Newton Faulkner, St David's Hall, Cardiff

I NEVER thought I'd go and see a singer twice on the same tour. Then again I never thought I'd see one ginger dreadlocked guy and a guitar do justice to one of Queen's most difficult tunes.

But on Monday I did both. After seeing Newton Faulkner, aforementioned dreadlocked ginger, at the Brangwyn in Swansea, I was so impressed that when I heard he was playing in Cardiff I felt I had to go see him.

Yes, around 90 per cent of the songs were the same, but the intimate, personal way Faulkner carried the show made it feel like he wasn't just going through the motions.

He expertly ran through the songs from his two albums to date. At times it felt the levels weren't right, I don't know if the acoustics were better at the Brangwyn than St David's Hall, but at times it sounded as though his guitar was too loud and was drowning out his voice.

But that aside it was an excellent show. His big charcoally voice belted out the tunes with the audience lapping up the big numbers such as Dream Catch Me and If This is It.

But the best was saved for last. He refused to do an encore, instead saying he'd do two more and be gone. The first was an accomplished one-man rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.

To finish he unplugged everything, amps, mics and so on, after checking those at the back could hear him.

He then played I'm Not Giving Up Yet.

The result was an intimate, powerful finale to another excellent performance. Go see him, you won't be disappointed. Queen are dead, long live the Ginger King.

Chris Davies