Pete Krengel, The Labour Rooms - Otley It is rare that you will hear artists hoping that this is the final gig in a series. However Easter Sunday at the Philip Coyne Labour rooms sees the last in a series of gigs to raise money for the Otley Food Bank.

The expressed hope from each of the performers was that the election result on May 7 will mean that there is an end to food banks and a return to a society in which all can feed themselves. So - Yes - there is discontent in the air.

There is anger - but mediated through an understanding that a more caring society is possible, and achievable by the good folk in the rooms this evening.

A very rare appearance by Pete Krengel - he tells us that he hasn’t played live for five years - as the main event has brought out the great and the good of the Otley music scene.

Dave Vermond opens the evening with a protest song of his own. I am a big fan of Mr Vermond. He writes great songs and has a season ticket for Bradford City. What’s not to like.

Setting the tone for the evening he sings: “’e raffled off the headmaster to pay for the new school roof’”. Not a fan of privatisation then Dave. Next up is Nick Hall. One half of Plum Hall (the Plum part of the duo was ill in bed) we get a rare chance to hear Nick solo.

As with Dave Vermond the songs gain an urgency when performed solo.

There is an immediate contact with the lyrics, they do not become lost in the instrumentation.

Not so overtly political Nick makes connection between the songs he shares and wider political issues.

The personal - which is where the songs start - becomes political though Nick’s interpretation and within the specific context the songs are performed in tonight.

Both Dave and Nick reappear in the second half of Pete Krengel’s set acting as a ‘backing band’ they play guitar with Duncan Hall on bass. Appropriately sparse and subdued to allow Pete, and more importantly his songs, to take centre stage. Pete is in the travelling minstrel tradition.

He writes songs because that is how he expresses the world.

And by describing the world he narrates it into being.

The songs appear from beyond left field and a spoken singing style that shouldn’t work but works perfectly, drawing us all into a parallel world which is enticing if a little but scary.

We get the full retrospective including a song he wrote the day before.

This man is an amazing song writer - and a hidden treasure.

No CDs for sale, no bandcamp site - the music just exists in the moment and we leave feeling privileged to have shared it.

by Ant Cotton