Great hometown welcome for Newbury singer songwriter on debut album tour

Joe Hicks with support Maddie Ashman at Arlington Arts on Saturday, November 26. Review by BRIAN HARRINGTON

Maddie Ashman is a young multi-instrumentalist who is breaking musical stereotypes by placing the cello front and centre of her contemporary folk/pop compositions. She uses looping to create a multi-layered sound to great effect. This fresh and unique approach, combined with her excellent, ethereal vocals have brought her considerable success, like a spot of the Rise stage at Henley Festival and a finalist spot in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge competition. She was also selected as a Britten Pears young artist for 2020/2021.

She opened her 30-minute set with On My Mind and Coming Home With Roses from her latest EP Apparently, which was released in May. I was particularly impressed by her final track 6AM from the same EP.

Joe Hicks came on stage to a hugely enthusiastic reception from the packed audience, who ranged in age from pre-teens to pensioners and graciously thanked everyone for a sold-out show.

He is very much a musician who appreciates his followers and his setlist tonight was further evidence of this, providing a generous mix of new tracks from his recent album The Best I Could Do at the Time, along with established favourites such as Cold, in which he invited (and was loudly answered) the audience to be a parliament of owls in the chorus.

I have seen Joe several times now and he seems to go from strength to strength as a performer. Tonight was a full electric band show as a five-piece, with the exception of Pieces, which Joe played as a solo acoustic number.

The set included Hand in Hand, a tale of unrequited love, the poignant Rest Your Head, which he dedicated to all those struggling with mental health issues, and the excellent Make It Home.

Mirror Mirror, Joe’s latest single, closed the main set before a hotly demanded encore of Talk to Me and Burning sent the capacity audience home happy.

Joe undoubtedly has a way of creating catchy tracks and connecting with his audience.