Sheytoons at the Dublin Castle

A while back I got a message from a friend asking if I was free Easter weekend and did I fancy going to London. I said yes...then asked what we'd be doing! So I found myself spending Easter Sunday at a Sheytoons gig, a band that I hadn't heard of until we started planning this little adventure; although in my defence they are relatively new having started out last summer.

Sheytoons are an indie folk-rock band fronted by Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser. Any musical theatre fan like me will be familiar with the amazingly talented Ramin Karimloo who is currently playing the Phantom in Love Never Dies. I was pretty sure that in his capable hands I was in for a good night (my YouTube stalking backed this up) and I was quite excited about seeing him live for the first time - he did not disappoint. What did disappoint however was that a large proportion of the audience were quite obviously there just to see him and many (but not all) didn't give the support band, Dharma Sunset, the attention or encouragement they deserved. I really liked the set performed by this duo, made up of James Mackintosh and Joel Tudor-Owen, and I was quite surprised to read on their Facebook page after seeing them at the Dublin Castle that they were only formed in January this year. I thought they were a perfect choice to support Sheytoons and they definately desereved a better reception than they received.

As I've said, I was expecting great things of Ramin Karimloo and he completely lived up to my expectations. His solo, Lonely, was one of my favourite songs of the night and some lovely person has uploaded a video of it to YouTube so you can check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iJeGxGDE0I&feature=related
Although award for favourite song of the night has to go to Steal Our Moments, which unfortunately I can't find a recording of from Sunday night on youtube but you can hear a version of it and many other Sheytoons songs on the official Sheytoons YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialSheytoons

So Ramin Karimloo was the known quantity to me and Hadley Fraser the more unknown, or so I thought. It turns out I've actually seen Hadley live before! I had no idea until we briefly spoke to him after the gig and he mentioned that he'd been in panto in Cardiff. He played the prince in one of the productions of Cinderella that made up my pantofest at the beginning of this year and I just hadn't associated the two (Hadley if you ever end up reading this I'm REALLY sorry!). It's had me baffled ever since as to why his perfromance in Cinderella didn't make more of an impact on me. I can only put it down to the fact that Brian Conley as Buttons didn't so much steal the show as take it over. However, Hadley very much made an impression on me Sunday night. Not only does he have a voice that I could listen to forever but he has a wonderful stage presence that, coupled with the fantastic relationship and banter between him and Ramin, made for a fun night filled with laughs as well as fantastic music.

The line-up for this gig was completed by Tom Deering on keyboard, Nick Pini on bass, Ruth Irons on Violin/Viola, Roy Pfeffer on drums and Rosalie Craig on backing vocals. If you'd like to know more about Sheytoons check out their website:
http://sheytoons.com/