Pete Williams @ The Rep Studio, Saturday April 14th 2018

Me? At a real live gig? Yep, that actually happened. In fact I even managed a freebie jazz gig (Ric Yarborough) at The Symphony Hall on Friday evening too. Niiiiiiiiiiiice.

It was all thanks to a brief return trip to my old home city of Brumingham and blimey...hasn't the place changed. The new/old library (depending on your age) has gone and is being replaced by one of the most boring building ever constructed but Grand Central (aka New Street) is a vast improvement though and generally, two and a half years after I was last there, Brum looked/seemed like a city on the up.

Speaking of being on the up tonight Pete Williams and band were better than ever with a set that mixed old favourites with tantalising slices of musical magic from the new album (due out in June apparently). As I've pretty much given up reviewing gigs for now I didn't bother taking any notes but one track in particular, which may have been called Twice Around the Bend, stood out as an absolute belter.

I've long since given up trying to figure out how/why some artists end up playing stadiums whilst others are lucky to fill a small toilet cubical (not that The Rep Studio falls into that category, au contraire, it's a decent sized venue that seemed to be pretty much sold out this evening) but if anyone deserves a big break I can't think of a better bloke than Pete Williams to get it.

PS: You can watch a vid of one of the set's highlights right here.