Rozi Plain

Brilliant! As a post-punk and dream pop fan (Chameleons, Early Bunnymen including the Noel Burke era, The Cocteau Twins....) I am not really into her more sleepy jazz excursions but love it when she does her genre defying hypnotic folk rock, and this live show she pleased both the jazz hipsters and alt-folk rock fans such as myself alike, by getting the balance right between melody and creative weirdness. When she is on top form like this she is an incredibly powerful and strange alien presence as great as any of my post-punk heroes or even Star Man era Bowie, though in an entirely different musical style. You might expect such a talented and glamourous figure to be a bit stuck up but she signed one of her albums for me and was lovely. What is odd is how she can wrench so much mystery and emotion from slow and icy cool songs effortlessly. I would like to thank her and her band for not overwhelming that beautiful guitar lick on "Help" with that squelchy synth. Also she sang it with deep and mournful mystery and gravitas rather than the breezy and lightweight versions, which showed this song for the absolute heart wrenching masterpiece it really is. Also "Prove Your Good" live was an incredible revelation, she became an unmatchable goddess by that stage in what was already a great show. After seeing two of my other favourite artists (The Chameleons and Rachael Dadd) I thought there was no way she and her band were going to equal let alone surpass their brilliance, because she can chill out to the point of comatose, but she proved me wrong. She is a great artist, and I think we are incredibly lucky to see her in small venues such as The Railway Inn, Winchesters greatest treasure.