Pinnochios at the Penny

Friday 12th July 2019
Penny Theatre, Canterbury

I arrived as Parkside were leaving, unfortunately. It hadn't occurred to me that such an amazing crew would be playing first in the lineup, but it sort of made sense in the end. I then missed all but the latter half of Aunt Margaux's last song, being outside to chatting to Martin Emmons about his latest musical activities (touring with doom band Famyne, learning the Lapis repertoire, and performing an experimental composition written by Witchdoctor's bass player Joe Inkpen for his PhD). Samuel Ashton played next — powerful voice, great band (incl. James Taylor on keys and Jules Madjar on sax), great energy, but the American accent and style of songwriting isn't really to my taste. The Pinnochios were great, Callum on fire doing his Van Morrison-style mystic-soul vocal thing. Great young lead guitarist, and a rousing cover of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" with Samuel A duetting on vocals.