Gig Review - Gordon Giltrap Brook Theatre Chatham 24-Nov-2011

Another visit by Mr Giltrap to the old Town Hall in Chatham.  The Brook makes use of the old Town Hall's main ballroom which is a spacious but still reasonably intimate setting for Gordon's one man show.  I've seen him several times here now - Gordon has affection for Kent as he was born in the county and has many family connections still with the area.

As ever Gordon was on top form playing through many old classics, Dublin Day, On Camber Sands, Heartsong, Lucifer's Cage etc. whilst interlacing in material off his latest album Shinning Morn in particular showing off his capabilities using a partial capo on a couple of numbers.

As ever Gordon entertains between the songs with anecdotes, jokes and whimsical tales.  He is a man of very pleasant company.

For all the guitar maniacs out there here is my recollection of the guitars used

Vintage Gordon Giltrap signature
Fylde dreadnought
Fylde 12 string - 1970s vintage which Gordon recently acquired and frankly sounded fantastic!
Rob Armstrong "baby" guitar (Lord's Seat and Here Comes the Sun)
Rob Armstrong small bodied guitar - used for Appalachian Dreaming in replacement of the old "boot sale" guitar
Vintage AV3 semi - fitted with a piezo bridge, used on Dodo's Dream.

In particular the Vintage signature model held it's own given it's sub £400 street price against the £2000 plus price tags (at least) of the others on stage.  I'd seriously like to get both a 6 and 12 string model of that myself... however I doubt my playing will do them justice!

A brilliant night out - whether you are a guitar nut or not, a night out at a Gordon gig is really good.  Now I'm a player and there to be wowed by some of his brilliant technique but as he said "All that matters is whether you like the sound of the tune or not".  Spot on and to show that is more than true several times I found myself drifting off into the music, taken to wherever it wanted to take me and only at the end of the piece did I realise I'd stopped trying to figure out how he does the trills so quick or what was the strumming pattern there etc. etc.  Truly great music played superbly.

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