live review
Darren Poyzer - Interactive (Live Gig)
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"What promised to be a top pop acoustic occasion last night at The Witchwood certainly was. Featuring songs from the acclaimed live album 'Global', Darren Poyzer treated us to his opening set of 'Best Friend', 'Beautiful Addiction', 'Eye Of The Hurricane' and "another I don’t play very often" 'The Correct Medication'.

Sadly, others who’d hoped to play on the night couldn’t make the event but we got more Darren solo than we’d seen for a long time and that’s no bad thing. Then followed 'Simple Boy', and from the next album in the pipeline 'Brilliant words'. Indeed!

There was a short break before Eliza P took to the stage, vibrant and breathtaking. No one would have guessed she was suffering from the throat problems she told us about. Her voice held true all night, clear and refreshing. Right away she had an amazingly relaxed rapport with the audience, chatting and punctuating the songs with amusing anecdotes. The highlights for me were the hilarious 'Percy Brown', all about nosy neighbours, requiring just a little audience participation and 'Negative thinking'. Eliza performed with terrific confidence, seemingly lacking any inhibitions. Catch her at New Mills Town Hall on Fri April 25th if you possibly can.

Hardly time to draw breath before Darren took to the stage again. He’d brought along his audience interactive toy, a nifty little projector with the Poyzer.com screensaver. The idea for the 2nd set was for audience members to choose a category of song and from that to select an icon which would lead to a track that Darren would then play, accompanied by a rolling montage of clips and images. So, no one, not even Darren knew what was coming next. The songs we chose were 'Substitute For Homesick Blues', 'Someone for me', 'From The Beaches Of Ibiza To The Shores Of Vietnam" (much appreciated by the audience) and 'Sunday Morning Footballer'.

We were getting the hang of it by this stage and managed to suss out the correct clues for 'Over The Moon' and 'Julie Rainbow', belted out with such energy and enthusiasm. The best I’ve heard yet.

Darren had advised us earlier that one of the songs, and it was up to us to find out which, didn’t have a moving sequence with it. Whoever requested the song would win a copy of the re-mixed live disc 'Global'. Well done Geoff who chose 'Rewarded for Violence'. 'Brand New Rock And Roll' and 'Any Other Day Street' followed then came the encore with 'Cartoons In Wartime' from the back catalogue and for a final, final encore the much requested 'Cuckoo', Nice one Rona!

Great to see familiar faces. Thanks for a great celebratory night Darren and Eliza."

By Maggie Hornby, 6th April 2003