Monday Dec 17 REVIEW DRUNK IN PUBLIC AT THE PALACE T`was on a very fresh & frosty Friday when the award winning members of the Levellers jumped into a mercedes tourer armed with an acoustic parade and made the journey from their hometown of Brighton to the marvellous market town we like to call Tamworth. The Palace Venue and Tinternet Radio Presenter Roy Sandbrook set the stage with festive decorative mic stands and a wonderfull christmas tree perched on the drum podium as this was to be an acoustic evening without drums. 4pm on Friday 14th December members of the Levellers` Mark Chadwick, Simon Friend, Jon Sevink with Rev Hammer and Dan Donnelly all stepped out of their tourer in Las Vegas style Tuxedos and walked across the Globe car park to the stage door of the Palace Venue. Any worthy Tamworthian passing by could have easily mistaken this sight as a photo shoot for the front of a well known Beatles album. After many hand shakes and greetings welcoming the Levs team to Tamworth, it was time for Jason the tour manager to prepare for sound checks. 5pm Sound checks all go very well for the artists including Carousel Circus who can be seen sound checking with a subtle glint in their eyes. Back stage, the demands of the evenings performance are spelled out by Jason the tour manager with plenty of drinks to be provided for the show. Open the back stage fridge 1 hour later to find 8 bottles of Jagermeister, 12 bottles of Beautiful Daze Ale, 2 bottles of Vodka with Cranberry juice and a tab for the main bar. 7pm The Palace Venue main stage is Live with the early doors support, Carousel Circus strumming the ballads and looking relaxed. Songs from Russian no.1 sounding better live, giving Craig Gould the opportunity to stretch his vocal talents in front of a brand new audience. 8pm Singer Songwriter Irish New Yorker Dan Donnelly takes centre stage dressed in a tux with glittery top hat and white trainers? Dan has many mysterious stories hidden in the words to his songs. The Beach is a wonderful ballad taken from his new release Yearning A Living. Dan chats and jokes in great confidence with the crowd before launching into a couple of cover songs including Thin Lizzy 1976 hit The Boys are Back In Town and The Sex Pistols 76 Anthem Anarchy in the UK. This works well with his trickery of reverbing an acoustic guitar. Great Sound. 9:30pm Presenter Roy Sandbrook takes to the stage to introduce the headliners. Roy introduces the band to the sell out crowd as the best feel good act in the world ever. This is in light of the Levellers winning their 2007 award with Virtual Festivals. Mark, Simon , Jon and Rev Hammer grace the Palace stage in Tux atire and greet the Tamworth Massive to a rapturous applause. The Festive evening is in full motion with Drunk In Public performing one great Levellers song after another including.. One Way, Just The One, 15 Years, Carry Me, Confess, Beautiful Day, Riverflow and Rev Hammer`s Anthemic River O Joe. The Levellers have written hundreds of songs and too many hits to mention complimenting 20 years in the music industry. The 10th Studio Album is now in production offering a free download single in early 2008. The Introduction to the second Encore is met with Presenter Roy taking to Mark Chadwicks seat to ask the crowd if they would either prefer to listen to his little ditty on Mark`s Guitar or invite the band back on. The crowd laugh and cheer when Mark approaches Roy for his guitar back to continue. Two Amazing Encores later, the Tamworth revellers showed more of their appreciation when hearing Mark Chadwick mention a possibilty of coming back again another time. 11:45pm Curfew The Levellers approved of the Palace Venue, The crowd in the Palace Venue totally loved The Levellers. Merry Christmas and see you at the next gig! RichyB Tamworth.

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