12 May 2005 (gig)
23 May 2005
Having been a big fan of Tom Vek since the release of If You Want - the second track from his debut album We Have Sound - I was pretty nervous about finally seeing him live. And having taken so long to finally pull my finger out, I guess it's fairly apt that the venue was the last gig of his tour at Lock 17 in Camden.
From the pictures and videos that I'd seen of Vek before, I was expecting some deeply shy nerd, chugging out the tunes, lost in his own little world. No problem here (hell, many of us are similarly afflicted!), but free from the NHS prescription specs, his hair grown long, it was a shock to find that Vek, in the flesh, looked more like some 70s rock god, complete with badly applied mascara. His movements on stage were jaunty and fevered, like a mystical shaman. You got the impression he wasn't so much as singing as channelling some Bacchic god of slap base dance.
Stand out tracks for me have to be C-C (You Set The Fire In Me) and A Little Word In Your Ear, although I felt they could have kept more of the album solo in for On The Road.
The only real minus was the crowd. Nearing the end of the gig, Vek called out to the audience to break out of the London stereotype and dance. Sadly, as we jumped up and down in response, we were in the minority with the majority of the crowd just doing little more than nod and jibe their heads occasionally.
By a weird quirk of fate, while we were unable to meet Vek himself, we did have a 10 minute chat to his Dad after the gig. Vek senior was dressed in a long black trench coat, undersized black Stetson and chugging on a big cigar, looking like a hitman from a Sergio Leone western. Hostile costume aside though, the man was all warmth and clearly proud of what his son had achieved. Vek started out at the age of 14 in his Father's blues band, and despite concerns at his chronic shyness, Vek senior says his son took to it like a duck to water. And it shows – the guy is a true genius and well worth checking out this summer is you're lucky enough to have tickets for Glastonbury.
