"Master of the art…"(of Didge playing)
Ceri Jones… Western Mail
"The act with most sting (ouch)"
B.B. Scone… Western Telegraph
"Each performance is a unique experience…"
Arran Folk Festival
"Nágus, back by popular request… get there early"
Re. Broadstairs Easter folk Weekend
"Try to resist the infectious performance of Mike Chant & Elvire Beijdorff who together create a dynamic duo"
Canterbury Festival 1999
"The whole CD is an inspired concept…"
Serious night our guide
"Wholesome acoustic vigour…"
Folk Roots Magazine
"BLAAM! Serendipity, they've scored a direct hit on your terminal erogenous zone."
Malcom Cawley, Western Telegraph
"Perhaps when Welsh Roots music achieves the stature of it's Celtic cousins in Ireland and Scotland, Nágus will be recognised as one of the pioneers of the movement."
B.B. Scone, Western Telegraph.
"If you are looking for something to lift your spirits when you are feeling low, then this is definitely for you."
Carmarthen Journal
"The usual imaginative blend of Celtic and other ethnic music we have come to expect from Nágus is here."
Western Telegraph
"Didge driven Celtic experience"
One World week Jamboree
"…An entertaining slice of acoustic power folk, which mixes their capable musicianship with powerful lyrical imagery…with Chant's expressive vocals adding plenty of passion…"
Taplas, Oct/Nov '99
"…Bearfoot is a healthily chunky, acoustic rocker which distinguishes its authors above the run of the mill contemporary strummers."
Folk Roots (Froots) Magazine Nov '99
"…Mike has a great voice and a really full and engaging sound…"
B.B. Scone, Western Telegraph Jan 2002
"The man with the mighty voice…"
The Levellers, 'Off the tracks' festival, Donnington, 2002
"Excellent…"
Flook, 2003
Seductive acoustic (March 2006) (pembrokeshiretv.com)
Support for Sandi Thom, Queens hall, Narberth, Feb 06
The next gap in my musical education was soon to be filled. I had always thought Nágus was a dready young hippy with a Didgeridoo. Maybe he once was but on this particular night there was not a dread to be seen.
There was a didgeridoo, though somewhat disappointingly this only featured in the first number of Nágus’ set, a breathtaking Didge and drum (bodhran) piece. A great opener to the set before undready Mike Chant was joined by son Tom and the two of them stormed through some two-guitar pieces.
Nágus delivered a mix of originals and covers with uninhibited panache. There was great synchronicity between the two guitarists and their diverse guitar playing styles, while Mike rocked on the open chords Tom teased heart tugging high notes with hands that will launch a thousand teenage girls’ fantasies.
Mike has a voice that is as rich as chocolate, but not any old chocolate… Have you tried the chilli variety? That’s what Mike’s voice is like – smooth and rich but with a surprisingly fiery bite. I would love to have heard more of the Didgeridoo, but other than that Nágus rocked
Fishguard Folk festival 2006 (Becky Hotchin, pembrokeshiretv.com)
From a group of talented musicians improvising away like mad things in the main bar, to a couple on fiddle and bagpipes in the back, the restaurant area had been colonised by accordion playing and group singing and in the back Marquee where Mike Chant held a crowd spellbound for two hours. Mike was at the festival to do the sound “and finishes the night with a few songs of his own” said landlord Dai Crowther
Well the soundman stole the show. After commandeering a child of about 12 to take over the desk, Mike had the crowd in the palm of his hand with an alluring combination of original compositions and his own unique take on the work of others. A particular favourite was the combination of the ‘Banana boat song (Day oh)’ and ‘Wild rover’.
“I’ve been a wild rover for many a year / daylight come and I wanna go home.”
Try it, it works
And who said men couldn’t multitask? This man was a master of it; as he switched from didgeridoo, to bodhran, to guitar, to vocals and back again. Oh yes and he was his own soundman after the 12-year-old was taken home to bed.
