DE'WAYNE

A handful of people may still remember Lenny Kravitz’s very first concert in our country: it was at the AB, as the support act for Joe Strummer.  Kravitz, therefore, knows better than anyone the value of a helping hand and never misses an opportunity to team up with fresh talent from across the Atlantic. DE’WAYNE (from Houston, Texas) is one such apprentice wizard who, under the wing of the master wizard, has been given the chance to face the European audience. First of all: those must have been lively meetings in the record company’s offices. How on earth do you promote an artist like De’Wayne? A listening session of his latest album “June” (2025, his third LP) certainly caused an awkward Kim Clijsters split among the participants. “Prince!!!” someone shouts.  “No, stadium rock!!” comes the loud retort from across the table!  “Oh come on, don’t be daft, if this isn’t 70s funk rock, then I’m Taylor Swift!”, comes the confident reply. “Well Taylor, can’t you hear the pop-punk sound?  The bloke’s recorded a bloody song with Good Charlotte!”  Boos and protests all round; papers are crumpled up to pelt the other participants with.  That might be because ‘I’ll Be There’ is playing at that moment, funky 80s pop. Someone also brings back memories of the glory days of Living Colour and Mother’s Finest, and so it goes on for a while. Oh, those marketing lads… Stories about De’Wayne’s live performances certainly paint a rosy picture. Many accounts say more or less the same thing: at a De’Wayne concert, after just fifteen minutes, you can practically scoop up the collective admiration from the floor and roll it into your joint. Others speak of a succession of ‘Hallelujah’ moments, and here and there we also hear accounts from female fans, though for the sake of this text, they do veer slightly too much towards the 18+ side. De’Wayne is playing here on Saturday 8 August. The master wizard can be sure of one thing: thanks to the spectacular support act, his audience will be completely wild before he even sets foot on stage.