Uncle Lucius: Fat Lils, Witney. 1st November 2016

Fat Lil’s is a small club in Witney. Here were a hundred or so people prepared to sit, listen and applaud appropriately, knowingly and loudly. The supporting band Curse of Lono got the gig off to a perfect start. Here were an up and coming London band who had accompanied Uncle Lucius on a short tour of Europe beforehand and, according to them, had learned a great deal from the experience. Watch out for their EP and make all attempts to see them. I certainly will.

Anyway, Uncle Lucius are named, apparently after an old friend of the band, an eccentric old man named Lucius from down in the Louisiana swamps. The band members, all outstanding as part of a team, are Kevin Galloway, powerful vocalist, (though they all sing); Michael Carpenter, important role as lead guitar; Josh Greco on drums; Jon Brossman, keys, and Nigel Frye on bass. They are all involved in the song writing process and singing and their music making is co-ordinated and very effective. Relaxing before the gig, next door in the small restaurant, there was already something impressive about them.

Kevin Galloway held the knowing audience by the strength and variety of his voice and often by the power of his lyrics. For instance, in “Taking in the View” we listened to these words: “The last time the market fell/ Satan had to sell off half of Hell. / Now its all suburban sprawl/ And Big Box Stores.” What a good song this is and how well performed!

Often in the set, Galloway was moved himself by the music and the audience were aghast and were moved as well. So, a great set! And a truly memorable encore which featured “Keep the Wolves Away” from their ‘And You are Me” album. Watch the video especially if you haven’t seen it before. Deep soul, whistling, tears, heads nodding, the audience were shattered. Mmm, if you haven’t listened to or even heard of Uncle Lucius, then…