ULVERSTON Live is back in the spotlight next week with a gig by highly regarded guitarist and singer Reg Meuross.

On stage at the Sports and Social Club on Priory Road, tomorrow night (Friday, 7.45pm), Reg first emerged on to the acoustic music scene in the 1980s with The Panic Brothers and has, over the years of touring and playing solo, performed with many other acclaimed artists.

Reg went on to form The Flamingos who featured ex Graham Parker guitarist Martin Belmont, Bob Loveday from The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Bob Geldof’s Band and Alison Jones of the Barely Works. They recorded one album entitled Arrested.

In 1996 he released his first critically acclaimed solo album The Goodbye Hat and was nominated for several music awards, including best song for Ring around the Roses.

He followed it up in 2004 with Short Stories and in 2006 by the excellent Still.

In 2008 he released his most successful collection to date, Dragonfly, followed two years later by All this Longing.

The Dreamed and the Drowned, released in 2011, is a collection of 13 previously unreleased archive songs. It was commissioned and compiled by Stephen Jordan at the Bodleian Music Library, Oxford, who recognised it as “Reg Meuross at his most eclectic and inspiring best.”

Based in Somerset, Reg is apparently at his happiest touring, whatever the venue, from small acoustic clubs to London’s Royal Albert Hall and big festivals across the globe. He has toured the UK, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Festival highlights have included Cropredy, Cambridge Folk Festival, Great British Folk Festival, Auckland Folk Festival, Illawarra Folk Festival and many more.

His shows are spellbinding and Reg captures the attention and the hearts of audiences of all sizes from festival stage to folk club floor with his beautiful tenor voice, captivating lyrics and mesmerising guitar playing.

Reg is well thought of by six string ace Pete Townshend who has said that he sings in the neutral accent of an Englishman who travels the entirety of the British Isles, and tastes all its flavours, influenced by all its most profound national colours: “In this he reminds one of Roy Harper or Ewan McColl, recent greats who went before him. Reg’s composing and performing is not bound or influenced by trends or fashion or the need to make a display. Reg will be a good man to listen to when the time comes to look at developing your own way to be your own singer-songwriter.”

For the Ulverston Live gig, support is singer and guitarist Mike Turnbull.

Tickets available at the door or by telephone on 07749-827488.