Blackheart Gig Review 2

With a new album out later this year (hopefully late September/October) Chrissy Mostyn and Richard Pilkington, otherwise known as the British duo Blackheart made a welcome return to The Beehive in Swindon on the 3rd of September. A lively and extremely enthusiastic crowd braved the damp and rather windy weather to see the duo, giving the gig plenty of atmosphere and excitement.

Blackheart performed songs from their current album – Indigo, as well as new songs just written, whilst on tour in Ireland, and songs from their forthcoming album. Chrissy Mostyn’s voice is soft and gentle yet when she wants to she can belt out a song and give it plenty of power and rich emotion. Richard is an excellent guitar player and showed off his skills on several occasions throughout the night to rapturous applause from the audience. On one occasion Richard did a solo instrumental number, which had the audience going wild – clapping loudly and stamping their feet in time to the music. It was absolutely brilliant.

Blackheart performed a wonderful version of the title track of their current album Indigo as well as a highly charged performance of Unlike Water also off their current album. This song has some wonderful harmonising it in between Chrissy and Richard. In-between the songs Chrissy and Richard took it in turns to explain why the songs were written and the inspiration behind the lyrics. Although many of their songs are written about sad often depressing issues like bereavement and suicide they still seem to be uplifting and full of hope. The duo sang a new song about someone who had tried to end their life as well as a song written about their time in Ireland.

Chrissy and Richard performed a song written to mark the sad death of Chrissy’s niece. This was a beautiful tribute and a real tear jerker. They also performed a song, which has been specially written for a tour they are appearing on as special guests of Jared Osmond of the Osmond family. This is clearly something they are looking forward to. Several other new songs touched on the subject of faith in one way or another. The forthcoming album looks to be a big hit and a sure fire winner if these new songs are anything to go by.

The duo performed rousing versions of favourites like Wonderland and 0204, written about the duo’s home towns as well as a memorable performance to finish off the evening of 94 years – a song written about the passing of Richard’s father.
Overall this was an entertaining and highly charged evening of good quality music that saw Chrissy and Richard at their very best. It was just a shame that the evening had to come to an end as the audience would have loved to hear a few more hours of songs from the duo.