The Levellers at Beverley Leisure Centre, Friday 18th June By Steve Rudd

Spearheading the 21st celebrations of Beverley's mighty Folk Festival, I'll be honest - it took me a while to grasp the fact that The Levellers were actually in the centre and ready to play out their hearts, all-acoustically and in high spirits.

In support, a couple of Australian guys by the names of Derrin Nauendorf and David Downing treated us to their musical expertise. Magically mixing the loudest and proudest Electro-Acoustic guitar strains imaginable, some passionately sung vocals and intense drum beats, these two guys were fresh from dates in Singapore, and though I've never before heard of them, they proved to be hugely popular with the massive crowd packed into the Leisure Centre - and a perfect support for The Levellers.

This was the third time that Brighton lads The Levellers had played in the Yorkshire area in the past six months, and of the five times that I've seen them play in total, this was the first time I'd ever seen them in a purely acoustic set-up. They now play with a keyboardist in tow called Matt Savage who's fitted into proceedings perfectly, as they broke into The Road… an ode to the band's time spent running up and down the country to play gigs.

Because their 105-minute-long set was acoustic-based (even if all band members were still present, and bassist Jez Cunningham and drum-beater Charlie Heather were still doing what they do best), many of the songs played differed to the ones that they play in their normal acoustic-meets-electric gigs.

Songs such as Is This Art?, the dead dark 61 Minutes of Pleading and Elation were prime examples (none of which I've heard played live before), while the classic anthems that seem to be always played without fail in the glowing form of Beautiful Day, Dirty Davey and One Way took on freshly entrancing lives of their own. For the large part, most of the renditions were sublimely mellow and reflected the chilled out nature of the crowd. You could also tell that all the band members were relaxed, as they joked and smiled throughout the set, with singer/ guitarist frontman Mark Chadwick even going so far as to don a 'joke' hat that a bunch of beered-up lads jovially flung on stage.

The usually rampaging splendour of one of their all-time finest tunes in The Riverflow sounded amazing in its stripped down - but no less intense or affecting - glory, before their encore consisted of four songs that included Just The One and the poignantly motivational Wake The World. Throughout Summer 2004, The Levellers are literally everywhere playing similarly styled acoustic sets at various festivals across the land. Some of the festivals might be small-town folk affairs (such as those in Brampton and Crawley), but then there's the might of the mainstream music festivals such as Glastonbury and GuilFest at which they'll be performing, prior to an acoustic tour in the Autumn. Whether playing acoustically or not, The Levellers are my all-time favourite band and quite possibly the most important UK band ever to emerge when it comes to singing songs that matter and that truly touch the heart and inspire you to be an individualist and to support all manner of good causes. Coupled with their amazing music, the outstanding thing about The Levellers is that they have such great morals and attitudes towards living life and towards others - and they aren't afraid to show it. In short, The Levellers rule.

Links: www.levellers.co.uk www.beverleyfestival.co.uk

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