Erja Lyytinen & Ashley Sherlock

Mark Lear
Apr 12
7 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool - Now I could easily be forgiven for thinking that I’d been in some kind of time warp for the past twelve months because it was 364 days ago that I entered the exact same venue, for the exact same Headliner and with the exact same Support - that wasn’t billed then and wasn’t again tonight either. If Bobby Ewing walks out of my shower when I get back to my hotel later, I will seriously begin to wonder what the hell is going on ! !

Cue everyone under forty-five googling Bobby Ewing ! !

Anyway, on a very pleasant Spring night in the middle of April it’s time for my annual trip to the seaside for a bit of blues rock that comes all the way from Finland. Twelve months ago, Erya Lyytinen and her motley crew rode into town and rocked the living daylights out of the place, and the smart money says she’s going to do the same thing again. Support comes (again) from Ashley Sherlock.

I’m in serious danger of repeating myself, but for the uninitiated that haven’t yet sampled the musical wonder that is the Waterloo Music Bar, it’s a big, old pub from years gone by, ‘converted’ into a different kind of music venue from those on the Promenade, with a raised stage at one end and one almighty mother of a mixing desk at the other, the size of which is bigger than some of the rooms in many a guest house in these parts - 48 channels mono and 40 stereo, if you’re into that sort of thing, seven foot of loveliness and the ultimate Fisher Price Activity Centre with the thick end of a 1,000 knobs and sliders, I kid you not kind people.

Every inch of the walls and ceiling are covered in memorabilia from bands that have played there and many more that haven’t. Guitars and other instruments also adorn the walls and drums that have seen better days have been de-skinned and now act as lampshades over the bar. Bass drums have been upended and had a slab of timber fitted to it to act as a table, as have a few oil drums. Oh, and there’s a 1960’s style Mini that’s gate-crashed the place and teeters directly over the doorway. There’s a fair few tribute acts that grace the stage during the week, but this is Blackpool after all and it’s to be expected - if ‘tributes’ draw the punters in and they drink lots of beer, you can’t really argue.

Tonight though, it’s the genuine article that’s on offer. Freddie Mercury and Pink fans will have to wait their turn or head off to the North Pier.

Ashley Sherlock – So, Sherlock is the Support once more, only this time, he has a wing man. Last year said wing man (or it could have been another, for all we know) couldn’t get time off work leaving said Sherlock to go solo and right royally sh*t himself (his own words, I tell you). No such work related issues tonight and so the two-some regale us with songs and stories old and new.

Much of it is new however, as Sherlock tells us that the second album is written and they’re playing much of it for us tonight. There’s no release date as yet, but they’re being given hell by the record company so expect something soon – maybe… or maybe not, as the front page of his website advertises his ‘new album’ - but as way of me providing a public service, I’ll be the one to tell you that the website is a couple of years out of date and ‘Just a Name’ isn’t the new album as it’s from 2023.

Anyway, semantics…

Now, there isn’t too much more I can tell you about the gig really as it was ploughed through in rapid fashion with not much in between and with no assemblance to what the set list said it should be. Song three was about a German girl he used to date. ‘Layla’ was thrown in at the last minute as Sherlock saw Mark Knopfler play it with Eric Clapton and thought “f*ck it, well play that” and Nick (said wing man) had to learn it pretty sharpish, and despite the setlist saying the last tune would be ‘Fine’, it wasn’t. Sherlock finished with ‘Dear Elizabeth’ and headed off to the Merch Table for some schmoozing and a neat line in sales patter – maybe ?

30 minutes. Game Over. Insert Coin ! !

Ashley Sherlock Set List (But it Wasn’t !)

Time
Sorry Hotel
Would It Be
Snakes
Down
TTSK
Layla
Dear Elizabeth
Fine

So, time for a quick slurp or two before a bit of Finnish delight.

Erja Lyytinen - Our girl from Kuopio in Finnish Lakeland has been quite busy since we last saw her, which is no surprise as she’s certainly no slouch with twelve studio albums and four live ones to her name, but it’s the fruits of her latest labours, ‘Smell the Roses’, that we’re here to witness tonight.

Lyytinen is backed tonight by Heikki Saarenkunnas on Bass, as per usual, but she has a new drummer on show tonight, and seeing the delights of the British Seaside for the first time is Jesse Lehto, and with both of them in place and ready to go…

We wait and wait and wait a little longer. Is our lady having her fortune told on the Promenade or is she besotted by the many games of bingo that are on offer, as she’s desperate for a cuddly elephant to take back home as a souvenir. Whatever it was, it seemed like a lifetime, but before you know it, she arrives on stage, all smiles as if nothing had happened, guitar at the ready and an attitude that says, “Remember me, I’m back” ! And so she was with an opening tune that set the tone for the rest of the night. ‘Ball and Chain’ was a bouncing tune that got you right into the middle of the action whether you wanted to be or not.

‘Wings to Fly’ quickly followed with barely enough time to take a breath in between. Only then does she take a breath and tells us “It’s her second time in Blackpool” and “she went to the beach again but didn’t see any fishermen this time”. Ahh, Erja, if it’s fishermen you want you need to head seven miles North to Fleetwood and even then, you’ll need to get the timing right. Gone are the days when it was a bustling fishing port.

Anyway, I digress. Banter over and a quick change of guitar sees us ‘Going to Hell’ with a monumental solo in the middle of it that shows just how much Lyytinen can actually play, and then into the ‘Abyss’, which Lyytinen tells us is the longest song on the album “and it’s going to be a loud one - can we live with it?” she asks. It’s a powerful haunting song with darkness running through it, and a few reggae overtones until the main hook kicks in and confirms that it’s very much a blues / rock tune with a bass line that booms throughout, two guitar solos - just for good measure - and then a crescendo of drums and cymbals to finish it all off. It’s one powerful track, that’s for certain.

With a quick break for a breather, Lyytinen gives out the instruction “Smell the Roses my bitches”, which isn’t that offensive when you know it’s the title track off the album. It starts with a punchy drum beat, which gives her chance to ask for handclaps in the air which Blackpool duly delivers. It’s a much ‘heavier’ song than she normally delivers but so are all the tracks if truth be known, and it shows that she’s not scared to take risks and veer off track a little, every now and then. When you’re a dozen albums in, you have to mix it up a little and this is a good departure as she can certainly carry it off.

The law dictates that all albums must have at least one ballad and ‘Empty Hours’ is the one that takes things slow and steady for a while – even though there’s Saarenkunnas’ five string bass punching its way around with single, long, lingering notes so deep that you can feel them through the floor, sending a shiver down your spine.

The law also dictates that there’s only one way to come out of it and that’s with a cacophony of sound with plenty of screaming riffs, cymbals ringing out like crazy and bass notes pounding away. The song is Stoney Creek. Lyytinen then gives the instruction “let’s play some blues” and ‘The Ring’ gave drum and bass the chance to play as if there was no tomorrow. They only needed asking once and gave it everything they’d got, much to the pleasure of the crowd, who lapped it up with pleasure.

The last song of the night is an old favourite ‘Wedding Day’ but, again, Lyytinen advises us that” it’s a very long one” and from that moment she holds sway, front and centre, and the dexterous finger picking shows just how good she is, before all hell breaks loose and the lyrics leave you in no doubt that this wasn’t the kind of wedding day you might have been thinking of.

And there we have it. I said at the start that the smart money said she would rock the living daylights out of the place, and true to form she did, and such is the response that she gets from a Blackpool crowd, the smart money says she’ll be back to do it all again next year too.

Here’s hoping.

Erja Lyytinen Setlist (ish)