Seasick Steve live at Summer Sundae 2010

The stage is empty save for a ratty old chair and a drumkit with ‘Are we having any fun yet’ marked out on the kick in red lights, but the rough house snarl of a blues guitar has begun to roll from the speakers. A few seconds pass, and from stage left a shambling figure of a man moseys out onto centre stage. Steve’s here, and grinning like a madman at the packed field. He’s joined by wildman drummer extraordinaire Dan Magnusson moments later, and the pair crack open their headline Summer Sundae slot with a blazing rendition of Thunderbird.

From then on it’s raw and gutsy country and blues all the way – Steve bounces between shredding the hell out of a series of ratty and homemade guitars, and playing the raconteur, filling in the background to the songs and working the crowd as naturally as if he was chatting over a beer in the bar. Assisted by his bottle of wine, which brings calls of ‘chug, chug’ from the crowd (‘Everythin’ in moderation, dawg’) he crosses the spectrum of his back catalogue before stepping the pace down for the the crowd pleaser ‘Walkin Man’, for which he always pulls a girl from the crowd to sing to. This time she seems more interested in waving at her friends than being serenaded, prompting Steve to deadpan ‘Look over here - I’m singing to you, not them. Do you want me to get another girl?’

Steve has played here at De Montfort Hall before and still remembers the reception he had. He seems genuinely excited to be headlining, but tells us that he worried about the high profile and thought he should maybe get new clothes, a new guitar, some dancing girls, ‘a new stage set and lights like the Muse’.. but then thought ‘naahhh’ and uses this to leap into ‘Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks’ with a vengeance.

Between tracks, Steve telling the crowd about the various battered instruments he plays, including his diddley bow (‘this is made from a two by four piece of wood with one string, this is a handle from a chevy truck, this here’s a can of green giant corn.. none of which makes it sound any good’) and his famous three-string trance wonder, a ragged guitar he was told ‘has some mojo in it - there’s nothin’ good about it, except it looks kinda pretty’.

The pace remains hot through the boogie blues of ‘Chiggers’ where Steve decides to linger cheekily and for ever so slightly too long over the imagery of the crowd taking their clothes off, and then takes a slow turn for a previously unrecorded track that Steve says is like his Kum Ba Yah (‘only better, ‘cos it’s mine’), and asks the crowd to sing along. They oblige gladly, pausing only for a comedy break when Dan comes on with a broom and sweeps the front of the stage mid song.. until they realise the stage is miked and he’s providing a rhythm background. Many cheers ensue.

By this point it’s raining hard and Steve decides to come out and stand on the barrier to get wet in solidarity with the crowd. He decides we need warming up, and blasts into 'Burnin' Up' complete with a series of reprises that James Brown would be proud of. We're then treated to a full length version of Dog House Blues to close the set, complete with the story of why he left home at fourteen. The crowd are with him all the way, whooping and cheering at the twists in the tale, and joining in with what turns out to be a fitting end to one of the highlights of Summer Sundae 2010.