Reviews
Ben Hill & David Green
 Ben Hill 2 12 October 2006
David Green is a singer/songwriter who has just written a book entitled 'Music of Maninjau' which is released this month. It is described as "a mesmerising story about the structure, beauty and essence of music', a description that one extrapalate into Davids own music.
His vocals were strong and actually reminded me a lot of local singer/songwriter Neil Gay but it was Davids lyrics that I really enjoyed. Very poetic and deep which complimented his quiet picking style and delicate melodies. "First and final fantasy is blowin in the breeze" he sang in the first song followed by such lyrics as "When I paint I paint a picture of emotion" and "all I see are stars falling down and smashing up cars" in subsequent songs. His mind was wondering on one song about "doing things your not supposed to do" and he forgot what he was playing so he played us a blusey, fast paced "silly" number to appease.
He then played a gentle song called 'My Emily' followed by a song I really liked in whi! ch he sang "There's a voice that keeps calling me, round the corner is where I'll always be, maybe tomorrow I'll want to settle down, until tomorrow I'll just keep moving round". He ended his set with his grandads favourite song which had a folky feel to it and I think may have been a cover.
The Hazey Janes were booked to headline but they couldn't make it so local musician, comedian and all round nice guy (depending on which side of him you get on!) Ben Hill played a half an hour set of songs from his album 'Short Confessions' for us.
Ben's got one of those voices that you instantly warm to. His music has vast commercial appeal and is the kind of thing you'd expect to hear on the radio (1 or 2) in the morning when your drinking your coffee. His songs have a general 'feel good' quality about them. I've seen him playing with a full band before but the songs come across just as well when he plays by himself and he kicks off with the song "My Oh My" and the words "In the basement of my heart I was on the floor".
The audience applause was acknowledged with "Thank you, thank you, peace and love" before going into the catchy title track from his album. He played three more songs including 'Beautiful Nothing' before finishing with 'Top Of The World' which is a single i! f ever I've heard one (in fact it probably is). Then it was peace and love, a beer and see you later. Good old Ben. To comment on this review or gig go to the forum section for this: Comment on gig or band Ed hutchinson |