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24 - 26 August 2012
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TINDERBOX
The Centre Stage, Bournemouth
1 May 2011

Tinderbox headlining at the Bournemouth Folk Club is always a special occasion and this was no exception. Playing their last gig before the birth of their first child, Monique Houraghan with her exquisite vocals and Dan Tucker playing his intricate guitar style mesmerised the standing room only gathering. Drawing from what is now a fairly extensive catalogue, interspersed with several new numbers to be included on their forthcoming album, the duo thrilled the audience with their self penned tales of lost love, failed relationships and life in general. Kicking off with a couple from their excellent 2008 offering GOLDEN; Waiting For the Summer and Fall Down they followed on with two new songs, Homeward Bound, written whilst on their recent US tour, and Counting Time which had Dan switching to the ukulele. Fallen, a beautiful song from GOLDEN was followed by a new tear jerker Lovely To Me before the couple delved back to their first studio album THE FIRES INSIDE from 2007 with Home and Behind the Smile. A couple from their latest album THE STATE OF PLAY, the beautiful Pen and Paper together with the title track were followed by another from GOLDEN, Ordinary Day and a new number No Other Man.

The gorgeously sad River to the Sea led them to close with Travelling, somewhat of a Tinderbox staple and which had the audience joining in on the chorus. For the inevitable encore, the couple chose The Load, an appropriate choice given that Monique was just three weeks from delivering their baby! With local musician Bobby Burke helping out on guitar and vocals on five songs, this was another splendid set from what is surely Bournemouth’s most popular duo.

Opening for Tinderbox was the ever popular Stompin’ Dave Allen who entertained the assembled masses with his unique style of tap dancing whilst singing and playing guitar, fiddle or banjo. Stand out numbers from his short set were the instrumental Greasy String and the classic The Wreck of the Old 97.

Surprise of the evening was the appearance of Bath based duo and final year music students Mike Dawes (guitars) and Amy Turk (harp) who employ inventive and unorthodox performance techniques such as two-handed tapping and percussive playing to create a simply magical sound influenced by Celtic, classical, world and popular music. Amy, although dwarfed by her enormous concert harp, looked supremely elegant in a long black evening dress whilst Mike sported extremely long hair and smart casual attire. Mike’s virtuoso guitar style and Amy’s breathtaking skills on the harp completely blew away the BFC faithful and the duo were immediately booked for a headline appearance later in the year. What a pity that three women at the back of the hall did their best to spoil the enjoyment by chatting incessantly through the whole set which featured what was probably the finest instrumental music ever to grace the Centre Stage. Their jig Scotch Pancake, Watching Wheat, written by Queen Victoria’s harpist John Thomas and The Violet and the Bee were all highlights before they closed with a sixty second rendition of the theme to the series ‘Diagnosis Murder’ and the quirky Alien Waffle House. Terrific stuff!

Live music really doesn’t come much better than this. A superb and memorable evening.