WEST Devon's top pop folk band Equation will be wowing fans in Exeter this weekend — their last UK gig before crossing the 'Pond' for a three-month marathon tour of the USA.
It will be the band's fourth tour of America where they are making a big name for themselves. The track Kissing Crime on their debut album Hazy Daze got to number 13 on a national radio play chart there.
The 60-gig coast-to-coast tour of the country includes ten of the largest summer festivals. One is Newport where Bob Dylan caused a storm by going electric, another is Musikfest PA which attracts a million people and the band will get within shouting distance of one of the world's most famous bridges for the Golden Gate Festival in San Franscico.
At the Phoenix Arts Centre this Saturday, Exeter fans will be able to hear live the songs from Equation's critically acclaimed second album The Lucky Few due to be released in the USA to coincide with their gruelling tour.
'It will be great to do one last gig to a friendly West Country audience before setting off on our marathon,' said guitarist Sean Lakeman from Crapstone.
He is no stranger to the Phoenix — with fiddle player and singer brother Seth, who co-writes Equation songs, they first played the Exeter gig as the precocious Lakeman Brothers while still at school.
Equation also wowed a packed out audience at St George's Hall which was the last gig the band played with Mercury award nominee Kate Rusby.
'Kate left before we recorded our first Warner album and decided to stay very much within the folk idiom,' said lead singer.Kathryn Roberts.
'Apart from a couple of rocked up traditional arrangements, everything on our albums is original material written by Sean or Seth.
'English audiences were wary at first but we have just finished a month-long UK tour and got a great reception — especially in places like Oxford, Cambridge and Newcastle.
'But it is definitely in the USA where they really seem to love our music. It appeals to them on a folk/pop level — we're always hearing ourselves on the radio.'
Bridestowe guitarist James Crocker — also known around Exeter for sitting in on city gigs with Willie and the Poor Boys and Hannah and the Madding Crowd — is now a permanent fixture in the band.
Scots-born drummer Iain Goodall and Midlander Darren Edwards on bass complete the line up.
Early next month, Equation fans will be able to buy the 'lost' album Return to Me recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios four years ago as their first album for Warner Music. It is being released by Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis — the man behind The Smiths, The Cranberries, Pulp and Beth Orton — on his new independent label, Blackbust.
The album includes ex- member Sam Lakeman on piano and keyboards and sensational Irish vocalist Cara Dillon who has also sung with Mike Oldfield and Irish folk legends De Dannan.
The band now have a website — http://www.equation.fm">www.equation.fm — which includes access to a live gig they played at the prestigious Kennedy Millennium Stage in Washington DC.