Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita - 26 May 2022 & 1 June 2022

This was an extra date slotted into a tour that was supposed to take place in the lockdown and there was a big bonus in that meanwhile they had recorded and just released a new album so there was a loto of new stuff as well as tunes from 'Soar'. As usual they started the gig off with 'Chlarach' a tune that is so beautiful it reduces me to tears. Thereafter the concert passed by as an inticate masterclass of string playing that you could get completely lost in. The melodies flowed and the tightness between the two musicians was impeccable. Every note and beat was synchronised. New tunes included 'Dimanche', 'Tabadabang' and I think 'Julu Kuta'. From 'Soar' I remembered a couple of other tunes. Every tune was a joy. A week later and we were there again in St David's Hall this time to bathe once again in the mesmeric string playing. The new album stuff is superb - I clocked 'Gobaith' meaning 'Hope' in Welsh which started the second half and 'Jeleh Calon' as particularly joyful.

P P Arnold - 10 May 2022

As a big fan of backing vocalists I couldn't resist a gig from 60s icon P P Arnold who started out as an Ikette and then sang with pretty much everybody from Small Faces to Nick Drake to Freddie King to Peter Gabriel. And produced two classic singles along the way. The show started with support act Lady Nade who had a tremendous voice, powerful and solid but whose songs were not as good as her singing. P P Arold played with a five piece band of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and of course a backing singer. She did a number of songs from her recent (2019) album and quite a few covers. The new songs plus her two absolute classic hits were the best bits - the covers of 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'God Only Knows' fell a bit flat for me although the cover of 'Medicated Goo' (Traffic) and 'I'm a Dreamer' (Sandy Denny) were excellent. The newish songs were good original music, from a veteran, but she had assistance from people such as Paul Weller which helps. Though It Hurts Me Badly Baby Blue Different Drum I Believe Medicated Goo I'm a Dreamer Shoot The Dove (If You Think You're) Groovy Hold On To Your Dreams Eleanor Rigby Angel of the Morning God Only Knows The First Cut Is the Deepest

Saucerful of Secrets - 7 May 2022

Almost to the day two years after it was supposed to happen (when Nick Mason was a callow youth of 76), the gig took place at the Forum. It was the same line up as 2019's gig with Nick, Lee Harris and Gary Kemp on guitar Dom Beeken on keyboards and Guy Pratt on bass. This was a long gig with over two hours of music and featuring proper versions of the classic extended early Floyd songs with 'Atom Heart Mother' (topped and tailed by 'If'), 'Set the Controls' to finish the first half, 'Interstellar Overdrive' and 'Astronomy Domini' to start the second half and the final track before the encore the inimtable, ultra brilliant 'Echoes'. I struggle with the idea that anything can be better Floyd-wise than 'Set the Controls' but 'Echoes' surely is perfection. In between they did a number of shorter Floyd songs featuring particularly a number of Syd Barrett compositions and also the other two classic tracks from 'Meddle'. In fact the first four songs were 'One of these Days', 'Arnold Layne' 'Fearless' and 'Obscured by Clouds'. What an amazing start. The encore featured a couple of classics - 'Saucerful of Secrets' (Of course), 'See Emily Play' and finished with another song that could only be a Syd Berrett song 'Bike'. The lights and videos were incidentally brilliant. What a great gig.