The February Culture Review

Once a month, we bring together reviews of Medway’s cultural highlights in a single round-up, produced specifically for our paid supporters. This month, we live music, theatre, and food from across our towns...

European Sun + South Shore + Caleb Nichols
Oast Community Centre, Rainham, 31 Jan

With dry January well and truly behind them, an expectant crowd returned to The Oast to welcome Caleb Nichols back to its stage. He opened with a poem, the first indicator of a magpie mind who collects language from multiple sources and scatters his treasures throughout his lyrics. We have borrowings from Welsh, and an explanation of why the more poetic 'Car Park' has been favoured for a song title over the prosaic 'parking lot.' With light, agile vocals and delicate picking on the acoustic guitar, he starts off gently with 'Hag Stone,' but the travelling players forming his backing band tonight are determined to push him from alt folk towards full-on rocking out. The final song of the set, 'Awooo!', shows that Nichols’  subtle yet powerful voice is comfortably adaptable to this punk-pop direction.