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Chasing Owls + Robert Lane

Venue: Grateful Fred's at The Atkinson
Town: Southport
Date: 4/12/13
Website: http://www.chasingowls.co.uk/

From its humble beginnings in the back room of The Freshfield pub in Formby, Grateful Fred's Roots and Acoustic Night has now graduated to the heady heights of the magnificently refurbished Atkinson on Southport's famous Lord Street. Quite a promotion!

Now with full size stage, state of the art sound and lighting and even a "green room" at their disposal, Grateful Fred's has really come of age. Considering that this was Fred's first time in Southport, it was great to see that a good number of people had turned out for what was an excellent evening of music from the headliners, the up-and-coming indie-folk band Chasing Owls and from support artist Robert Lane.

Although the venue had changed, the format had not, so as is customary at Grateful Fred's, the evening began with a set by the Grateful Fred's House Band [GFHB] which for tonight was a four piece comprising Colin Maddocks [bass and cigar-box guitar and vocals], Les Roberts [guitar, banjo and vocals], Karine Woodward [fiddle and vocals], not forgetting [how could we ] the enigmatic Fretful Ged [aka Gerard M Sugrue] on lead guitar.

Highlights of GFHB's set included Nickel Creek's "Out of the Woods" featuring Karine on lead vocals and fiddle and a lovely version of I See Hawks In LA's ballad "Never Alive". "Railroad Bill" had Colin playing the infamous cigar-box guitar,whilst the railway theme was continued with "Old 97", a song about a train crash in Danville, Virginia in 1903.

Robert Lane is an accomplished singer/songwriter/guitarist [as well as sometime actor, comedian and shoe salesman] who has supported such big names as Mark Knopfler, Ellie Goulding, John Mayer and even Eric Clapton. In August 2013 he was one of fifteen songwriters selected to attend a songwriting course run by none other than Ray Davies.

To be here tonight, Robert bravely negotiated the infamous car park known as the M6 Motorway as he travelled up from Birmingham.

Robert's songs are catchy yet wistful and his set included "Feels Like 5,000 Miles"[ written on the Ray Davies course for one of his fellow songwriters who was homesick], "Lost But I Don't Care", "Day to Day" and "One Of Those Guys". The last three of these can be found on Robert's website at robertlanemusic.blogspot.co.uk.

Headlining the evening was the Scottish [from Edinburgh] indie-folk band Chasing Owls, who I believe have a great future ahead of them, for they combine melodic folk-rock with a great pop sensibility. Their songs are witty, catchy and effervescent and feature the sublime boy-girl vocal harmonies of chief songwriter/guitarist Ben Sunderland and keyboardist Naomi Black. Their vocal interplay reminds me of that of another great Scottish band, Deacon Blue, which is no bad thing at all. Providing Ben and Naomi with a rock-solid base are James Moir [bass guitar and vocals] and Callum Bateman on drums.

Chasing Owls are something special and they entertained us with songs from their two EP's "We Began" and "Quell", as well as several new songs which they were trying out to judge audience reaction. I am sure that they will be pleased with reception that these new songs received. One of their older songs "Here Come The Gods"[from "Quell"] went down so well with the Grateful Fred's audience[ who sang along to the chorus] that they played it twice.

From the first EP came the anthemic "Lady Of Whiteness" and the closing number "Wedding Song", on which they were joined on stage by the Grateful Fred band.

In conclusion, this was a splendid evening and a fine way to open a new chapter in the Grateful Fred Story. Roll on the next instalment on 8th January 2014 when the wonderful Toy Hearts will be appearing, supported by the superb Jo Bywater. Can't wait !

Peter Cowley