Danny Gruff, Dave Giles, Lizzie Jane and
Nick Kent
Manchester Sound Control and Wrexham Rewind
July 30th and 31st, 2015
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of
meeting singer Danny Gruff.
Danny is a
lovely guy and when he announced his first ever headline tour we decided that
we had to go. The 'Ontaw Tour' consisted
of five dates in Portsmouth, London, Birmingham, Manchester and finally a hometown show in Wrexham. Initially we
should only have been attending the Manchester show but later booked for the
Wrexham show too.
Supporting Danny on his tour were Dave
Giles, Nick Kent and, (for the two final shows), Lizzie Jane.
Opening each night was Nick Kent. Nick is a singer, musician and photographer
from London. Nick has a good stage
presence and a lovely voice and although I didn't know any of his songs until
now, I found that I really enjoyed his performance.
For me 'Primrose' and 'Serenade' were stand
out songs and I was really happy to find that they were on his EP, 'Overdose On
Fahrenheit'.
Nick has a great talent and I really
enjoyed both of his performances.
Next up was Lizzie Jane, a
singer/songwriter from Manchester.
I know I have said on my blog before that I
have a dislike for female singers as I find they are too high pitched for my
taste. Lizzie Jane however, has managed
to become one of the few female singers that I could listen to. Her voice has a lovely lower pitched
smoothness which at times is bluesy and at other times reminded me a little of
Lily Allen, but overall I found her really easy to listen to.
Lizzie sang songs from her EP 'Monster',
and cover versions of Candi Staton's 'Young Hearts Run Free' and Bruce
Springsteen's 'I'm On Fire'. However,
for me my favourite song had to be 'I Don't Think So' which was a poke at
today's music industry and 'talent' programmes like the X Factor. Lizzie gave
an excellent performance both nights and I was so impressed that I even
purchased her EP.
Dave Giles followed Lizzie with a very upbeat
set. Dave is a singer/songwriter who
loves a good story, which was evident in his Manchester set as he explained the
stories behind some of the songs. Personally I am always intrigued as to the
background to songs so for me this was great!
Dave has quite a large back catalogue of
songs and treated us to a good range of songs, from 'I Am What I Am', 'Whiskey
and Wings' to 'Movies Suck'.
For me the standout song of his set was 'Bangarang',
as I have always been told that I have my head in the clouds and don't act my
age. At the Manchester show he performed
this from the middle of the crowd and really got the crowd immersed in his
performance.
Dave has a fantastic stage presence and I thoroughly
enjoyed his performances.
Tonight's headliner is 25 year old Danny
Gruff from London. Danny has fantastic
stage presence and his songs are brilliantly written and extremely catchy.
Danny tried to keep the set slightly
different each night but there were some of his songs that really stood out and
got a great response from the audience such as 'The Hangover Song', 'Nine
Hours', 'Pearly Whites' and my favourite 'Whiskey Legs'. The set also included 'Smile' which had its
own 'dance' and had the audience flapping their hands along to the chorus.
On both of the evenings we attended, Danny
played '62 Years', a beautiful ballad, which he explains is a tribute to his
Grandmother and late Grandfather.
During his set he was joined on stage by
Lizzie Jane who sang a beautiful song called 'Where My Heart Lies'. He also had Nick Kent join him on stage for
'The Drinking Song' in Manchester (one of his friends joined him for this song
in Wrexham), and the whole audience was encouraged to join in the drinking
game. Basically when you hear the word drink, you take a drink of your pint.
During the last two songs of the set Danny
was joined on stage by both Nick and Dave, and you really got the chance to see
the friendship between these guys.
The whole show was completely acoustic and
it showed the absolute talent that they have as they had no band or loud
guitars to hide behind. I will
definitely be going to see them again.
My only complaint from the shows I attended
was the audience at the Wrexham show showed very little respect for the artists
and insisted on talking loudly throughout the show. I've been to many shows and
you usually expect a bit of talking during the show but not to this
extent. The atmosphere of this show was the
complete opposite of the Manchester show which was really intimate and enjoyable.
Danny set himself a challenge for 2015 when
he announced that he planned to write and release one song every week for a
whole year. He has admitted it is easier
said than done but Danny isn't the kind of guy to quit so we still have loads
more new songs to look forward to. Check
him out on his YouTube page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Dannygruff
