Keep Music Live

A recent visit to my daughter's provided me with a fine opportunity to sample the delights of live music a la local pub. Monday night's aren't traditionally the busiest in any pub's week, and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've been in a pub on that particular day of the week.

However, last night Barbara encouraged us to visit her local hostelry to listen to one of the many acts the landlord at Ye Olde Fleece Inn has booked to liven up this otherwise quiet spot in the week.

David Finney is a solo performer who mixes solid, gutsy vocals with a spot of acoustic guitar playing. His repertoire of covers spans the last three decades or so, and a pretty fine stab he made at them all, too - whether that be Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl or a particularly effective Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), popularised by the inimitable Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel.

What set Finney apart from the crowd, however, was one of his own works, Burn Out or Fade Away. Written from the standpoint of someone who has just turned thirty, the song charts their thoughts about the choices that lie ahead, and their determination to live passionately and burn out rather than just fade away into the background. Hearing it last night, I couldn't help wonder why it hasn't been covered by someone else, so powerful was its sentiment and the depth of its emotion.

David Finney is originally from Nuneaton, but now plies his trade out of Sunderland, and can most probably be caught on the circuit of pubs and clubs in the north east of England. Good luck to him.