Hello,

Please excuse the late arrival of this nonsense- it's been a busy couple of days...

A proper, warm and sustained welcome to Chris Isaak and his five band-mates from the 95% packed hall was a fair indicator that folks were in the mood to sing, be entertained and just enjoy themselves!

In C.I. they definitely had the right man for the job: snobs might deride him as an 'ersatz fifties throwback' or somesuch mindless drivel but he seems to love his music and he is a really natural performer onstage.

He is still a handsome s.o.b. but what makes him appeal to all is the easy charm and funny between-song patter: happy enough to take the piss out of the audience, bandmates or himself. Daresay you can only really do that if you all get on well...As you'd expect, they could all play a bit too and the tempo varied between blues and ballads right up to flooring it rock'n'roll.

Isaak loves involving the crowd and he got right amongst them, Buddy Guy-style, wandering amonst the stalls and then appearing up in the cheap seats for which he was cheered mightily. Plebs, hah-hah! He had everyone onside from then on, as if there was any doubt...

They played for just over 100 minutes and in common with the Ray Davies' show the other night, the time just flew by. Possibly a good sign!

The final section of the show was taken form C.I.'s latest long player, 'Beyond the Sun', which is a collection of covers by Sun Studios artists. I don't have to name names, do I?

That stuff went down a storm too and when the house lights came on for the last time, everyone was on their feet attempting to dance and still singing. You can't ask much more than that for £30, can you?





























Highly recommended, folks!

Cheers,

Simon.

Seen Chris 7 times. The BEST!!

Saw him twice. Great shows both times. Reminds me of a cross between Elvis and Roy Orbison.