Well Sondre Lerche was pretty impressive last night. As he is virtually unknown in the UK, this was something of a toe in the water type affair, so we did not get the chance to hear him playing with a band. No matter, Sondre and his gorgeous Gretsch guitar gave us plenty to enjoy. The first surprise of the evening came when Sondre explained in perfect English (as we now expect from all Scandinavians) that his surname in pronounced Ler-Kay, apparently even the Norwegians have difficulty getting his name right.

With his floppy fringe, jazz tinged vocals and the aforementioned Gretsch, the obvious comparison was with a youthful Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera fame. That however could be his problem, whilst many of us of a certain age are suckers for the sort of wonderful guitar pop, which the likes of Postcard Records pushed our way in the early 80’s, to others it could sound rather dated.

Hopefully the infectious quality of his songs will be enough to bring him a larger audience in the UK. Last night he treated us to the best tracks from the two albums he has released so far plus one exquisite unreleased song. The only awkward part of the evening for us, was trying to make sure that the rather over enthusiastic middle aged Norwegian gentlemen standing next to us, did not step on our toes or crash into us too many times as he bounced around during the gig. We escaped without injury but sadly as soon as Sondre left the stage our Norwegian friend pounced on him and engaged in some in depth Norwegian chitchat, which ruled out the chance of an encore. We made the short journey back to Bristol, thinking that we may have seen a star in the making.