Dan Reed

Borderline, London

Years after he gave up rock and roll and all its trappings and slipped quietly away to travel Tibet, India and Israel and perhaps find himself, Dan Reed is back on a London stage. His former band - Dan Reed Network - are evident only in the songs he plays; tonight he's quite alone, shaven-headed and he's only an acoustic guitar with which to revive the capacity crowd's memories. It's hard to judge whether he's suffering with nerves or not, but when the audience offer their own lusty take on his opener, Long Way To Go (which he dedicates to Barrack Obama), he looks as though he can't decide whether to react with astonished laughter or tears of joy. Reed, by his own admission, hadn't thought about music for a long time when solitude and $60 acoustic guitar made him think again. It's a tribute to his song writing skills that the music he created in that period sounds as enigmatic and compelling as the classic Network material (Stronger Than Steel, Ritual, Rainbow Child) that brings the Borderline crowd roaring into life. His entranced happiness is infectious and the beaming audience wait patiently post-show to meet him as he starts his long journey back one step at a time.