Face Of Cheam

Couple of gigs to report on. Firstly Steven Fretwell at the Slaughtered Lamb in Farringdon on Thursday. The music bit of this venue is in the basement and the musician performs acoustically in the corner. I managed to prop myself up at the bar and although service wasn’t allowed during the performances this enabled a good view of the music area. A young lady currently residing in Brighton but originally from Essex was the support, named Kate Walsh. Gentle and pleasant but unfortunately nothing out of the ordinary. She did have a single exclusive to itunes meaning that she is far more up the technological world than myself!
Stephen Fretwell played a good mix of new stuff and songs from his debut album Magpie. Some bittersweet stuff about running away (New York), a melancholy yet gorgeous break up song (Emily) and a sad ask out number (Do You Want To Come With?) were the highlights for me. The new stuff was more of the same quality, and maybe it was the number of Red Stripes I had, but I’m sure one of them was called ‘Spocks Beard’! A lovely intimate set, very enjoyable and high on quality.
Saturday saw The Killers bring their arena show to Brighton. They really are very good. A best of their two albums and you could not argue with the set at all. Mr Brightside is the obvious favourite, alas I missed Somebody Told me by going to a toilet and bar break. However, Read My Mind and Bones from the second album were also good performances. Support came from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. We saw their last ten minutes ending with ‘Whatever Happened To My Rocknroll’ from their first album, and again I was suitably impressed with them! Brighton is one of the smaller arenas and it was good to see the Killers again in a smallish setting before they headline the summer festivals. One thing about them though was they let the music do the talking with no chit-chat between songs. And although this may or may not be a good thing, Brendon Flowers may lack the outgoing persona needed to transfer to an outside show, and with the V festival being £70.00 for a day ticket I won’t be finding out.