I’ve been to a gig! I was so excited to get out out and hear some live music that I almost didn’t care what it was. Fortunately, it ended up better than expected and I had a wonderful evening!
As to be expected it wasn’t your normal music gig due to all the limitations and restrictions in place but it was live music and we got to clap, tap our feet and nod heads. It made me happy.
The venue was Cobblers Café and Wine Bar in Hadleigh. The tables had to be booked, there were gel stations and continuous cleaning – I certainly felt very safe and all the other customers were in their social bubbles at a safe distance. We had food too – not something I’ve done during a gig for a long time but getting the customers in to eat food, have some drinks and listen to music makes it a lovely evening and keeps customers in for longer rather than too many different people in and out. We were in for the evening and perfect for the current phase of lifting lockdown – we were in the Cobblers Bubble for the night. (By the way the food was incredible and I snuffled way too much).
Sue Paradine was the live music. Sue and her guitar. It’s not the environment for a full band and I doubt there are any full bands playing at the moment, unless a pub garden with plenty of space, maybe? If you know of anything don’t forget to list the event onto GrapevineLive so we can share it with everyone.
Sue and her set-up was a perfect fit to be fair. She started playing early in the evening while people were dining. It positively added to the atmosphere as we were in the outside space and it was a beautiful evening.
Sue played 3 sets which took her well into the evening and this adds up to lot of tracks. Each set suited the time of the evening perfectly. It started with a chill Ibiza feel while the early evening sun was still out. The tracks had been brought down to a slow relaxed vibe kicking off with Moloko’s ‘Sing it Back’.
The balance of tracks within each set were suited to the growing atmosphere of the evening and each set upped the tempo – it was an intelligent, measured and wonderful progression. Ending the night with Joan Jett with audience participation.
The early chilled vibes were at the right sound level too, quiet enough to eat and chat yet loud enough to appreciate – it definitely was not background music. Sue’s voice has a range which allowed her to sing such a variety of tracks, and not only a variety but the number of songs. I’m not sure people realised how many she got through. We had songs from Kylie, TLC, Brand New Heavies, KT Tunstall, Estelle, Tiffany, Nena, Ed Sheeran….and many, many others.
Sue had her acoustic electric-guitar and her backing tracks. These were not off the shelf backing tracks, these were Sue’s own work and you could tell the effort she puts into them. All tracks were adapted to suit Sue’s style and they all worked. Her guitar playing was great, not just strumming chords but she used to the guitar to create notes and melody to suit the track and to make the guitar the main focus. A lovely tone to the guitar too.
You could tell Sue puts a lot of thought into her choice of tracks, the tone of the set, the background track, in fact everything. It makes a lot of difference to the level of professionalism and the enjoyment for the audience. Even though it was a small audience due to restrictions Sue managed to be engaging and entertaining
Sue is at Cobblers on a regular basis and can be seen at many venues around East Anglia.
This review first appeared on GrapevineLIVE