Pete Williams at Birmingham Glee Club
A founder member of Dexys Midnight Runners launched his debut album to a sell-out crowd in Birmingham.
Pete Williams,
Birmingham Glee Club
A founder member of Dexys Midnight Runners launched his debut album to a sell-out crowd in Birmingham.
Pete Williams, bassist with Dexys, launched See with a special show at The Glee Club last night.
Recorded with a band of Midlands-based musicians, See also features guitar playing from singer-songwriter Richard Hawley, a former member of Pulp.
Showing off a dazzling instrumental prowess, Williams worked his way through guitar, harmonica, clarinet and ukulele during the set.
New material formed the majority of the show, ranging from the bouncy, trombone-fuelled Heart Beats to a tender ode to Williams's father's guidance, called Are You Listening.
Williams's solo effort has already been championed by Dexys' Wolverhampton-born frontman Kevin Rowland and Irish star Imelda May.
With an ironic, dry Black Country banter throughout the show, the Whiteheath-born singer slipped in a tune in homage to his walk to the Rowley Rag pub, and a moving epithet to a late friend, Jimmy Anderson, entitled Suddenly Shattered.
Completely without gimmicks, and running only on the sincerity of the performers and their ageless class, the audience was transfixed in silent admiration, bursting into rousing applause after each song. Markus Sargeant, music promoter at The Glee Club. said: "Pete Williams is a Midlands gem, universal talent and one of the most satisfying live artists."
True to that description, a barnstorming cover of The Cincinnati Kid rounded off Williams's encore.
