Thursday, December 01, 2022

Martin Harley at Cluny 2

Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Sunday 27-November-2022.

Martin is a brilliant slide guitarist and an amusing entertainer.  

This is the third time we have seen him (technically only the second for me as a festival timetable conflict meant Mary saw him and I went to see Lucy Zirins).

He was performing at Cluny 2 a small venue and we were there for “doors open” so we were able to nab front row seats. They sell proper brown beer so I ordered a pint of winter ale while Mary had the Blue Moon IPA. 

Martin came on and, in complete contrast to Jan Garbarek last week, we got lots of chat between songs, a mixture of anecdotes and full on dad jokes.

He started with Cardboard King, which we know well then a number of tracks that were new to us. The first set was about 50 minutes, a 10 minute break and then second set for another hour including the obligatory encore. 

Like all good musicians, he was selling merchandising so we went up for a bit of a chat and bought two LP’s which he signed for us and posed for a photo. 

The Hotel du Vin that Mary had booked for our stay was a mere 5 minutes walk away so we strolled back for a night cap and so to bed. 

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