered his voice through in a very emotional and influential way that just comforted the audience's attention. It’s gigs like this we don’t see enough of, a chilled out evening with a warm glow to it. Jed, GIMPmag. |