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Gig - John Crampton
I’ve seen John Crampton at the Lansdown before. He’s
brilliant. He sings, in his words, ‘a mixture of uptempo
bluegrass, blues and country songs, most of which are self-penned’.
He has one of those gravelly American singing voices when
he sings, but a soft southern English accent talking on the
phone. I ask him about the transformation. “It’s
something which happens to me when I sing the Blues,”
he says. “I sing in a growling Americanised voice. It’s
a persona that I dip into when I’m playing. I dip out
of it when I stop.”
Crampton plays slide guitar, harmonica, and stomp-box. It’s
quite amazing that one man can make so much noise. Is it fair
to call him a one-man band? “I suppose you could. A
lot of people do. Not quite in the Don Partridge way. I haven’t
got a bass drum and high-hat”. John started out with
his band Woody and the Splinters in the late seventies. “Then
I broke my arm trying to gatecrash a party through a first
floor window, and couldn’t play guitar any more for
a bit.” After a brief spell with the legendary but short-lived
skiffle band Daddy Yum Yum, John drifted out of the music
scene. Until about ten years ago, when he decided to start
gigging again, and to go it alone. “It’s better
like that, you don’t argue with anyone,” he says.
He loves playing the Lansdown. “It’s a really
good atmosphere, and a really responsive audience.”
Especially one member. “There’s this fellow comes
and sees a lot of my gigs. An extraordinary dancer.”
IDM, take a bow. See you there? DL |
