Joe Dolman's Christmas Special at All Saints Church
Review
Joe Dolman & band - Christmas Concert - All Saints Church, Leamington Spa, 6/12/2019
Support act: Will Naisbitt
Friday, 6th Decemmber, a damp, cold dreary night outside but inside Leamington's All Saints Church the atmosphere for the capacity audience was warm, welcoming and quite glitzy.
This was the second year for this Christmas show at the All Saints Church (although this year's was originally intended to be at The Assembly).
First up was 17 year old Will Naisbitt from Solihull to get us all in the mood and what a great job he did! Will is a very talented youngster who I'm sure we'll get to see and hear a lot more from.
Soon after, Joe and his band adorned the stage. The sound system and light show were incredible and Joe had surrounded himself with top-notch musicians:
- Hannah Woof - backing vocals
- Harry Green - bass
- Rowan Bidmead - cello
- Matt Cotterill - keys
- Jack Kirman - guitar
- James Burgess - drums
... and guests:
- The Adelaides
- Hattie Briggs
Two 45 minute sets of flawlessly performed beautiful tunes were split by a 10 minute interval. The whole event oozed Christmas spirit. The highlight songs for me being:
- Hallelujah I Love Her So (Ray Charles)
- Align
- Circles - from Joe's debut EP release 6 years ago!!
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (from the 1944 musical, Meet Me in St. Louis) with The Adelaides
- So Far To Fall - jointly written & sung with Hattie Briggs (who recently toured with Alfie Boe)
- Better By Now
- You're Not The Be All - featuring a rare but excellent electric guitar solo by Joe
- Encore: Fairytale Of New York (The Pogues) - with Hannah Woof
All in all, a fabulous night out and the good news is that Joe promises for it to continue annually, making it even more special every year!
