News from Nowhere

Pete Atkin was in Middlesbrough last night for the gig deferred from September. He had had to cancel because he had covid, about which he seemed more aggrieved than anything else: I went all through lockdown unscathed, and now... Well, yes: that's how lockdown was supposed to work.

We had been at his previous gig, and there were things last night I thought were different, but looking at what I wrote last time, I see I am misremembering: a handful of unfamiliar songs, a selection of classics, lots of talk, all as before. There's a curious flavour to talking about how the songs were written when it involves telling the story behind a lyric that somebody else wrote, but Pete carried it off with generosity; he said, repeatedly, that he had been lucky to meet Clive James and work with him, but I think Clive was lucky, too. I'd have been interested to hear more about the process of bringing together words and music - but perhaps that would be too technical for a relaxed evening performance.

I wondered whether Pete was talking a lot to spare his singing voice: appatently not, then. And, as last time, I thought his voice was if anything stronger as we neared the end of the evening. A very powerful closer with Thirty Year Man leading straight into - what else? - Master of the Revels. Once again, though, the audience demanded more, and this time we got a very sweet Together at Last.