As soon as this listing appeared at The Brook I bought a ticket, it’s Gary Stringer from Reef, acoustic in a small venue, attendance is a no-brainer!
“I’m going to ramble some history first here”. Reef was an instant hit with me and my friends helped by a Sony Minidisk advert using ‘Naked’ as the basis for it. I first saw them at the the then named but now long gone Avon Park Raceway at Beetle Bash 95, Volkswagen shows always had great live lineups, especially back then, a scene that formed my festival summers over dedicated music festivals. That year Reef opened the evening followed by Collapsed Lung and The Prodigy.
I then moved to Cornwall, Falmouth to be precise where the was a sadly gone venue called ‘The Pirate’ where I was fortunate to again see ‘Reef’ if my memory serves me correctly twice, at least one of those being a Surfers Against Sewage support night.
Roll on the next few years, Reef never went away, certainly not in the car stereo, through the ‘Stringer Bessant’ produced music and I was also a fan of ‘Them is Me’, harder offerings but still hitting the spot.
Reef headlined a one off Volkswagen show for a friend of mine which I helped organise back in September 2014, September due to it being delayed as the guitarist Kenwyn House quit that year leading to Jessie Wood joining and a shift of dates but as expected they were awesome.
Jack Bessant arriving on his tractor and spent time walking around looking at our old Bay Window Campers and other cars in show.
A few shows at the Engine Rooms and were in 2024, 29 years since I first saw Gary Stringer live and it’s an intimate show at The Brook. A long way from ‘Replenish’.
It was a relaxed evening with tables and chairs filling taking up the standing area downstairs, the audience was sitting waiting, getting drinks and chatting when Gary appeared, no fanfare, no big musical entrance, he just came onto the stage in the blue light, adjusted a couple of cables, slung his guitar and grinned, baggy jeans, baggy long sleeve top and Trucker hat.
Reef are know as an English Rock band from Glastonbury and Gary Stringers voice is a big part of their sound and it never ceases to amaze me how his voice can hammer though the heavier ‘surfrock’ tracks and still lend itself to the slow tender tracks. ‘Consideration’ immediately springs to mind. This was on shjow here in abundance. He didn’t try to take any song to a place the audience would be tempted to stand or get over excited. He kept it slow, relaxed and intimate and it was a complete joy to watch.
It was not an audience with but in-between tracks he shared anecdotes and stories going right back to his youth from sharing a loft to surfing in morocco inspiring songs they had writen which only added to the night. At times he jested about his limited guitar skills but this was only evident to him, It was a pleasure to be in the audience seeing these loved track from a different perspective, a long way from some of the ear splitting (in a good way) renditions i’ve witnessed over the years.
Alongside ‘Consideration’ were classics ‘Iv’e Got Something to Say’, ‘Mellow’, and ‘Place Your Hands’ along with songs from ‘Stringer Bessant’. (Go to my Tik Tok and Youtube Channels).
Reef are touring now and if you’ve not seen them I highly recommend a trip. Gary if you read this, please do this again it is definitely a night i’d like to experience again.
