Heather Findlay / John Hackett Band

Cluny 2, Newcastle

10 May 2025

It's five years since Heather last played in Newcastle. She finished that concert with the ballad Firefly from Wild White Horses, accompanied by just a piano, and it was the most beautiful thing ever.

Until this afternoon, where, with a nice bit of continuity, she opens her set with an a capaella version of Firefly, and it's the most beautiful thing ever and ever imaginable. This is already the best concert I've ever seen. I could go home now.

But I don't. After that surprise, Heather plays a less-surprising, but no less beautiful, 45-minute set that's basically a cut-down version of her album launch set a few weeks ago. She limits the Wildflower songs to allow room for a handful of older things, and while I obviously wish for another two hours I can't complain about a single thing she chooses. After her set, she comes back to join the headliners for two songs, one of their own and a cover of I Talk to the Wind, and I never realised before how badly I needed to hear Heather sing King Crimson. She should put this in every gig. (She might need a flute player...)

I like the idea of an afternoon gig, but I'm not sure how many people would agree with me, and initial impressions are of a very small crowd when the doors open. But more trickle in, until there's a respectable audience, who all seem to appreciate Heather's set, which again was not at all guaranteed because what she's doing these days is a million miles away from what the John Hackett Band does.

So, on to the headliners, the John Hackett Band. I came to the gig not knowing a single note of their music, but knowing they are hugely respected. And it's immediately obvious why, because they are simply four phenomenal musicians. Literally, the jaw-dropping, "How can they even do that?" kind of musicians.

It's hard to talk about the music after just a single listen. Bizarrely, I got a Zombies vibe from the first song, but that was soon forgotten as they moved into ever-more complex instrumental territory (and I'm sure next time I hear the song I'll have no idea why I thought that). In the moodier moments, I thought of early Marillion. But the biggest feeling I got was Focus, and not for the obvious (John Hackett's flute) reason, but in the busy bass lines and jazzy guitar melodies, and the way they can twist a song structure in insane directions and still make it something you want to dance to. There are songs, but the majority of the two-hour set is instrumental, and it's hard to know how much is improvised but they all feel like tightly controlled and focused compositions.

When they play, they all look so serious, even grim, and I think it's just because of the intense concentration they need to carry off this level of musical complexity, because in their jokey between-song banter they're anything but serious.

All this gives completely the wrong idea of what they sound like. Short summary: phenomenal band. That's all.