“I would like to say that the show normally goes a lot more smoothly and professionally than this... but that would be a lie”

So joked the softly-spoken tunesmith Newton Faulkner as he attempted to iron out the kinks in his guitar prior to launching into another song. Such interruptions merely served to augment the friendly atmosphere in the Olympia, and scarcely detracted in any meaningful way whatsoever from what was an intensely impressive performance from the 25 year old Surrey singer-songwriter.

With his unmistakable ginger dreadlocks and beard, unique guitar-playing style and fairly laidback approach, Faulkner cuts an intriguing figure. He also has abundant confidence in his own ability to both hold an audience’s attention and deliver the goods with very little assistance; during the approximately 90-minute set, the bard was joined onstage only twice – once for the support act to provide backing vocals on Let's Get Together, and once for an, ahem, alien to provide comedic interpretive dance in the background during UFO.
 

An honourable mention has to be made for the supporting artist, the precocious Charlotte O’Connor from Blackburn, Lancashire. Appearing like some sort of beautiful-but-nonetheless unholy union between Alanis Morissette, Amy Winehouse and Nina Simone, the 19 year old’s radio-friendly sound also had an air of the Macy Gray about it, via Duffy and Nelly Furtado. Not exactly the most eclectic mix but interesting enough to demand another listen and from a chanteuse of such a young age that’s pretty much all you expect.

Back to the main attraction, and although it seems redundant to say it, Newton Faulkner put in an exceptionally good shift. Pausing occasionally to sip from his cup of tea or muse over the “shelf-like” audience stacking in the venue, there’s no doubting the entrancing effect he had on a particularly rapt crowd. The ‘singalong’ element in the choruses of almost all his songs, but especially She’s Got The Time and Gone In The Morning, helped foster such an atmosphere.

From his best known singles like Dream Catch Me and If This Is It, through sweet ballads like Resin on my Heartstrings and I Took It Out On You, and finishing with the unsurprisingly defiant message of I’m Not Giving Up Yet, Newton Faulkner rarely put a foot wrong.

“I’ve become famous for my somewhat odd covers”, said the man himself, and true enough his renditions of Teardrop, You Spin Me Round and Bohemian Rhapsody went down an absolute storm. “My natural response to serious situations is one of silliness”, he offered as explanation for why, when asked by grave studio execs what material he had in the offing, he played You Spin Me Round.

Vocally capable, technically adept, and with an abundant mastery of the guitar, Faulkner has a rich future ahead of him. Even so, the man is so chilled out that he probably won’t get that flustered no matter what he achieves. Newton Faulkner is going to achieve an awful lot though, and he’s going to do it with consummate ease.

- Sebastian Clare