Review: Nick Lowe, Canterbury's Marlowe Theatre, Wednesday, February 22

by Keith Hunt

Singer Nick Lowe jokingly suggested there could be tumbleweed blowing around the smart new Marlowe Theatre for his first appearance in the area for some 40 years.

There might have been a few gaps in the bright red seats but the evening didn't lack enthusiasm and admiration from a hard-core audience of fans.

Lowe, now a white-haired 62, drew a chuckle early on by describing Canterbury as "a jewel off the M2" and treated us to flashes off wit in rare gaps between his witty and cleverly constructed songs.

The solo warm-up act was Lowe's keyboards maestro Geraint Watkins, whom I discovered in a rare radio play and bought his album In A Bad Mood on the strength of it.

Watkins, 61, performed a few tracks from the CD - though, sadly, not my favourite Unto You - and some other quirky songs mixed with some fine foot-tapping boogie woogie.

After the interval, he was joined on stage by Lowe and the three other members of the band on drums, double bass and lead guitar, and quickly demonstrated why he is so respected as a singer-songwriter, musician and producer.

Lowe must be sick of references to his paucity of hit songs, but for the record his most successful, I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass, peaked at number seven in 1978 and Cruel to be Kind ("Still a great song," he modestly declared) at 12 in 1979.

He gave us his own treatment of his jewel in the crown (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, which was a hit for Elvis Costello in 1979 and hit pay dirt in 1992 when Curtis Stigers covered it on the hugely successful soundtrack for The Bodyguard.

The laid-back line-up with a pleasing country feel cruised through some of Lowe's best work and showed that his latest album The Old Magic promises to be just that.

He closed the first set with the rocking I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll) and returned for the inevitable encore for a duet with Watkins on the Welshman's lilting Only A Rose.

Lowe came back alone for a not so inevitable second encore, stopping some fans in their tracks as they were leaving the theatre.

Surely, this would be the moment he would treat us to I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass. Not so. Instead, he went for the requested The Beast In Me and his greatest hit ended up a startling omission.

It was the only Lowe blow of the evening.