The Samurai Seven and Tom Hingley @ The Point, 06/05/00

This was an interesting night at the Point, when everyone had gone off to the Zodiac, there was an unfamiliar crowd. Initially half of the audience were there to see Tom Hingley (The whisper of 'He used to be in the Inspiral Carpets' was heard many times.) This group consisted mostly of gig goers who were a bit older.. in their thirties. Then the other group were there to see The Samurai Seven, these were a bit younger, mainly in their twenties.

Tom Hingley had a job of trying to show that he is just as good as being a solo artist, as when he was backed by a band. Certainly he showed the power of just a solo voice and an acoustic guitar. Even without the mike you would have heard him from the back of the room. The music was the most important part of his set, he hardly spoken in between the songs.

He was probably one of the strangest support acts to The Samurai Seven. They bounced on stage and after a song, you knew what had been missing, for the period when they were off writing new songs. What was the most likely instruments for the band to introduce to their set? Maracas and hand claps of course. The new songs sound just as you would have predicted, the high Beach-Boys styled harmonies, and those guitar chords. Add to that all the synchronised jumping and posing. The old songs still sound the best, especially Nunnery and Xeroxy Music, but it's only a matter of time until the new songs will become imprinted on our brains too.

Four months was quite a long time. Let's hope the Samurai Seven, and Tom Hingley too, won't be away from Oxford for as long again.