Rupert Stroud at Inchyra Arts Club - reviewed by Pete Drummond-Hay
The Inchyra Arts Club has made a habit of promoting up and coming stars of the future and Friday’s show with Rupert Stroud was another to celebrate.
The show opened with support band The Carloways. This highly rated young five piece from Perth opened with a terrific cover of Bob Dylan’s “You ain’t going nowhere” as done by the Byrds – moving through a great range of covers and original songs. They are a very accomplished country rock/rockabilly outfit complete with the expected delicious harmonies. The song writing partnership of Flynn Sweeney and Mikey McLennan, who alternate on lead vocals and lead guitar, showed great promise on “Lose my mind” and “How I feel”, both on their new single. Ably supported by Steve Liddell on bass, Chris Paterson - rhythm guitar and Charlie Haggart on drums, they entertained wonderfully, building their show to a terrific climax with Woody Guthrie’s “This train”.
That was a great platform for Rupert Stroud to build on and build on it he did. The 28 year old from Leeds has been gaining radio airplay with his melodically inventive songs. Occupying the same sort of territory as the likes of George Ezra and Jake Bugg, Stroud has the ability to write songs that are instantly familiar and memorable. Performing tunes like “Light it up” and “Never back down” from his recent EPs he delighted the very appreciative audience at the Inchyra Arts Club with a show of style and skill. Supported by the drums of Michael Bedford and the bass playing of Paul Horatio Brown who also demonstrated their extraordinary skill and musicianship as they launched into an impromptu concert of their own as Rupert Stroud was forced to address some technical issues with his guitar. Closing their interlude with a hint of Stevie Wonder’s brilliant “Sir Duke” as Rupert Stroud returned to the stage to warm applause and preceded to wow the audience with his geniality and a succession of terrific new and current songs. “Trouble” and “Spirit” sound like hits of the future and his closer ”Truth” should be a current success if its cross generational appeal was anything to go by. Encoring with his brand new single “Catch” he left the stage to a standing ovation. When he returns to Glencarse, I suspect, word of mouth will guarantee a capacity crowd. This was great stuff.
