Newton Faulkner
Live in Leicester
There is something of the unlikely in Newton Faulkner. In a world of chav pop-princesses, perky EMO party boys and druggy punk-rockers (with or indeed without flowers in their hair) a red headed, dreadlocked, folk singer is somewhat of an oddity to begin with.
Born in Cornwall, Newton (or indeed to give him his full title Sam Newton Battenburg Deuteronomy Faulkner!) has been honing his songwriting and guitar chops for some time now – first alongside Danish whizzkid Thomas Leeb, under the tutorage of Eric Roche at the ACM and then on the road as he has taken his freewheeling feel-good folk to the people – and the results; tonights show and recent album Hand Built By Robots to start with – are testament to the rare diamond that has been uncovered.
Tonight – Instantly at ease with his audience, alone in the spotlight with just an acoustic guitar for company – Faulkner eases into the set with an opening salvo including ‘To the Light’ and breakthrough single ‘Dream Catch Me’ tonight stripped of the drum machines of the recorded version to reveal the innocence of its beating heart.
Now with the room firmly onside, Faulkner relaxes, knocking out the Baywatch theme tune and a Kings of Leon version of his new single, before running through the majority of the new album with smatterings from the now very rare Full Fat EP.
Solo acoustic shows can be hard work on occasions but there is something in the flow of these songs, the funk-fuelled guitar lines and scat like delivery on occasions, that helps to make the time fly by and after some more guitar heroics, the now traditional Spongebob Squarepants theme tune and an ovation from the (already standing) audience Faulkner takes a bow and heads backstage…
Catching up with Faulkner the next day (en route to Cambridge for a weekend’s worth of festivals in the city) it’s clear that the kind of adoration and good times seen last night in Leicester is becoming more and more the norm as our dreadlocked hero travels further and further around the country:
“It’s great that people are coming back and bringing their friends and that. I always do try and have as good a time as the audience there and give them a show to remember.”
Two months of solid touring, supporting the likes of Paulo Nutini, Nick Harper and James Morrison, has helped Newton develop a unique rapport with his audience, but when asked whether he’d rather play to smaller venues like last night or the bigger stages of Glastonbury et al Faulkner seems pretty happy with either.
“They’ve both got their own plus points – it’s great to have the interaction with individuals in the smaller places like last night, but then you go to a festival and there’s a lot of faces there to connect instantly with as well so I guess anything that comes along”.
One of the most interesting things about the rise of Newton Faulkner has been the focus placed on his guitar playing – so often new acts arrive with all the focus solely on a voice or a video or a myspace page, so it’s refreshing to see someone who has their guitar playing at the forefront of peoples attentions – people have dubbed Faulkner the Eric Clapton of his generation, a statement played down with a modest “Wow really? That’s really kind of someone…” before belying his modest side “when I started out I wasn’t sure that the songs were any good so I really focussed on the guitar side as much as the voice and the song itself so that people would at least find something nice to say about them.”.
When pressed on how he sees himself in the music scene of 2007 (the press have used comparisons to recent tour mate James Morrison and surf mewler Jack Johnson – another fantastic example of the curse of the lazy cloth eared journo) Newton is quick to identify that, while in terms of general perception he may well be out on his own, “there are a lot of guys out there doing what I do and I think that were going to hopefully start seeing some more of them cross over”.
With the snowball now well and truly gathering pace, Faulkner will spend the rest of 2007 on the road, whether or not his idea for a “farewell Spongebob” concert (“with lasers and dressing up and everything!”) where he can put the novelty trick to bed, will see fruition remains to be seen but having seen first hand how he mesmerised a roomful of new converts last night there is no doubt in these quarters that by the end of 2007 these quirky, funky and heartfelt songs of chasing dreams, meeting UFOs and oversized afros will be buzzing around heads and stereos all over the country.
Maybe it’s an English thing but the victory of the underdog is always all the more satisfying and Newton Faulkner presents us with a perfect example. Stylistically at odds with all of his top 40 companions, the man has managed to win over the public en masse with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and an impressive barnet (not to mention an albums worth of chart goosing folk pop.) As he bids farewell, it’s pretty clear that while Newton may be the most unlikely chart hero in many a day, when armed with a talent this pure and a excitable puppy dog charm there certainly aren’t many more deserving of the acclaim now coming his way .
To paraphrase one heckler from last nights gig – “British Jack Johnson my arse”.
Gig 9/10
Dreadlocks 10/10
Guest article from Ben M.
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