Snake Oil & Harmony - Loca Authority, Sheffield (UK) - 29 March 2019

The two Dans – Reed and Vaughn – casually walked onto the stage, armed with just their acoustic guitars, and spent the first five minutes apologising for postponing the show earlier in the month. I for one was grateful for the latter as I doubt we would have made the original date due to the horrendous weather conditions that evening.




With no pre-determined set-list, they each alternated taking lead vocals on a variety of songs from their respective bands, solo albums and selected cover versions. Each song just seemed to inspire the respective artist to dig deeper and step up their performance.

Dan Reed opened proceedings with the Dan Reed Network's 'Burning Love' which was followed by Danny Vaughn taking on the Tyketto classic 'Walk On Fire'. The chemistry between the two artists has grown with each tour – this being their third 'Snake Oil & Harmony' tour.




After all the touring, they have now finally collaborated on a song, 'Where The Water Goes', which got a tremendous response. Another ten of this quality and we could be in for a very special album! 'Tiger In A Dress' was hysterical due to the fact that Danny Vaughn provided cat noises. The beautiful Lucy MacDonald joined the pair on stage to contribute violin for a breathtaking cover of the Bruce Springsteen classic 'Independence Day'. The emotional 'Standing Alone' preceded 'Get To You' which brought the main set to an amusing conclusion as Danny Vaughn finally managed to get Dan Reed to lose it half way through the song; not that anyone complained.




The guys returned for a deserved encore where Danny Vaughn explained the meaning of Snake Oil. First song of the two-song encore was the Tyketto classic 'Wings' and everyone in the audience provided vocals, this just left the Dan Reed Network classic 'Long Way To Go' to wrap things up for the evening. I, like most of the audience, would have been quite happy for them to have carried on for another hour. Although we wanted more, in no way were we short-changed. This was definitely a case of harmony and not much sign of any snake oil!

Review and photos by Mark Donnelly