Reviews
- Lesley-Ann Jones - author, journalist and broadcaster
BLUE SKY FALLING at the Old Thatched Barn, Falmer Court, Brighton, Friday 24th April 2026
To fans of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel and the Steve Harley Band, Barry Wickens requires no introduction. The faithful flocked south in pursuit of him last night, some from as far away as Pembrokeshire - undertaking an almost 600-mile round trip to re-live the magic.
I doubt that they expected a Harley love-in. Steve's death two years ago brought down a curtain, but it also raised a blind. A gifted multi-instrumentalist and composer such as Barry will never lie dormant for long. It's just a question of flexing fingers and biding time - time, that tosses cards into the air and awaits an appropriate landing.
Fittingly, it was a cousin of Steve's who made the introduction: to singer-songwriter and 12-string guitarist Stewart Gray, a stalwart of Brighton music. This imaginative songwriter and multi-band member had been waiting for his moment to arrive too ... as had Del Hallett, a singer who first took to the mic in his mother's Brighton pub. Falling for the strange other-realm of the music scene, he launched Vibe Promotions to support original artists, stretched his cords with a string of cover bands, sang BVs with Glenn Tilbrook and others, and remains an enthusiastic supporter of new talent.
Thus, Blue Sky Falling. I pondered the band name, recalling a little book my mother used to read to me in childhood. I now understand 'Chicken Little' to have been about false belief causing unnecessary alarm. That bright blue sky represented a safe and stable world. The fear of it falling foreshadowed traumatic change.
We can look at it another way. If the sky is coming closer, we might think ourselves into a state of ascension, freedom, a new dawn.
And that's what I felt last night, watching these exceptional, gifted, enthusiastic musicians play: songs from their debut album Last Chance Saloon, as well as thrilling numbers from the next. Enjoying their chemistry, their tightness, their lightness, Barry's fabled virtuosity, Del's appealing bashfulness, the trio's raw, masculine harmonies, and Stewart's staggering command of storytelling in songs constructed with wit and grit, cynicism, scorn and, yes, deep love. There is quirk and weirdness in sit-up measure. An alertness to non-conformity, and to the panic, doom and catastrophe it often brings. There are moreish, eccentric characters who dwell outside the norm (is there such a thing? The songwriting suggests the question), and a panoramic frontier-boundness that prompts the listener to reach in his mind for bigger skies. Perhaps that is what is really meant by 'Americana'.
There is an unmistakable flavour of the old Wild West, experienced by most of us via television in childhood. There is the America many of us fell for when that land of abundance, wealth and opportunity felt so far away. The dream is now scrapped, reduced to the rubble of nostalgia for a place and a dream that no longer exist. In Wales, we call the phenomenon 'hiraeth'. It doesn't quell the longing.
Blue Sky Falling is a perfect distillation of musicians simply doing what they do, and loving it. Expressing collective dreams and personal preoccupation. Communicating in fundamental ways. It was my pleasure to reconnect with Barry (my oldest friend in the music business, though dear Steve always laid claim to that!) and to get to know Stewart and Del in an on-camera interview ahead of the gig. My job has never been boring. Never less so.
More live shows to come this summer. Go here: https://blueskyfalling.co.uk