Mike Last @ Mr Kyps – Mick Ward review

Derrin Nauendorf band + Mike Last + Susy Thomas 20/07/06

This is what a summer’s evening is all about- friendly staff to welcome you in, some liquid refreshment, meeting up with friends, and some chilled out acoustic music from ‘the round’. With the newly added ceiling camera and big screen set up at the back of the stage, it makes the atmosphere even better for a great, night of live music.

What a great start to the evening with an artist making her debut at Mr. Kyps, the young lady in question is Susy Thomas. Looking confident and making conversation with the audience between her self-penned songs from debut album ‘In The Morning’, she quickly won over everyone with her voice and guitar playing. Standout tracks were the single release ‘Mirror For Me’ and ‘Take me Away’.

Next up we were entertained by singer/songwriter Mike Last, who last played at Mr. Kyps as support to Ezio, amongst his own numbers he fitted in a song by them. He also went down well with the audience with his friendly manner and strong singing. With some verbal encouragement from the crowd he was persuaded to perform a brand new song which also went down well. After quite a few year’s of performing solo Derrin Nauendorf decided to get a band together, he couldn’t have chosen better than in Rick Foot on double bass and Channel Islander Jamie O”Keeffe on drums.

Kicking off with the very popular ‘Shipwrecked’ we were off to a cracking start. Second number was the first track off his latest album ‘The Rattling Wheel’ called ‘Universal Demands’ which I’m sure will be a regular number on future sets, with Rick showing what an underrated instrument the double bass is with some great work with not only his fingers but also using a bow. Some great stuff was coming from Jamie behind the drums, but the star of the show yet again came up with a brilliant set of singing and inventive guitar playing that makes sounds you’ve didn’t think could be possible out of an acoustic guitar. Playing ‘All Along The Watchtower’ on his own gave the song a whole new feel to it, Bob would be proud. The audience were held spellbound when the band played ‘Deliver Me An Angel’, a slow number impeccably delivered. Derrin puts his heart and soul into every number and has built up fan base on this. If you want something that little bit different his next gig at Mr. Kyps is in November: don”t miss it, you won’t be disappointed.