Peter Bruntnell Band, The Grey Horse, Kingston, August 27th 2010

As this is the seventh time I’ve seen Peter Bruntnell this year, I’ll be relatively brief – not through lack of appreciation, of course, but because much of the set, the sound and my reaction will be familiar. Astral and I met up with Al the Manc before heading into the back room of the Grey Horse, where we also saw Ty and Ayesha just as the band came on. This time it was Peter’s long-time collaborator Dave Little on guitar rather than James Walbourne, but it made for an interesting change of style on several songs. Although it’s fair to say that Dave is not the spotlight guitarist that James is, he’s still a fine musician and does justice to many of Peter’s songs, for which he was the original guitarist.

The band soon got into the groove and we treated to some old songs (Have You Seen That Girl Again?, 25 Reasons), several oldish songs (Clothes Of Winter, False Start, Here Come The Swells and Little Lorelei) and quite a few new ones (Bruise On The Sky, Ghost Dog, St Christopher and Black Mountain UFO). Peter seemed to be enjoying the Butcombe Bitter as much as we were, though he did insist on calling it ‘butt-comb’ all evening and then giggling a lot.

A Bruntnell gig wouldn’t be complete without a Neil Young cover or two and tonight we were treated to three – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Down By The River and Like A Hurricane. He wrapped up proceedings with an edgy Cold Turkey and took a bow to great applause. Another fine gig of great music from a band worth seeing time and again.