Nick Lowe delights us at Stroud's Sub Rooms

Woodpeckers returned from her four day Shropshire get-away just in time to head to town for this wonderful music event. Nick Lowe has been a favourite of ours for a long time. I even bought his first single 'So it goes/Heart of the city', one of the first Stiff Records, back in about 1978. He played the B-side tonight for us and I smiled loudly.

He bounded on stage with a big smile and charmed us all evening. He was witty, sensitive, and great company. He played songs from all over his huge repertoire, as well as delicately phrasing 'Alison', an early song he produced for his old friend Elvis Costello, as his departing encore.

He gave us what we wanted with 'I knew the bride when she used to rock n'roll', new songs from his next album, and a wonderful gospel song he specifically wrote for the legendary Mavis Staples called 'Far celestial shore'.

I could rabbit on, but instead I recommend you listen to his music, from solo albums, his days with Dave Edmunds in 'Rockpile', to the later and more sober solo albums recorded with his excellent musician friends starting with 'The Convincer.' From that album he played two songs  starting early in his set with 'Lately I've Let Things Slide', and a little later,  'Let's Stay In and Make Love'. He couldn't not play '(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding', but he didn't need to allude to its current relevance, which felt understood.

I last saw Nick Lowe play nine years ago when he made an appearance at Robyn Hitchcock's 60th birthday bash in London. Tonight Morris Windsor, the drummer of that event, was also in the audience and reminded me that Robyn H. would be playing at Gloucester Guild Hall in a couple of weeks, so I may have to go there for another musical fix. We shall see. At the moment there is plenty of Nick Lowe's terrific music to listen to.