Pierce Turner at Hooves and Grooves Festival

Turner is on a bit of a roll these days, his John Creedon-fuelled radio hit ‘Busy Man’ helping consolidate a high-profile fanbase that now boasts Jim Sheridan and Brian Kerr among others. So no surprise that fans came from as far off as Belfast for Turner’s latest visit to his home town.

One of the attractions of a Turner gig is its complete unpredictability, not least in the line-up department. This time he appeared with a string quartet, a sprinkling of keyboards, backing tapes and his various guitars, for a gig that was more restrained than usual. But that fresh approach brought out a beguilingly sombre version of ‘Thunderstorm’, while the more upbeat ‘Wednesday’ proved to be a fine example of Celtic soul. Hardened fans were equally sated with heartfelt versions of such regular favourites as ‘What About The Five Day Week’, ‘Musha God Help Her’, ‘Manana In Manhattan’, ‘Life In A Day’, a sublime re-interpretation of Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’ and a highly-charged ‘All Messed Up’, while ‘I Wish That I Could See’ was quite extraordinary in its emotional intensity. The psychedically-tinged ‘Oh Ireland’ featured some handsome guitar figures.

And anyone who can get an audience up dancing to a string quartet playing his own song ‘Moonbeam Josephine’ or a re-working of ‘Band Of Gold’ has a very special talent indeed.