The art of the raconteur, one who can tell stories about their life in an absorbing and amusing manner, is easy to attempt and difficult to carry off, as any of us who have had the misfortune to listen to a ‘pub bore’ will recognise.

It’s also a requirement for the increasing number of musicians touring solo, armed only with their guitar, voice and a fund of anecdotes to hold an audience’s attention. Two distinguished figures who have that gift in spades are Quireboys singer Spike and Stray founder member Del Bromham, who have now joined forces to tour together, so an entertaining evening was guaranteed.

Indeed, there was particular value for money with three acts as Matty James Cassidy opened proceedings. With his rakish appearance suggesting he could have been in the Quireboys or Dogs D’Amour back in the day, the young Northern Irishman played his own songs with a folk and punky influence, and a dark side like ‘The Road to No Town’. His sonorous, strongly accented voice drew comparisons for me with Ricky Warwick, current rising bluesman Dom Martin, and even Shane MacGowan.

After a cover of the Stones ‘Sweet Virginia’, I was impressed with a couple from his ‘Balladmongrels’ collaboration with Tyla of the Dogs D’Amour in ’ in ‘How the Beautiful Fall’ (notably the lyric ‘your beauty fades away like Dorian Gray’) and ‘Swinging Jack’. He also had an engaging personality and on the last song successfully encouraged the crowd in a call and response to sing the chorus of ‘Same Old Me, Brand New You’ together.

After a very quick changeover, one of the advantages of this low-fi set up, next up was Del Bromham, taking a break from Stray’s gigging schedule. It was an opportunity to hear some of the band’s folkier material, such as rarely played set opener ‘Oil Fumes and Sea Air’, ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ and ‘Our Song’ with some very evocative lyrics. Indeed, a similar theme of coping with hard times and ‘the man’ was present in ‘Dust in my Pocket’, again suited to this format and one of a pair, ‘I Am’ being the other, from the excellent most recent album ‘About Time’.

The loose theme of Del’s storytelling was his days growing up not far from here in East Acton, the best anecdote being the bowling alley where the mods ‘traded’ their plimsolls for flash-coloured shoes. His soul inspirations from those days showed in a cover of ‘Loving You is Sweeter Than Ever’.

Regular Stray watchers will know the man’s quick, street-smart wit and wicked gift for mimicry. This set was about the songwriter rather than the guitar hero and gave him the opportunity to dip into some of the blues songs he has written for solo albums, as well as a collaboration with Leslie West, ‘To the Moon’. These included ‘The Battle of JD’, a very literal story song about the life of Jack Daniels, and ‘Train’ where he got the crowd to holler a pretend whistle, before a very enjoyable hour long set ended with ‘Nine Yards’, his anecdote about the phrase being the material required to make a suit accompanied by an entertaining impression of a Jewish tailor from London’s old East End.

After another brief changeover, it was time for Spike. The Half Moon has a long association with him- I was at a special Quireboys 30th anniversary gig here (describing it at the time as ‘Carlsberg don’t do pub gigs, but if they did…’ ) and I am pretty sure it was one of their haunts on the circuit in the original Queerboys days.

Singing into an old-fashioned microphone and claiming to be drinking non-alcoholic cider, which required a suspension of disbelief, he was backed unobtrusively by old buddy Chris Heilman on guitar throughout. The opener brought his history right up to date, being ‘Raining Whiskey’, a resurrected Frankie Miller song that was a single from his relaunched Quireboys.

After calling for a roadie who in one of the running gags of the evening constantly had to retune his guitar, he took to harmonica for a bluesier number, then ‘Roses and Rings’ was preceded by reminiscences of the Quireboys’ original recording sessions. It was clear, and quite touching, just how much he still misses original partner in crime Guy Bailey. It was followed by a trip to current ‘Wardour Street’ album in the ballad ‘Under the Stars’ but this was not primarily a night for Quireboys material.

We were graced with Frankie Miller’s presence in the crowd tonight and no-one has done more than Spike to keep his legacy alive, both singing his praises and recording some of his unreleased songs. So it was fitting that we got a couple of those songs in ‘Cocaine’, its dark lyrical matter complementing Spike’s jaunty tales of drug times past, and the Bonnie Tyler duet ‘Fortune’. He mentioned the latter was a surprise hit in Europe and though I’ve heard the gag many times before that his mother asked whose voice was who, it never fails to raise a chuckle!

Mid-set he brought on the ubiquitous figure in these parts of his old mucker Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell, who served two purposes. One was to add some quality lead guitar work to some songs originally released on his solo ‘It’s a Treat to Be Alive’ album such as ‘Have A Drink On Me’. The other was to be the foil for more banter from Spike including another running gag in ‘did he ever tell you he was in Bad Company?’.

His voice, huskier than ever, was at its raspiest on ‘7/11 Roses’ where I could not get the comparisons with Chris Norman of Smokie out of my head. Unexpectedly he also covered Slade’s ‘Everyday’ in a slower tempo- at one stage I thought he was going to give up on it, but a crowd singalong carried the tune. There was another better known Frankie Miller cover in ‘When I’m Away From You’ though I am not sure if his tongue was in cheek when he apologised to Frankie for Bucket messing up the song!

Even though not a Quireboys set, the only song he could realistically end with was the ballad ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’, again with that voice at hits huskiest. However, he came back solo for a final encore, asking us if we would sing for his ‘mam’ the folk classic ‘Streets of London’. Unexpectedly it turned out to be the best moment of the gig- sung note perfect and bringing out the poignancy in the lyrics, it was a very special moment to complete an evening every bit as enjoyable and heartwarming as expected.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 24 March 2025

HARRI LARKIN Too Close To The Sun (Robot Distro)
SANDNESS Not Your Dog (Rockshots Records)
DOCTOR BLACK Drag Me Down (indie)
COHEED AND CAMBRIA Goodbye Sunshine (Virgin Music Group)
LEONI JANE KENNEDY Closer (indie)
SMALL TOWN POLITICS Red Lights (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 24 March 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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