Friday 17th April 2009
Shades of Eric Clapton the music press was saying, that in itself is huge praise indeed, we will see I thought as I excitedly awaited the show. In the last few weeks I had purchased an Aynsley Lister CD "Everything I need" at a record fair, it was nine years old! as I knew he was coming to this venue(and it was not very expensive) I paid up and took a gamble. A very good rock/blues gem it has turned out to be, but would he be as powerful and raw as this was, or will he have changed his style as time has inevitably moved on.......hmmm.
The venue was packed and Bo-Nidle my old school mates from Wells warmed the crowd up nicely,(if you see them advertised anywhere - they are always worth a look). They are guaranteed to put in 100% everytime covering plenty of classics, Rory Gallagher - "messin with the kid", Santana "Black Magic Woman" plus some Gary Moore, Dr. Feelgood and many more. Great stuff guys, you thoroughly deserved your encore.
Aynsley Lister could not go wrong unless he was really bad, which of course was never going to happen to a talent like him. Oozing bags of confidence and natural ability plus a very tight band to keep it all in check - pure quality was the name of the game. It bacame very obvious from the start that this sound was not quite the same as I had been hearing on my recently aquired(new/old) CD, it was toned down slightly and filled out nicely with some excellent keyboards. It was being very well received by the crowd here tonight and Yes he had moved on, slightly more mainstream, but still very much top quality musicianship, singing and song writing. It was quickly warming up in the venue , as was Aynsley and we were now being treated to a very polished show. Wooing the crowd he played and sang with such ease only gifted to certain artists such as Eric Clapton, one lucky break and he could so easily become a huge star. Comments of, "WOW! he really is a class act" were being said to me by several I knew here tonight. There were many I didn't know and whom I understand knew of Aynsley's talents and had travelled some distance for this show - one mile was my journey, and I feel lucky re that fact. The Harbour Room certainly rocked on this warm, sweaty spring night even if at times difficult to see through the crowd. Aynsley Lister is a class act and he and the crowd had a good one. He says he will be back, let's hope so....Catch him while you can, hopefully back at this venue and at an affordable price - especially in these tough financial times.
Jonathan Webster, Cley.