Middlesex-based singer/ songwriter IVOR GAME has been quietly grubbing around in those ever-important margins for many years now. Since 1996, seven albums bearing his name have leaked out on an independent, self-released basis and he's also notched up tours of the USA and Europe as well as regular performances in and around the London circuit.
Yet, for all that, you probably haven't heard of him, except maybe in listings or whatever. Which is a pity, because the all-too-brief evocation of domestic bliss ('I Like Being At Home') that was his last single and his new two-minute broadside, 'Small' (taken, curiously from his last-but-one album 'Inside' from 2006) both suggest further investigation is necessary.
Not that Ivor's in a hurry to be discovered, it seems. 'Small' is so unassuming, you could easily miss it. It finds our man playing some delightfully plaintive guitar and marrying it with memorably wry musings (“never wanted to be photographed, live a life outside the one I have/ though it's nice to be in your memory every time you dust the mantelpiece”) which make a refreshing change in these days of desperate celebrity wannabes.
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Sounding like a more urbane Johnny Bramwell, Ivor Game is a gently talented performer who (importantly) knows the value of brevity. I get the feeling he'd be a lot better suited to the late '60s and early '70s troubadour circuit and I can quite easily imagine him playing a double header at Les Cousins with John Martyn or Ralph McTell. It's hardly Ivor's fault he's been born into another age, though, and it's still up to us to discover him, not the other way round.
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