Weekly > Reviews
Willy Mason - Leeds Cockpit
No it hasn’t taken me nearly a month to review this gig because i’ve been recovering from a hangover since that day, I have been listening to ‘Where The Humans Eat’ to try to compare the live Willy Mason to the recorded Willy Mason.
While we are on the subject of drink though, it wouldn’t really be a review of mine without alluding to alcohol intake, football or in this case both. Yes Leeds had been away at Burnley, won and a lot of alcohol had been consumed, including a bottle of vodka between three of us that did little to help our sobriety.
So as we travelled back from the game, a fellow reviewer who was due to meet us for this gig hot footed it into Bradford to collect the tickets off of Small Beer, amazingly this went like clockwork and off we went to the gig. Well almost, Three of us wanting to go and two tickets we had, even at thisstage in the day we realise that three in to two doesn’t go, a quick bribe to the doorman though and three into three goes a hell of a lot better.
This was something of a strange experience for me, it’s not often I see a headline act without knowing a decent amount about them, or having heard a fair bit of material, but Willy Mason had got me curious from a review i’d read and the single ‘Oxygen’ was a cracker so it felt worth the risk (especially when the ticket is free).
- Willy Mason
- Leeds Cockpit (5th February 2005)
- Category: Live
- Label: Virgin
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 12 Mar 2005
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Add to favourites
Having now compared, I can honestly say that Willy Mason is either just as good at performing live as he is on record, or the record has been recorded and produced in a very ‘live’ and organic way. Tracks like ‘Gotta Keep Movin’ and ‘Fear No Pain’ were belted out effortlessly, the already devoted following he seems to have attracted were moved and touched by the simplicity of ‘Sold My Soul’ and ‘So Long’ but ultimately the crowds favourite was the afore mentioned ‘Oxygen’ which was met with a rapturous ovation.
Mason has a plaintive, emotional voice and that comes through even further when it’s just him and a guitar, he cuts a lonely figure at times but i’d recommend seeing him live if you get the chance, he’s a rare talent for a 20 year old and few current performers will match his folk-blues on this performance.
As a side note he’s also pretty good at verbally putting down hecklers as a rather drunk friend of mine found out towards the end of the show. Good on ya kidda.
Have your say...
Comment Guidlines
You must be logged in to post a comment. Go Login or Register first.
We waffle on enough without letting you lot do it too. Comments are limited to 300 characters.
Try and keep on topic if you can and no insulting the contributors. All hate mail can be addressed to Kev.