From the moment you are greeted by the doormen at The Sands Venue on the Promenade in Blackpool, you just know you are going to have a wonderful evening. It is definitely a prestigious venue (“Ronnie Scotts Plus).
This time we were there to see Snake Davis. The sumptuous meal cleared away by the fantastic staff, the lights went down and Paul Birchall, Snake’s keyboard player/pianist, began quietly playing the piano, then Snake came on stage to ease us in gently with some haunting notes, playing a tiny saxophone lent to him by someone called Steve. Then came the Drums with a capital “D” – we had noticed Ali, Snake’s young and very talented drummer last year. Next, Simon Goulding came in on bass guitar and Snake the Charmer transported us on his magic carpet of music for an evening with the “Wow!” factor in bucketloads.
Paul Birchall slipped effortlessly from the grand piano to the keyboard. Snake was sinuous as ever. He told us he was wearing a new jacket – a gorgeous dark blue dinner jacket with a fabulous lime green silky looking lining. Snake announced an evening of firsts – Paul playing the grand piano, Ali with an extra drum (his first snare drum) and tambourine (plus his amazing cymbal with holes in) and Simon with a new bass guitar, that he plays a la John Gomm like a drum, turning it into a sort of mini band.
Snake paid tribute to the amazing sound system at the Sands and to Mark Gill the Sands Sound Engineer, without whose input the Band would not sound quite so spectacular. Mark also came in at just the right moment with some mood lighting to give the performance extra oomph.
I could give you a long list of the music the Snake Davis Band played, such as “The Wakefield Wobble” and “In a whisper” (originally on the “Snake Bites” CD) with Paul on piano, Snake on penny whistle and Ali using some very unusual colour block drumsticks that gave a quieter, more gentle sound, or “Purple Rain”… But with Snake words really are superfluous - from start to finish the show is sensational with the musicians ‘talking’ to each other in music – please go and see for yourselves.
Snake finished by thanking all the wonderful staff who look after us so well - not forgetting those behind the scenes. Snake will be back at the Sands on various dates in 2012 with his 4-piece band and also with his 8-piece Soul Band. Ticket options are with or without 3-course meal so check out www.the-sands=backpool.co.ukand tell Stephen Fry if he wants the “Wow!” factor every time, then it has to be The Sands Venue in Blackpool.
Snake and the Suspicions will be playing at the Sands Venue on Saturday 25th February.
Bookings here: http://www.the-sands-blackpool.co.uk/artists/646/Sands-Soul-Night-with-Snake-Davis-and--the-Suspicions-/1638
More info: http://www.snakedavis.com/
