Outstanding live music at Hinckley ACT

Live music in Leicestershire is alive and well at the Hinckley ACT, Hinckley’s newest live music venue, with an excellent concert featuring Martin Nelson and Brian Reed headline acts.

Nigel Beck – a Hinckley ACT regular who hails from Ashby – opened the evening with a set of his own compositions including the haunting melody of ‘Cloud Hill’ which perfectly conveyed the peace and serenity of a local beauty spot. He then upped the tempo with a cheerful tune called ‘Musclebus’ – requested by the audience. He played several more of his own compositions on 6-string and 12-string guitars, and also sang a traditional song covered by James Taylor on his early “Flag” album called ‘The Mill Worker’ – a sad tale of despair and entrapment – and a Jackson Brown number called ‘Rosie’ from the late seventies live album “Running on Empty.”

Photograph shows Brian Reed.

Headline performer for the evening was Martin Nelson, from Narborough in Leicestershire. Martin performed mostly his own material with a few covers in a mainly instrumental set. He began with an Eric Roche arrangement of ‘She Drives me Crazy’ combining fingerstyle playing and a rhythmic percussive style. His own compositions ‘Time can Mend’ - a reflective song about broken hearts and shattered dreams – and ‘Lost Emotions’ – an instrumental piece written when his grandfather passed away, are both from his album “Sit Back and Smile.”

Martin plays Takamine guitars and has one of their special limited edition models. He was named "Takamine Guitarist of the Year" in 1998 and he played one of the pieces from the competition entitled ‘August Dawn.’ In 2007 he released an album entitled "Sit Back & Smile" and he has had some airplay on BBC Radio 2. A recent appearance at the Bath Guitar Festival is one of this year’s highlights for Martin and he has recently appeared at The Musician with Nigel Beck and Bob Tibbetts, both of whom are Hinckley ACT regular performers. He has a website at www.martinnelson.co.uk/

Martin was followed by Alan Hodgson who gave the audience a cheery set of ragtime music inclduing ‘Blind Rake’s Rag’ which was the first rag he learned in the 1960’s. He also played several tunes with interesting titles, from ‘Naked Ladies and Electric Ragtime,’ a Michael Chapman standard, and ‘Beat Roots’ to Donovan’s ‘Fairy Story of the Tangerine Puppet.’

Brian Reed gave the final set of the evening in a very entertaining manner punctuated with a few stories and quotes from life. Brian is an impressive singer and superb guitarist who plays his own renditions of classic pop songs spanning four decades. Brian has performed in public since 2000 and his objective is to deliver his acoustic versions as simply as possible without losing the essence of the originals, claiming that it would be a crime to murder someone’s favourite song. Using acoustic guitar and a bass drum, Brian performed a number of popular songs including ‘Walking in Memphis,’ ‘Roxanne,’ the Bill Withers song ‘Ain’t no Sunshine’ and the Beatles’ ‘Come Together.’ Brian also performed his acoustic version of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s "The Faith Healer" which provided a spectacular blast from the past.