Gareth Dickson

Having taken the boat from Sligo to Dublin last Friday night to catch what I could of the Homelights festival curated by Adrian Crowley and featuring performances from Katell Keineg, James Yorkston and others, I left the show wondering just who the fuck Gareth Dickson was. Imagine my scepticism as his gangly frame lurched toward the stage upstairs in Whelan's, guitar in hand half way through what was ostensibly an Adrian Crowley inspired folk music love in.
And yet......two songs later and I turned to the person next to me asking who the hell he was ('Gary something. Not sure.') Onstage he cuts a Nick Drake-like dash, sporting a Kevin Shields' fringe. In many ways he ploughs the same hypnotic furrow as Chequerboard (but with vocals), and he plays a wonderfully brief but intense set complete with two impeccable covers of the aforementioned Nick Drake.