Band: Newton Faulkner and Old Man River
Venue: Forum Theatre
Date: 6th september 2008
Reviewed By: Lyn Harder
Photos By : Lyn Harder
A mild spring night out in the Melbourne city and I sneezed my way to the forum theatre to witness Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner aka Newton Faulkner play to a sold out crowd. Born in Surrey, England, the 23 year old is well known for his guitar techniques which see him not only use the guitar strings, but playfully tap the guitars body which creates some developed sounds that he has mastered and which he delightfully plays to the enchanted crowd.
On entering the forum theatre I wasn’t pleased with the new queuing regime that they have adopted, waiting in queue outside to then wait in another queue inside! What the! So here you have people queuing up the stairs to the top bar to then come down again once they got up there to be ushered into the theatre! Ridiculous!
Venue: Forum Theatre
Date: 6th september 2008
Reviewed By: Lyn Harder
Photos By : Lyn Harder
A mild spring night out in the Melbourne city and I sneezed my way to the forum theatre to witness Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner aka Newton Faulkner play to a sold out crowd. Born in Surrey, England, the 23 year old is well known for his guitar techniques which see him not only use the guitar strings, but playfully tap the guitars body which creates some developed sounds that he has mastered and which he delightfully plays to the enchanted crowd.
On entering the forum theatre I wasn’t pleased with the new queuing regime that they have adopted, waiting in queue outside to then wait in another queue inside! What the! So here you have people queuing up the stairs to the top bar to then come down again once they got up there to be ushered into the theatre! Ridiculous!
Lights on and Rosie Henshaw enters the stage and sits down to play what looks like a sittah (forgive me if I’m wrong), and the eastern music fills the room as she carefully plucks this beautiful instrument. Old Man River aka Ohad Rein joins her and they sing Sunshine. The acoustic guitar and sittah do justice to Sunshine and their voices are melodic as well as soft and tonight they sing with passion and freedom. We’re hearing new tunes from Old Man River during the set, and Ohad is rather entertaining as he tries to get reactions from the crowd between songs. Old Man River’s music is for a laid back night out for those who want to listen to some decent, quirky tunes over a few brews.
Enter Newton Faulkner who puts on a great show tonight, he is quite the comedian up on stage as well as a talented muscian. To The Light starts the night full of melodic pop and a beat played by tapping the guitars body, something he is well known for and he takes us through many guitar twists and turns throughout the night.
He gives us plenty to laugh about as he tells stories with songs, She's got the time is about travelling with his brother and acting weird and UFO mentioned anal probes! Dream Catch Me is his biggest hit and when played the crowd went mad, singing and swaying with arms in the air, you can tell this is a much loved song. Newton covers Dead or Alive You Spin me right round and the Massive Attack hit Teardrop which is on his album.
The stage tonight isn't very glossy, a disco ball hangs centre of stage and the lights on the backdrop change every now and then, but Newton is such the act he doesnt require any more stage decoration. He is joined part of the way through the set by drummer and bassist who ad some beats and grunt to the music tonight.
Other songs played are Straight Towards the Sun and People Should Smile More which take us all on different journey's with each song, Newton's voice is passionate and strong showing us he has a great voice for the live scene. Newton's dreadlocks are rather long, it makes me wonder if they are real or whether he's grown them since birth! Considering he is 23 years of age! For Gods Sake and Take It are new songs tonight, and they are beautiful heartfelt songs which hopefully will be on his next album. He doesn't worry about an encore tonight, we just pretend he left stage and came back, and he sings Lullaby which is a bit like that, and the night ends on a Queen cover of Bohemian Rhapsody which brings out all the drunken boys and girls to sing along to.
Newton is a show that you can bring anyone along to and each person would get something out of the show, whether it be a hangover or sore belly from laughter!
He gives us plenty to laugh about as he tells stories with songs, She's got the time is about travelling with his brother and acting weird and UFO mentioned anal probes! Dream Catch Me is his biggest hit and when played the crowd went mad, singing and swaying with arms in the air, you can tell this is a much loved song. Newton covers Dead or Alive You Spin me right round and the Massive Attack hit Teardrop which is on his album.
The stage tonight isn't very glossy, a disco ball hangs centre of stage and the lights on the backdrop change every now and then, but Newton is such the act he doesnt require any more stage decoration. He is joined part of the way through the set by drummer and bassist who ad some beats and grunt to the music tonight.
Other songs played are Straight Towards the Sun and People Should Smile More which take us all on different journey's with each song, Newton's voice is passionate and strong showing us he has a great voice for the live scene. Newton's dreadlocks are rather long, it makes me wonder if they are real or whether he's grown them since birth! Considering he is 23 years of age! For Gods Sake and Take It are new songs tonight, and they are beautiful heartfelt songs which hopefully will be on his next album. He doesn't worry about an encore tonight, we just pretend he left stage and came back, and he sings Lullaby which is a bit like that, and the night ends on a Queen cover of Bohemian Rhapsody which brings out all the drunken boys and girls to sing along to.
Newton is a show that you can bring anyone along to and each person would get something out of the show, whether it be a hangover or sore belly from laughter!
