Venue: Dingwalls, Camden                 Date: Tuesday 14th February 2006

Setlist;
Love Junky, Karamageddon, The Verse Time Forgot, Janet and John, Radio Silence, Sleeper Cell, There Is Magic In This World, Building Our Own Temple, The Galaxy Song (From Monty Pythons Meaning Of Life), Instrumental, Imaginary Friend, Real Life, By My Rocket Comes Fire, Wiltshire Tale, Treasure Island, Bloom
Encore;
Love Is Music / HeadlessKarmageddon

Review;
What can you say about Nick Harper? Well, I can say that he is probably the
most consummate and professional singer/songwriter/guitarist/poet/wit I have seen in a long time. And he certainly lived up to that tonight.

I have seen him live 5 times now, and he is something of a phenomenon. As a
singer, he is by turns expressive, plaintive, soulful but can scream like Robert Plant when he wants to ; as a guitarist, he plays faster and harder than anyone I have ever seen and breaks strings regularly, but more on that later ; as a songwriter he writes the most quirky, insightful, funny, politically-charged lyrics, and on occasions has been known to regale audiences with one of his own witty poems. The icing on the cake is that his in-between song banter is always great fun, and provided the atmosphere is right really knows how to make a connection with an audience.

And all this from just one man, an acoustic guitar and a few effects.

To begin with, the atmosphere on Tuesday night at Dingwalls was not quite as
charged as I have known at previous gigs - it may have been because it is a  sit-down tables and chairs venue that people were possibly a little too relaxed.

But this had nothing to do with Nick, he launched straight away into Love Junky followed by the sinister Karmageddon and proceeded to hammer the hell out of his guitar like a mad axeman in his usual fashion. Other old faves such as Janet and John were mixed with newer material from latest album Treasure Island, plus a very interesting "experimental" song called There Is Magic In This World that saw Nick double tracking his own voice to create backing harmonies, tapping and banging his guitar to create simulated drum loops and playing the main melody over the top of it. A successful and very hypnotic experiment indeed.

But it soon became apparent something was not right, as the occasional crackle from the PA speakers started to turn into a horrible distortion. Nick uses a few effects pedals linked to a laptop for his guitar and his voice, and it seemed something was wrong with the connections somewhere. After a few pauses to sort it out Nick tried again, but had to give up mid-song because it still sounded distorted. And it got worse, the whole sound system then packed up completely. At this point I fully expected to be told the gig was off, and we would be told to leave and apply for a refund or have a rescheduled date.

But...this is a Nick Harper gig.

Undeterred, Nick climbed onto the tables and proceeded to carry on the gig unamplified and with no mic. Luckily,  being a relatively small venue this worked fine for us. The lyrics the next song Building Your Own Temple became an improvised rant against computers which was both innovative and hilarious by equal turns, and this is when you know you are in the presence of someone special, when an artist can turn a situation like that around completely and carry on regardless. Changing/adapting/adding lyrics is all part of Nick's act, and one of the things which makes him such a compelling performer.

Not content to stay in the same place, Nick decided to wander around from table to table and play to the crowd troubadour-style, like some sort of demented wandering minstrel. Another highlight of this 'unplugged' set was the old live fave The Galaxy Song (which is from Monty Pythons Meaning Of Life movie), which he sang while practically standing on our table. I am sure he also played an instrumental around this point, but you'll have to forgive me on the actual full song listing as it was hardly a normal gig.

I could have happily listened to the rest of the gig like this, but the sound system was eventually restored though Nick was not able to use his effects. This limited him somewhat to what songs he could play, but for the rest of set he concentrated on songs from the new album such as the brilliant By My Rocket Comes Fire, The powerful Sleeper Cell, the more relaxed but haunting Bloom and the title track Treasure Island.

And we got a string break moment too - not a man to let a thing like that trouble him, Nick will often re-string his guitar while carrying on singing and not miss a beat, or even add made up lyrics or even lyrics from well known songs - but tonight we got a poem, the wonderful A Wiltshire Tale from his new album -  an entertaining, tongue-twisting  little ditty with shades of Rambling Sid Rumpo and Stanley Unwin.

For the encore, the Epic Headless/Love Is Music, a good 20 minutes of solid guitar shredding, save for a slightly gentler mid-section containing some of my favourite ever lyrics ; "All entangled, in the bedtime mangle, with your pillow, your breast and your sigh/the flush in our faces, and in a few other places, embers of fire in the heat of this night". Oh, and a few snatches of Kylie Minogue thrown in there somewhere too (trust me...it works).

A slight regret that we probably lost a few songs due to the sound problems, would have loved to hear Aeroplane, Knuckledraggers off the new album, and his crazy Elvis/Whole Lotta Love hybrid Guitarman. But in the end we experienced something quite unique, the determination and professionalism of a man who holds the concept of musical integrity very highly indeed, and does not let trifling matters like losing your whole sound system put him off in the slightest.

If you have heard any of Nicks albums, excellent though they are you may not
be getting an accurate impression of just how incredible this man is live (apart from the live Double Life).

If I were to draw any comparisons, much as I really don't like to, I would say if you like classic, early John Martyn you would certainly appreciate Nick's stuff.

Nick gigs quite frequently, plays a lot of festivals and some support gigs in addition to his own headlining gigs, but the best place to really appreciate him is a solo set in a smallish, intimate, stand-up venue.

Highly recommended.    4/5

John Morley