Live review - Fyfe Dangerfield
Leamington Spa Assembly Rooms

After a relaxed and friendly interview with Fyfe the day before his support slot with Corinne Bailey Rae at the Leamington Spa Assembly Rooms and listening to tracks from his new solo album, Fly Yellow Moon, I new pretty much what to expect from his live performance.  It promised to be a cut back and intimate set with Fyfe being accompanied only by two stings players.
I expected magic and charm and that’s exactly what I got.

The bigger songs, like the opening number, Faster Than the Setting Sun, lost none of the original verve or drama from the album and the joyful, upbeat stomping of When You Walk in the Room caused the audience to bounce along with him.

With the clever use of the loop pedal he spoke of in our interview, the bigger arrangements were retained but with the frankly superb and hypnotic, Live Wire and the very beautiful and emotional Barricades, Fyfe’s vocals exuded genuine warmth and soul and, with the addition of the strings, a presence that kept the entire audience listening and loving every lilting melody and graceful lyric: rare for a support act to command such attention.

His cover of Chris de Burgh’s Call the Shots (or Girls Aloud’s if you’re under 20), saw the audience providing the backing vocals and, along with a beautifully and movingly performed and all too short set, the upbeat closing number, She Needs Me, cemented one of the best crowd reactions to a support artist I’ve seen.

Prior to the gig we chatted to Fyfe about writing his new solo album ‘Fly Yellow Moon’ and the diversity in his music.
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