It had been seven years since I had last seen Newton Faulkner in Ipswich, when he was touring his second album Rebuilt By Humans.

He was a prolific one-man band, using technology to allow him to reproduce all parts of the songs. Since then he has released three further albums including the latest Human Love and become the leader of a three-piece band which includes his multi-instrumentalist brother Toby.

Newton kicked the evening off with a couple of early songs, including To The Light, before being joined on stage by the rest of the band.

Where before there was a loop pedal now there are other voices; this really works for his songs. There is still the technology, including a guitar that has also been made to simulate a cajon which he somehow gets fantastic sounds from. Teardrop was played as a solo acoustic and had the crowd joining in.

You feel a real warmth when he’s talking to the crowd and he engages as much as possible, echoing the sentiment of People Should Smile More; which has a great guitar solo.

Towards the end we got a slowed down version of Dream Catch Me, which saw a sea of raised phones catching the moment for posterity.

It was a great gig and Newton had encouraged a sing-a-long at every opportunity. He’s certainly got a lot more songs to get to know now.

Mark Westall