Usually, when you place an evening of music alongside the Champions League final, you'd expect a pretty low turnout. But, as some Red Devils lost out to some Catalan giants, in a small room above a small-ish pub in west London, Maria Byrne attracted a big, buzzing and friendly crowd to her Platform.
Maria's soft and cute songs, always full of innocence and charm, serenaded the eager listeners like Irish silk, or, at least, like Irish silk would, if it existed, and if it was anything like normal silk, unlike, for example, American football and its rest-of-the-world-including-some-Americans counterpart. Known affectionately at PAS as "The Ice Queen" due to her coincidental first performance during the week of heavy snow, when we first heard the lyrics "Once upon a time in London / You could walk down Regent Street in the snow" and other such allusions to snowflakes, snow, etc., Maria has become something of a favourite of PAS, and deservedly so.
Maria was joined, later on, by her support act, Dave O'Callaghan, who added that extra something to Maria's songs. "Jack", in particular, was executed brilliantly, with a rocking edge plugged genre-changingally (eh?) into Maria's usually slow-paced tune. There are now, like with Hendrix's covers of Dylan's songs, two excellent versions of "Jack".
Dave O'Callaghan, of course, played first on this night. The harmonica-wielding guitarist, looking like a shorter, smarter and far less annoying version of Russell Brand, is a little Dylan-esque in his songs, mainly in "Fight For A Change", but not a lot. Dave's voice seems to change slightly for every song, with the Beatles-like Liverpudlianism of "Time Will Tell" to a less husky version of Paul Weller on "Shoulder To Cry". It's an underused tactic, one which makes every song that little bit special, and one that identifies the singer as someone who understands music, who understands the way a particular song should sound. The melodious harmonica overlays above skilful guitaristry, combined with these appropriate vocals, make for a very good listen.
Dave Knight
The Platform is part of the
Portobello Acoustic Sessions, and is held every Wednesday night from 7:30 at The Metropolitan bar, Westbourne Park.
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The PAS Diaries: The Platform Presents Maria Byrne
The PAS Diaries: The Platform Presents Tinlin