 | | Willy Mason |
But then, if you have songs as strong as his and the kind of singing voice that drips with lazy emotion, you don’t really need to say anything as the music does it all for you. Besides, the crowd were vocal enough. Every song from Mason’s debut album received a word for word sing-along, while the new tunes, especially the shoe-shuffling Riptide, were met with whoops and cheers. Indeed, such was the assembled’s involvement that on Save Myself, they provided the missing harmonies to the verses. Mason’s magic comes from his ability to mess with his own tunes, showcased most pointedly in two of his best known tunes, as Where The Humans Eat was given a butched up make-over from its recorded version, while new single We Can Be Strong was cut to half speed, releasing it from its pop confines and growing it into a brooding wonder. Inevitably, though, it was the ever-amazing Oxygen that stole the show, Willy holding the crowd spellbound with a solo acoustic rendition that showed just why he’s such an important artist. With a throwabout finale that saw grins, bird whistles and Willy’s trademark cap fly off, he was gone, only to turn on his heels and approach the microphone. For a moment, there was a chance that we’d get a few words, but the power had already been cut. A wave would have to suffice and rightly so. After all, the sound engineer had simply rendered him exactly the same as he had left his adoring audience… utterly speechless. | 
