Evangelist: Evangelist

Bewitching posthumous set from Staffordshire maverick.

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Best known for his appearances on the soundtracks to Shane Meadows’ This Is England TV series, Midlands singer-songwriter Gavin Clark died earlier this year at the tragically young age of 46.

At the time, the former Sunhouse and Clayhill songwriter was midway through making this solo project under the monicker Evangelist. Bandmates Pablo Clements and James Griffith (aka Toydrum) subsequently saw the album through to completion.

And thank God they did, as it can’t just be Clark’s passing that lends songs like Never Feel This Young and Whirlwind Of Rubbish a beautifully ghostly, softly despondent feel.

The fuzzy space rock of Same Hands and Know One Will Ever Know also prick up your ears, bearing testament to a songwriter who never quite fitted in but, for those who took the time to listen, always stood out.

Johnny Sharp
Johnny Sharp

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.