Willy Porter - 14/08/2016 - Fulford Vh

Fulford Village Hall was the new, alternative venue for A500 Music as we welcomed back to Stoke-on-Trent, Milwaukee guitar genius Willy Porter.

Flying in for a tour of Ireland, we were delighted to be one of just four extra dates that Willy was able to play in the UK and a full house was assembled in anticipation of another fantastic night's entertainment.

"I love it when people even know any of my songs" said Willy humbly as he opened with a request for 'Moonbeam'. However, slowly but surely, Willy's music is beginning to receive the recognition his talent deserves on this side of the pond and we are grateful and sometimes a little humbled ourselves that we are able to bring musicians of his quality to a small venue in The Potteries.

Playing two sets and digging deep into his back catalogue, Willy delighted us, moved us and made us all laugh with a night of incredible music and fun which will live long in the memory.

Those who have seen Willy before will have been familiar with his party piece, 'The improvisation song' and must have spent some time thinking of topics to flummox the man. However, despite having such diverse subjects thrown at him as Brexit, Fracking, Aluminium, Chocolate, The Chinese building nuclear power stations, not to mention Andrew's seventeen guitars, Willy still managed to piece together a song about everything that was called out…. Just how does he do that?

Dropping a huge hint that he would return in May for a tour to support his new album release, Willy left the stage and Stoke-on-Trent for his Ireland odyssey knowing that he had left behind a whole new group of fans and indeed new friends.