The Strawbs performing their Electric Strawbs UK tour at The Lowdham Village Hall Nottinghamshire on Friday 6th October 2017.


Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

Progressive rock band, the Strawbs showed last night that they can still belt out a tune and pen beautiful lyrics even though there have been many changes to their line up with Dave Cousins being the constant since their 1964 beginnings. And whilst they have never been given the recognition that their peers demanded, they still commanded the respect of a packed Lowdham Village Hall.

With the likes of Genesis, Yes and Pink Floyd being influenced by them, the Strawbs still have a successful career showcasing some of the best and most respected albums since the 1970s. And it was an absolute delight to hear them revisited as well as their latest offering, The Ferryman’s Curse which was released only last year.

Opening with the new melodic and beautiful The Nails From The Hands Of Christ they went on to trawl through the bands mid 70s repertoire with the Chas Cronk penned This Promise Land proving to be a particular highlight. There was the epic Ghosts from their Halcyon Days album before they finished the first set with a medley of The River and Down By The Sea before joking that they needed a break to recharge their pacemakers.

The second set started with an absolutely brilliant Turn Me Round, and with Lambert and his powerful guitar solos, Cronk using his bass to add to the melodies, Bainbridge enhancing the songs with the keyboards and the excellent Tony Fernandez driving all of the songs on with his own flare on the drums, it was easy to see why they are still selling our venues today. But with Cousin’s deftly tuned ear for a winning melody, there were some stirring vocals especially on the likes of Autumn.

Delivering a full performance of the re-recorded version of Hero And Heroine, they brought the evening to a superb end with new song We Have The Power and a rousing oldie, Lay Down.

With this being only the second of a seventeen date tour of the UK, and then on to an extensive tour of America, this is band who had better ensure that those chargers are working properly.