Mark Chadwick/Charlie Bateman

Mr Kyps, Poole

5th April 2012

After the massive “Levelling The Land” Sold Out tour of the UK last year, the “Levellers” went back into the studio to record their next album “Static On The Airwaves” , the 1st single from the album is called “Truth Is” and will be released on Record Store Day 21st April on Limited Edition 7″ red vinyl. As usual the band have arranged lots of live dates around their releases including their own annual Festival Beautiful days in August. Tonight at Mr Kyps we have a very rare solo appearance of front man Mark Chadwick who released his own solo album “All The Pieces” in 2010. The show is billed as airing some special new material and playing a few of the Levellers classics.

Charlie Bateman
01

Tonight’s support is Charlie Bateman of folk band “Thinkers”, as he takes to the Kyps stage he has a huge job is grabbing the attention of the crowd who all seem to be happy carrying on with their own conversations unwilling to stop and listen. Charlie is unfazed by this and starts his set positively with some great typically folky style numbers taken from the “Thinkers” album “Call To Arms”. The band are usually a three piece with a second guitar and a fiddle, so tonight as a solo with just an acoustic guitar Charlie has a challenge to perform the songs in this stripped down form. The more his set goes on the more people start to listen with songs such as “Do It To Yourself” and “Another Day” impressing the now more attentive crowd, a truly pleasant start to the evening.

Mark Chadwick 01–02–03

By the time the legend that is Mark Chadwick takes to the stage Mr Kyps is virtually full of expectant “Levellers” fans, Mark seems his usual confident self and tonight’s makes an initial statement of sobriety, confirming that he is just on the water tonight………………well it is only a Thursday with a two weekend bank holiday ahead, he is obviously pacing himself. The familiar voice sounds as good and powerful as ever and the crowd soon join in singing along to a batch of “Levellers” classics such as “The Boatman” and “Far From Home”, however it does seem a little strange to be hearing these very familiar songs minus the fiddle. The new songs come in the form of a song written about how Mark’s Grandparents met called “The Daughter” following the great story telling tradition of folk music and the band’s new single the rather catchy “Truth Is”. The volume of the excited crowd goes up a notch when the big hits “15 Years” and “One Way” are performed in the way they were first written on just an acoustic guitar. Mark is quite charming and interactive to the very attentive audience, he explained he was on his own as the rest of the band were on a hot sunny beach somewhere. The evening ends with a great three song encore including a duet with Charlie Bateman on “Barrel Of A Gun” and an emotive ending with “Beautiful Day” with the whole of Mr Kyps singing in beautiful unison. With the Summer festival season due to start very soon expect to see Mark and the Levellers perform at Dorset’s Larmer Tree and many other Festivals throughout the season.

Set-List
Maid of The River
All The Pieces
The Boatman
61 Minutes
Inevitable
Sarah’s Beach
Far From Home
Just The One
Julie
The Waterfall
The Daughter
Galahad
Truth Is
15 Years
One Way(Of Life)
Carry Me
Barrel Of A Gun(With Charlie Bateman)
Beautiful Day