Posted: 15 March 2008 at 9:50am | IP Logged

messrs Banks, Halligan and Davis-Jones are featured on a video from Farncombe Music Club on 17th March.

http://www.robhalligan.co.uk/

Nice. As you can imagine.

Posted: 18 April 2008 at 11:43am | IP Logged

Gareth Davies-Jones and Rob Halligan, with a guest appearance from After the Fire's Peter Banks, headlined an extra special Farncombe Music Club with a Fairtrade twist that not only entertained, but also informed the audience.

The evening kicked off with a cotton producer from Western Mali talking positively about the effect Fairtrade has had on their lives, adding a touch of reality to the performance. Mr Keita told of how his earnings have multiplied twenty-fold since joining Fairtrade and the audience, including the Mayor and Mayoress of Godalming listened attentively to his enlightening story.

The main act of the evening followed the talk and Gareth Davies-Jones gave his audience an instant taste of his Fairtrade motivated music with 'Bring 'em all in'.

Next up was the truly beautiful 'Butterfly', a calming, relaxed song but with a strong message about the greed of western governments and protesting about the injustice of free trade.

Rob Halligan took over at this point and he brought a slightly different yet equally as enjoyable side to the performance with the fast-flowing 'Dungeon Gill'- suitable perhaps for a song about a waterfall in the Lake District. Halligan seemed to be playing the more upbeat, high tempo numbers with Davies-Jones on the more reflective, morally challenging songs.

They both combined wonderfully, each accompanying the others song with percussion. Davies-Jones coupled Halligan's guitar strumming with a small shaker whereas Halligan added his multi-purpose drum-box to add a strong beat, giving the impression that there was a fully kitted out drummer hiding behind them.

Before the Fairtrade interval, Peter Banks joined the fray and the trio combined to showcase a few more songs with strong messages which were played in such a way that meant the audience felt that they weren't being preached to.

After the break, 'Money goes around', possibly Davies-Jones' signature song, was wonderfully accompanied by Rob Halligan who then told a tale from the heart whilst performing the emotional 'Elanor'.

The mood was lifted with Peter Banks returning to the stage to perform Larry Norman's 'The Outlaw' in tribute to the recently deceased Christian rocker.

The concert continued after these two touching dedications with 'Walk on me' by Rob Halligan who mixed his vocals with his fantastic drum-box and also a new number from Davies-Jones and Halligan which they performed away from the microphones, unplugging the guitars with Halligan producing a tambourine and the newly-penned lyrics on a sheet.

The highlight of the evening, although there were many, was the last encore song; James' 'Sit down'. Halligan jumped up onto his drum-box, towering over the crowd and there was even a solo from Peter Banks on the Pedal Harmonium.

The song even managed to tie in with the Fairtrade theme; 'If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor'.

Overall a fantastic evening, showing that the message of Fairtrade can be translated into so many different mediums and leaving the audience with the important message firmly imprinted on their minds.