Lucy Spraggan has five albums under her belt and her 2019 UK & Ireland Tour came to the John Peel Centre.
Lucy’s song writing is honest, deep and raw. Listening to her songs makes you instantly connect with her, she’s open and she writes about it.
I tried not to have expectations, you can’t when you write reviews, you have to be open minded and normally I am. This one though, it was hard not to have them. There were expectations from me going to this gig, as through her songs, I felt I was going to see a friend I knew well, a friend who’d I’d shared good and bad times with. I felt as though we knew each other – that’s the power her lyrics.
Lucy did not disappoint. She was instantly warm to all of us, we were all her friends. Her friends were our friends. I know it sounds overly emotional but that’s how she made us feel.
First track of the night was from her new album ‘Today is a Good Day’ and the audience were singing with her from the off. Her lyrics are sublime and take you on such a story, such a journey from start to finish. You feel as though you know all the people she is talking about. Her style is not the usual short versus and a pop chorus, she is reciting poetry to music and by golly does it work. It’s an art form.
She engaged the town from the off – saying ‘Stowmarket’ many times in the conversation to us, this just added to her friendly warm nature. Lucy had her guitar, Josh on the keys which gave a depth to the tracks and she also had a pedal with a kick drum sound which really added.
Lucy introduced each song with a few sentences on what inspired her to write it, this was great for adding a level of understanding to a song whose lyrics we felt we already understood, but she gave us more.
Her words obviously touch people, when she’d announce a track, people in the audience whooped knowing they were just about to hear their favourite track. I saw one young lady completely overjoyed that Lucy was about to play her favourite track – to have that impact, that connection your words make with your audience, that must be an amazing feeling. The audience faces were lit with joy to be there.
There were many tracks from her latest album and plenty of other favourites: ‘Today is a Good Day’, ‘Lucky Stars’, ‘Tea & Toast’, ‘Lightning’, ‘Unsinkable’ and of course ‘Beer Song’.
This woman brought laughter, comedy, love, friendship, sadness, heart-warming honesty and above all a superbly engaging, entertaining evening.
John Peel Centre was the perfect venue for Lucy Spraggan with her intimate lyrics.
Supporting Lucy was Katie Kittermaster, an eighteen-year old singer songwriter who did a set with her own songs and a few covers. Her guitarist was also doing harmonies and they complimented each other well. Kitty had a nice voice, different from a lot of young girl singers these days, which was refreshing.
