Hove Folk Club

Peter Sarstedt: Friday 9th January 2009.
Report by Roger Johnson, no relation.

No rush to get there, I thought as I finished the washing up. The place never gets busy till 8.30 at the earliest. So it's ten past eight and I've just bought a pint of Harvey's Old in the Eclipse's main bar and I'm off up the stairs. Hell, the place looks jam packed already and others are queuing. So what is the cause of this crush? It's none other than 60s legend Peter Sarstedt, surely best known for his haunting song, Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?, playing a rare gig - and he's on in Hove Folk Club!

When I finally squeeze in and find somewhere to stand, club resident Robb Johnson is up there in the front giving us a few of his well-crafted songs. And, as a special bonus, we get the first public airing of Robb’s new song, Inexcusable. Anyway, a couple of floor singers later, this rather unassuming looking guy gets up with a guitar and a songbook. Robb says it's Peter Sarstedt but he's not quite what I expected. Mind you, I'm not too sure what I did expect; I don't suppose I've seen him for more than 30 years.  He introduces himself and tells us how nice it is to see us all there and then proceeds to give us a retrospective of something like 40 years of singing and songwriting. I remembered just a few of the songs from years back - One More Frozen Orange Juice, for example - but most are unfamiliar to me. There were funny songs, songs about life and human relationships, world events and some that were simply song stories, all delivered in a nice easy straightforward style and with a simple strummed accompaniment.  I think my favourite song was probably Beirut, written long ago but somehow still relevant now. If only our host could have given us The Fairest City too! We even got two versions of what I guess is still seen as almost a signature tune. In the first half, Peter had the whole audience joining in (and not one member was less than word perfect) and then right at the end a solo version from Peter to finish off a very good night in Hove.

Web site: www.petersarstedt.com/

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