Tonight saw a stunning night of live music at the Ashburton Arts Centre in the heart of the countryside town. Chris Cleverley was supported by Ollie Dixon and his band and the place was fit to burst with a near capacity audience.

Opening up the evening was Ollie Dixon who was accompanied by Lee Croad (electric guitar) and Rach Adamson (drums) to form the Ollie Dixon Trio which sounds like a dodgy early 70’s easy listening combo who advertise on TV and are on the K-Tel record label, they’re not…..honest!

Ollie’s new material is simply stunning, deeply meaningful and this comes across so well in his track ‘Islands’, it’s about searching, searching for something, whether it be a meaning, love, life, something more, whatever. We all do it and sometimes with no direction, not knowing what it is, sometimes it's right in front of us but not within our grasp. This was portrayed in the song, deft fingerpicking making way to a grand mid-section which introduces drums and the atmospherics of Lee’s electric guitar which culminated in a crescendo before dying out to gentle acoustic guitar which faded to a close. Exquisite stuff indeed that demanded your attention and I am pleased to say that the audience at the Ashburton Arts Centre were keen to oblige, you could have heard a pin drop throughout the entire set which is a godsend for any band and even more so for the likes of Ollie Dixon who you really need to focus on to squeeze every last drop of goodness out of his music.

He treated the room to the recent track ‘St Agnes’ from his ‘Islands’ EP, another trip to the waters edge to revel in the shallows as the story continues, searching, for something…..who knows what? I guess that’s for you to decide.

Check out the videos (links above) that have been released for ‘Islands’ and ‘St Agnes’, you’ll see a common thread throughout them and the ideas come from the artistic mind of Abbie Barton, Ollie’s photographer/videographer. The former seeing the Male party viewing a map and making his way to the water, the latter, we see a female party doing the same and finally meeting up with the male party at the beach, will it be a happy ending with the two of them falling deeply in love in the next single ‘Drifting’? Was it each other that they were searching for? I guess you’ll just have to wait and see!

All in all, an ethereal experience laced with atmospheric sounds and Ollie’s trademark vocals, simply put, "lovely stuff".

After a short break, Chris Cleverley took to the stage to huge applause, the audience were well aware of what was to come and seconds into his opening track, I instantly understood why the place was so well attended, he’s incredible.

Appearing solo, he ran through some of his classics including ‘In a Dreamlike State’ and 'We Sat Back and Watched It Unfold' and also gave us a sneak preview of 6 numbers from his forthcoming record which sounded sublime and went down a storm.

What I loved about Chris’s delivery was the scene setting, sometimes, a musician will simply introduce a song by name and just get on with it and talk about it briefly afterwards but with Chris, you got the whole story, where and when the song was conceived, the thought process that went into it, where it was recorded and often a funny tale about what happened whilst he was recording it. One example of this was when he explained that he had spent time at Katie Whitehouse’s house in Totnes (fromthewhitehouse.com) recording in her basement which was a dusty and eclectic space shrouded in mystery and intrigue, conjuring spirits from the past and he mentioned that when he was alone, he swore that he heard voices from the walls, maybe it was just the fact that he was in Totnes (it has a habit of playing havoc with people’s minds from time to time!) but he really set the scene which I think helped people get into the right mindset to really tune into hs thoughts and engage better with the music.

I mentioned that he played 6 tracks from his forthcoming, as yet, untitled album which is due to land on Friday November 4th, these were, 'Still Life', 'Heraklion', 'The Centre Cannot Hold', 'Chlorophyll', 'Borderlands' and 'If I'd Have Listened' which were each received brilliantly by the room and a sure fire way to prove that the album will be an instant hit. The songs filled you with a myriad of emotions including joy, elation, wonder and at times delivered sounds that were somewhat unsettling but not enough to knock you off the path. I am really excited about the new album, especially as it was recorded in Totnes which makes it all the more special.

The show ended with ‘Rachael’, Chris suggested that we clear the tables from the front of the room and form a mosh pit as he would like to fall into the crowd at the end of the track and be carried around the room whilst playing the closing bars to the song, granted, this wasn’t a popular choice for the audience who had come out for an enjoyable evening of music so he remained firmly planted on the stage instead.

If you missed this show, you have another chance of catching Chris on tour in November when he will be out promoting his new album, along with a string of UK dates, he will be appearing at The New Lion Brewery in Dartington with his full band. I asked Chris what we can expect from this experience after the show and he added that with the full band, it allows each musician more space to really prove their craft. I commented that tonight had been a really special experience for everyone in the room and with a full band behind him, I can only expect that the experience will be even more beautiful. Until then, go and check out Chris's back catalogue which is available to hear on all good streaming platforms and if it's physical music you prefer, head to his Bandcamp page where you can pick up 'The Complete Works' (All 3 CD's ‘Apparitions’, ‘We Sat Back and Watched it Unfold', and 'Live from the Glass Isle’) for just £20....this has to be the bargain of the century so far!

Words and Pictures by Steve Muscutt