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THIS is Seth Lakeman Andy!


>>>>Seth Lakeman in The Great Hall at Exeter University
Current mood: ecstatic
Category: Music


This is about Seth Lakeman's gig of December 14th 2006:

Even I was surprised! This was a queue the likes of which I've not seen in a very long time. It stretched and stretched, right around the Great Hall of Exeter University. We actually stood in the wrong one to begin with, only to find we were in the one where people were hoping to be able to get tickets..(ha!)

After a while though, we finally got in...going past the big 'Tour Bus' as we reached close to the door, and we remembered back to Seth's old white rusty van, that barely made it to some of his gigs.....and a warm smile passed over our faces....

And there it was, The Great Hall, within the University Campus. Filled! Everyone standing this time, which is the only way to experience a Seth Lakeman gig, because it's impossible to keep still with those rhythms.

The whistles and yelling started before Seth even stepped onto the stage...before the lights had even gone down....but then...go down they did...and the shouting increased...

Out came Sean, Ben and Alison (apologies if I've Alison's name wrong there...didn't quite catch it)....and then..out came Seth. The same old Seth. Black T shirt and jeans, slightly bemused at the reception that was all around him. His crowd just went completely out of their minds with happiness!

On came the red lights and out came 'The Riflemen of War'....The pounding beats reverberating around that hall and right through Seth's crowd! Seth's tenor guitar found it's way over to Sean's....Boom! went Ben on his double bass and Alison, who was standing in for Cormac, brought the beat out even further...We all swayed to the rhythms......Up went the cameras, everyone seemingly want to record as much of the show as they could. The wonderful 'Blood Upon Copper' and Ben's banjo now sang strongly with Seth's fiddle!

When the 'Lady of the Sea' sailed out...Oh Boy...you could have heard the roar of approval down in Plymouth! I looked around at this mainly young audience...some older people too though...and children...and I was astounded at how many people were singing along with Seth...All these young people in Devon singing songs about their heritage, at long last..

The lights turned blue, then green, scanning us, scanning the band....then going behind them....the waves started to appear behind them on the curtains...as the lights became the sea and The Lady started her voyage of doom, surrounded by mermaids...waiting to take the dead to their watery graves.

The White Hare bounded over from Bodmin Moor, and people turned away, scared to look her in the eye, for fear of their souls being taken away to God knows where, as she bewitched them with her charms, for after all, Seth's people are Devon people, they know of the dangers that lie out on the moors.....The Colliers came next and again, so many young people dancing to and singing about The Gresford Mining Disaster.

http://riseuplikethesun.tripod.com/id17.html

I thought about what Steve Knightley (from Show of Hands) had said earlier in his set, about last year, when he'd been to see Seth playing here as a support to The Levellers and now..here Seth was, filling The Great Hall all on his own!

And I thought back further, about six months prior to that when we'd seen Seth at The Cygnet Theatre, about 100 seats, half filled...and the red light they had on the stage that day was one that Sean and Seth had picked up in the local Oxfam shop earlier in the day, a heat lamp....but it was all they could afford and it did the job....Then I looked back at the stack of beautiful coloured spotlights that now surrounded them....and I smiled! I went back even further....to a few years ago at Abbotsbury, to SoH own festival...to the time I first saw Seth Lakeman...and I knew then that he was going to be a star....that he had something 'special'....

I described him then as being 'like a firework'...and he still reminded me of that last night, fizzing and sparkling. The speed he plays at is incredible. But now...now I'd also add the word 'scorching' to Seth's music!

The band went offstage and the lights went down further...and there he stood, this young lad who has caused such discussion on this board and others..this young lad who is bringing young people in by the thousand now....The crowd knew what was coming, and the excitement was palpable!

Out came the fiddle...and out came Kitty Jay!

www.legendarydartmoo...

Over from Manaton Cross she flew, leaving her grave for one more time, to stand beside Seth...to stand beside the man who has brought her back to life, who has finally told her story and somehow given her soul some peace....and Seth's bow was shredded before he even started to sing...The crowd stood mesmerised...I looked around at their faces...they were fixed upon him, hypnotised...by both Kitty and Seth!

His shredded bow now looked like Kitty's hair...against the dark background...Kitty's hair floating all around him.....People were barely breathing!! Everyone had stopped dancing...a silence had came over us all....Seth played and played, faster and faster...until you felt that he'd disappear in a plume of smoke...and then suddenly he just STOPPED!!

And that was when the cheers could be heard up in John O'Groats! The applause reached the same place as Seth's fiddle playing.....beyond boundaries!

Of course, he HAD to come back to play an encore...and indeed he could have played two or three or more, if they'd let him. But throughout it all, he was the same polite, reserved young man he's always been.

I left that hall knowing once more that I'd seen something quite extraordinary...but this time I left it knowing that hundreds and hundreds of young people knew EXACTLY the same thing!

And I remembered a comment I'd heard at the beginning from someone outside "Gosh, I thought we'd just be able to walk straight in!".....

No...probably never again either...Seth Lakeman's Star has finally arrrived. This man is not just a star, he will be far beyond that....

The folk world should be so proud of him...and rejoice in the fact that at a Seth Lakeman concert the sea of heads is not OLY grey, but brown, black, blonde, red, highlighted, funky, modern and very young!

Absolute Magic!<<<<


Lizzie :0)