With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

This gig looked like another wonderfully fun-packed Northern Radar night with some great music and musicians. Was it that kind of night? Read on to find out. First on stage was Jonny Cole with a set full of covers, but not just the usual covers suspects. He bravely chose some relatively obscure and quite difficult songs for the early part of his set. Later there were some great audience singalongs with “Stuck In The Middle With You” and “Proud Mary”. Jonny brought his old guitar teacher on stage for a couple of songs, including a rollicking take on Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode”.

Next up it was the turn of the enigmatically named Moongate. There is no mystery, she saw the name on a house on her regular route to the recording studio. Most of her songs are relatively sad laments. Including the song about not being able to sleep, which while being sad was a great lullaby-style ballad and probably my favourite track from Moongate’s set. Her cover of Richard Hawley’s “Don’t Stare At The Sun” was fabulous. She was also joined by a full band for her last two songs, well not the actual band, but the music was on her Apple Mac. Those songs were great. The first one, “Midnight Air” was a moderately happy tune too.

Next, it was the turn of Lewis Ross Robson who struck me, via his style and manner as a kind of alt.folk Noel Gallagher. He has a collection of relatively downbeat tunes, but his lyrics are intricate and weave some great tales. I loved his voice. It has the feeling of someone who has really lived through the stories in his songs. In a couple of songs, I sensed the guitar stylings of Paul Simon in some of his sparser more stripped-back tracks.

Finally, it was time for the main attraction, all the way from Perth, Western Australia, Jordy Maxwell. He is a true raconteur and troubadour with some great tunes and wonderful stories to go with them. Some hilarious and some deeply poignant. One tale was about a huge Aussie bloke wearing sunglasses at night approaching Jordy some years ago after hearing the sublime song “See You Again” and telling Jordy that he was “cutting onions mate“. Apparently, it took Mr. Maxwell a few hours to figure out that the bloke had been crying. Having heard the song, I can understand why, it works on a deep emotional level. Jordy‘s great at self-deprecation, but without taking it too far. At one point he forgot some of the lyrics to “This Old Place” but seemed to get back on track by the medium of telling us more tales, sometimes using what he called his “weird chord”. When he was speaking about his Nan, I suspect there were only a few dry eyes left in the house. He played a little bit of John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads”, one that Jonny Cole had played earlier.

At the start of his set, Jordy spilled his pint of Beavertown Neck Oil and within minutes five people had bought him a pint which were all lined up on stage with him, I don’t know if he eventually downed them all. But the fact that so many people responded to his lack of beer plight says how much of a great human being Jordy Maxwell is. This really was another wonderfully fun-packed Northern Radar night with some great music and musicians. It had the relaxed feel of a classy and chilled open mic night. Thanks to Simon P of Northern Radar for putting this on and to Lizzie, who “discovered” Jordy and persuaded Simon to bring him to York for a gig. This proves that behind every great man, there is always an even greater woman!

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