Hove Folk Club

Robb Johnson : Friday 6th February 2009.
Report by Harry Bolter.

Because of inclement weather, the advertised guest Tomás Lynch was stranded in Glasgow - and so our popular resident Robb Johnson stepped up to the mark to entertain the crowd at the club. He was ably assisted by the floor singers, who grow in number at each meeting.

Stand outs for me were the lovely unaccompanied songs of Barbara and Ruth, the ukulele players "The Richwards" and the singing of  "When the Gasman Came to Call", an old Flanders and Swann number. Stuart also delivered two powerful songs and all in all the standard of the floor was great.

Robb Johnson has a large catalogue of records, some of which are very difficult to obtain. However he sang some old songs such as "Oliver Twist" from the "Big Wheel" album and also three new songs: "Nation of Shopkeepers", "Every Good Day Counts" and the moving "Inexcusable" which can be downloaded from his web site.

Robb's latest CD, "Love, Death and Politics", was also well represented with the opening "Spirit of 45" sung a capella. "The Bigger the Car" was enthusiastically mimed to by many of the audience, and even a few members of the Duke of Wellington community choir who had made the journey from Shoreham were able to voice their dubious singing talents on "Blackpool".

After the set finished with the sing-a-long "London Eye", the large crowd went home sad that they had missed Tomás but knowing they had witnessed a truly great singer-songwriter at work and play.

Robb plays the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham on 1st March at 2.00pm, which will be another chance to see and hear his solo songs and to join in with the community choir!

Web site: www.robbjohnson.co.uk/
MySpace: www.myspace.com/irregularrobbjohnson

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