This whole ‘Machine’ that we get wrapped up when we get involved with music is often beauty and beast in the same movement, two sides of a one sided coin…

It’s been a lot of years since I last saw Dan Reed, around 18 I think (Rolling Stones Tour ‘91). I had seen the ‘Network’ play stand alone shows and as support to Jovi, Bowie and The Stones; they almost became the resident house band with some acts at one point, and it seemed like everyone wanted the ‘Network’ to open their show… Then it all seemed to stop, this was pre-net days, so when a band disappeared, they really did… But when I read he was playing an acoustic show 10 miles down the road I had to get my arse down there…

We get into the Roman city around 7pm and when we get to the venue we hook up with Dan for a chat for radio about where, what, why and when. I’m amazed at the fact that he remembers we had met before, I am also amazed that after all he has been through he is still here to tell his story!

Dan talks about growing up, listening to Van Halen, making records with Bruce Fairburn, touring the world, playing with The Stones, leaving music, opening a nightclub, getting high, getting wasted, his fathers death, getting straight, making movies, moving to Jerusalem, rediscovering his talent, getting back into the studio to record new music and getting back on stage to play it… this is after all ‘What he does’… It’s a fascinating insight into a life of a rising star that somehow got dimmed too soon, but his music shines on like a beacon and now stands out like a diamond in a bucket of shit!

Dan Reed just ambles onto stage, one man, one guitar, a storyteller personified, it becomes obvious from the moment he begins that this is no ‘ordinary’ singer songwriter, what we have here is a smooth vocal wrapped around meaningful, heartfelt, sincere backdrops of emotion and melody…

Dan plays songs both old and new, of the new ‘Coming Up For Air’, ‘Promised Land’ and ‘Brave New World’ are a joy to behold; the kind of songs that you used to hear on the radio all them years ago, like a combination of James Taylor, Bon Jovi and Prince, the fact that they are modern subjects and strong lyrics make the songs brand new, yet you feel like you already know them. This is a trick of true talent and one that can’t be learned, it’s a gift…

The ‘old songs’ get an airing too, passionate and heartfelt versions of both ‘Lover’ and ‘Ritual.’ Then an impressive one man take on ‘Rainbow Child’ and a traffic-stopping ‘Long Way To Go’, songs that prove just how good the (Dan Reed) Network really were; lost friends, songs that made you sing, dance, fall in love and cry. They remind all why they loved music in the first place. Dan isn’t making to many new waves tonight, he’s preaching to the converted, but like lost children they are so happy to be back in his church…