This was to be the first headlining solo gig for North East singer/songwriter Peesh. He’s primarily known as frontman of LoGOz – the powerful punk pop trio who have been gigging round the region and beyond for the last few years.
However, Peesh has also been making a name for himself as a solo artist. This kicked off back in January 2015 when he launched his AcoustiCalendar project. Amazingly, he wrote, recorded and released 52 songs in 52 weeks. I have it on good authority that each song was freshly written and never once did he dip into his song stash, which is quite a remarkable achievement.
He took AcoustiCalendar on the road in April 2015 and has gradually built up quite a following and now has several support slots under his belt but this was the first time he’d hosted an entire show on his own.
The venue was the intimate surroundings of the upstairs bar at The Buffs Club on Station Road in Ashington, which is Peesh’s hometown. I expected a relatively modest crowd no doubt made up of his friends and family and so was a bit taken aback at just how ridiculously stuffed full the room was! Every seat was taken so it was standing room only for a considerable number of people who were packed into every nook and cranny. I actually overheard the one-handed barman say that he’d volunteered to run the upstairs bar because he thought it would be an easy shift. Wrong!!!
Sporting what appears to be his trademark red check shirt, clutching a very handsome guitar and looking confident with a big cheesy grin beneath his peroxide crop, Peesh took to the small stage at 9pm to an expectant buzz. Taking a deep breath, he opened up with a song called The Ballad of the Disenchanted. This was enthusiastically received and was followed by a strong set made up mainly of AcoustiCalendar songs. One man and his guitar - great!
The mood swung from delightfully silly tunes like Kids TV to lump in the throat with Broken Heartstrings – about and dedicated to an absent friend. The shivers produced by The Church of the Lost and Forgotten and Paint The Town Red were washed away with the sardonic reflections of An Englishman Abroad – "parrots on bikes and a shit Elvis" made everyone smile and nod, we’d all been there!!
The first set lasted approximately 45 minutes and it was time for a breather. When I returned for the second set I realised just how hot and sweaty it actually was in there – even with the windows wide open – time to remove the jacket I think!!
The room soon filled up again as Peesh launched into his second set. The man is a born entertainer. Not only did he deliver some fantastic songs but the banter in between was most amusing. In this set he played some songs for his family – I spotted Oasis and a great stripped down version of AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long, which was something I hadn’t anticipated! There were several songs in there that I didn’t recognise which were apparently old songs from previous bands (The Blisters and Junkster) but they were still foot tappingly good and left me making a mental note to try and track them down for listening to at a later date.
With no signs of fatigue, despite playing for a good 90 minutes in a space akin to an oven left on gas mark 85, Peesh finished off the show with Old Punks Never Die, which is one of my favourites and is track 2 on the AcoustiCalendar 13.1 CD. He added in a medley of TV theme tunes at the end which everyone loved! What a great way to close.
Massive applause and loud cheers were followed by demands for an encore but I read in Peesh’s own blog that he felt he couldn’t top what he’d already done so we were left wanting more!! The scoundrel!!
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| Thank you Clemmy Scotswood for the use of this fab photo! |
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