Greg Johnson played the first part of the show on keyboards, guitar and of course featured his cool vocals. He may have been living in LA for a few years but his ‘kiwiness’ shines through not only in his laidback performance but also in the lyrics of his songs. As a singer/songwriter his subject matter is of the everyday including relationships, his surroundings and our scenery. A couple of examples were a song about being in his flat all afternoon as the landlord was painting the stairs and he couldn’t leave and a song about the disappearance of a woman from an Auckland nightclub in the 1980’s. Very enjoyable, cruisy and I look forward to a new release from him later this year.
Mr Lloyd Cole on the other hand was an interesting set. The old saying “There is no one sicker than a sick man” might have been his mantra. He had suffered a bout of food poisoning in Auckland a couple of days before and was still feeling the aftereffects. Unfortunately after apologising at the beginning of his show for his weakened voice he then moaned several more times during the show and even told the audience if he couldn’t sing as well as normal they could leave. Several people did just that.
His guitar playing was excellent and he could have done a couple of instrumentals to save his voice or even got Greg to come back on to duet with him. His songs are very wordy and intense with a moody undertone. He had some very vocal fans in the audience who I imagine may have seen him in London during their OE many years ago as most of the audience was of a similar age. I really enjoyed the melodies of the songs and the guitar playing but there was not a lot of variety in the rythmn and style
