This is the Nick Holmes Band playing "Thursday," actually on a Thursday at the Kro 2 Bar Manchester UK,
"Happy Van Morrison meets Edie Reader!" Martin Fisher - Subversive UK.
'You Make me Smile' has a lovely, lilting vibe to it. This song wouldn't be out of place on the soundtrack of Notting Hill or Love Actually. It's very uplifting, very positive. I can imagine Hugh Grant skipping down to the cafe to buy his coffee whilst thinking dreamily of Julia Roberts. I like this song!" - Damien Maddison of Maddison.
"A sublime cocktail of jazz and blues with a hint of pop thrown in to the mix for good measure." - Claire Mooney.
"Nick Holmes can turn a cliche into a catch-phrase and a platitude into a stinging sentence that loops around your brain for a decade." - Melvyn Bragg.
The Nick Holmes Band serves a wonderful cocktail of catchy, danceable, acoustic pop rock. This is blended with warm-hearted, though undeniably cool, jazz with just a soupcon of blues.
Their audience are given a brimful cup full of warm, joyful music that makes the heart glow. These guys love to play live and watching their visible fun and enthusiasm as they play is very infectious. Make no mistake, this is a cooking-with-gas LIVE band intent on giving the audience a good time with great songs sung and played with brio, vim and vigour.
Holmes writes joyful, warm-hearted songs about what we love most: our lives and our loves. As one of his lyrics, from "Don't You Take Second Best," a song he wrote for his daughter professes:
"And even the cynical, can't avoid the calling
You'd think they'd run a mile, but they're the first to fall in.
And should you ever find, love leaves you behind
Don't you take second best
And should you lose you way, and love ever gets to fight another day
Don't you take second best, Don't you take second best."
Exquisite, deft touches meld with lulling lyrical simplicity just like the late, and very great poet/songwriter, Jake Thackray, of whom he is an ardent fan. The great thing about Holmes' songs is that, unlike many singer songwriters, he doesn't grizzle. This excerpt is taken from "White Sand." - How does this grab you?
"See the people, with their coffee skin
Not caring about much anything
Beachcombing for their very souls there
Huckleberry Finn-ing as they go there on that White Sand"
While the Nick Holmes Band appeal strongly to younger audiences, it is amazing how many self-assured, well-groomed, confident women of "a certain age," attend Nick Holmes Band gigs. There is something in the combination of well-written lyrics, deftly written tunes played with gusto and talent that appeals to women who want it all - Alpha females flock to this guy.
Holmes looks happy and at ease with his audience. In a post modern age he is a silverback troubadour with love and fire in his heart and soul; "bien dans sa peau.*"
"* happy in his skin."And talking of people who are happy in their skin, here is a master of the craft of songwriting, Mr Burt Bacharach, singing the wonderful, and grown up song, "Alfie," in a rather wonderful and grown up fashion: