Elbow Jane – Gregson lane Folk Club 18^th June 2009

The much anticipated gig featuring these five guys from The Wirral finally came to pass and without a shadow of a doubt I can state that everyone in the audience thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Time being short, due to the premises only opening at seven, Elbow Jane (along with their Soundman & Road Manager) worked tirelessly and efficiently to set up their sound system before conducting a thorough sound-check, ensuring that the audience would experience acoustic/audio perfection. They also made sure that they left time to fit in a sound check for Peter Aldridge, our resident support for the evening.

Peter kicked the evening off, with five or so of his self-penned songs, while the band took the opportunity to relax prior to their performance.

I’d not actually seen them perform before – but it was obvious, from the people who turned up just to see Elbow Jane and the reaction, from our regulars, who had been lucky enough to see them before, that their reputation had preceded them; It showed in the warmth of the applause and cheers that greeted them when I introduced them – they hadn’t even played a note.

As well as being extremely ‘tight’ both musically and on the vocals (several people compared them to Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Eagles) I was very impressed as to how ‘Audience friendly’ they were. Driven by Chris Chesters on bass & Steve Finnegan on percussion the three guys at the front – Kev Byrne, Joe Topping & Richard Woods have a marvellous rapport with the audience which kept everyone smiling throughout the show. (If it was ad-lib it was incredible – if it was rehearsed you couldn’t tell – it certainly sounded spontaneous) these guys were out to please, not only themselves but every last person in the room.

A friend of mine, in a discussion about the merits of writing your own songs, as opposed to playing well-known standards, remarked that the sign of a good songwriter is if you can remember those songs the following day – well here I am with ‘Three Side Island’ – ‘Hope and Glory’ – ‘England Stone’ – ‘Leaves on the Line’ still firmly in my head.

It was nice to hear two or three covers as well.

As a club organiser – I can thoroughly recommend Elbow Jane – Totally professional approach – Extremely good at what they do – Fabulous sound quality - One hundred percent crowd pleasers and  - Really nice people.

Graham Dixon

Folk On The Moor – 24^th May 2009

Make no bones about it, these five lads gave us an unforgettable evening of music that was beyond brilliant. They have a wonderful understanding of each other, are fine musicians, truly gifted songwriters... and they're such good blokes! I've been promoting clubs for over 35 years... these guys make it into my all time top five for live bands... no make that top three!