The music of Neil Young comes to life at the Stratford Playhouse (30/11/24)
Review
My second gig of the day had a hard act to follow after the Paris Adams set at the Old post office this afternoon but this matched it in some style.
This was a celebration of the music of Neil Young with a complete performance of his famous and hugely popular Harvest album and other numbers performed by Orange River Remedy & Dan Sealey.
The staging was amazing with hay bales, pumpkins, candles and autumn leaves and more all setting the scene and the venue itself (previously known as the Civic Hall) was magnificent, with tables and chairs on the floor and tiered seating further back, sound and lighting fab throughout and the latter really set the mood for the music also how good to see so many people came out for this as it was just about a sellout.
Support was by singer/songwriter Amit Dattani with his roots guitar work and folky vocals, lyrically clever original numbers and plenty of funny stories and good humour throughout he soon had the audience on his side, my standout of his set was ‘Hummingbird' a show case for his guitar prowess throwing plenty of tricks and styles into the mix.
I have seen Orange River Remedy play as a 3 piece at a few Leamington Spa festivals but their ranks were boosted by the excellent ex Ocean Colour Scene's Dan Sealey on vocals, guitar and keyboards, and Rikki's wife the so talented Rebecca Hallworth on flute, guitar and keys, swapping the keyboards with Dan several times during the evening while the other played different instruments.
Their show was so well performed that you could see the hours of rehearsal that the guys must have put in for this show, onto the stage they came the ORR brothers as colourful as ever with Tyron wearing a magnificent long blue coat inlayed with various symbols, and Rikki going the full Neil Young with hat, blue and white checked shirt and blue jeans while at the back amazing drummer Lottie was high up on a drum riser bathed in light, while on the opposite side of the stage Dan and Rebecca were ready to add their magic to the mix.
The stage looked even better filled up with the band who began by playing a few Neal Young non Harvest album tracks to warm up the audience including a simply beautiful version of his evergreen track ‘Harvest Moon', upping the tempo for ‘Down by the River' with wonderful harmonies, and a chilled ‘Helpless'.
Time for the album playback and highlights included ‘A Man Needs a Maid' with Dan Sealy on vocals and keys, Rebecca with exquisite flute and Tyron on the glockenspiel (thats right!) and the overall sound was glorious followed by another evergreen classic wonderfully performed ‘Heart of Gold', and they closed the first half with a driving ‘Are You Ready For the Country'.
Set 2 highlights from Harvest (vinyl side 2) included a tranquil ‘Old Man' a beautiful but also so sad ‘The Needle and the Damage Done', and a grungy ‘Words' which finished the album playback part of the show, but as Rikki said from the stage not the end of the music.
Rikki also mentioned the band would do this again this time adding the whole of the After the Gold Rush album to the show and as a teaser they performed ‘Southern Man' (a controversial tune according to Lynyrd Skynyrd who retorted with Sweet Home Alabama)
They closed with Mr Young showing his political side with ‘Ohio' originally recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young about the shooting of students by national guardsmen at a university in 1970, followed by the gentle, emotional words of ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart'.
After a huge ovation by the audience they of course had to return and this was for a rocking! ‘Rockin' In The Free World' full Tyron's pumping bass, crashing drum work and including the extended guitar solos we all love performed by Rikki and Dan and the interplay between them was electric.
What a performance venue, staging, sound, lighting, musicianship, atmosphere, everything just clicked on this absolutely amazing night.
Andrew Lock
