Vinicius Cantuaria 9/11/08

It is always good to be at a gig on your birthday and this was arranged by my sister as we were staying with her at the time. I had never heard of Vicinius but he proved a real find. Subtle bossa nova style guitar and a beautiful soft singing voice. The band included a superb jazzy pianist who had a distinctive and energising sound.

Eric Clapton 13/8/76

I am struggling a bit to separate out the Clapton gigs in my memory. I pretty much saw all of the tours in the seventies and eighties and often went to multiple gigs on a tour. I shall start with the certainties and fill in the rest as I can. This much I know - the 1976 gig at Bridlington Spa Theatre is one of the top gigs I have ever been to and is definitely one of the best ever Clapton gigs.

The whole evening was great. Driving down to Bridlington through the Durham countryside in my 1959 P4 Rover. My best gal (now my wife) in the front seat. A mate with some home made cider in the back. The venue on the pier at Bridlington - decayed but magnificent.

The support act vies for the title of maddest support act - it was Mr Pughs Magic Puppet Theatre and it was actually a puppet show. Utterly, utterly barking but very enjoyable. I remember an aerial puppet dogfight taking place at one point.

This was also a great Clapton band. George Terry, Jamie Oldaker, Carl Radle, Dick Sims, Yvonne Ellimand and Marcy Levy.

Yvonne Elliman with a soft and sweet voice and Marcy Levy, loud and edgy, provided the backing vocals and majored on "Can't find My Way Home" and "Innocent Times" respectively. George Terry as ever provided superb guitar back up. He was the guitarist of the many who played in the bands who could sound most like Clapton and sometimes the two of them just overlaid perfectly

Unusually Clapton majored on his big "spanish- style" electric guitar which has a beautiful rounded sound and powered through classic Derek and the Dominos tracks like "Bluespower","Tell the Truth" and "Key to the Highway". He was at that period when he used to call out the chord changes on "Ramblin' " and that track had the hairs on the back of the neck very active. There was of course Layla, at a time when it was still fresh and Clapton was at his peak. Great, great gig.

Leonard Cohen 11/11/08

I had never seen Leonard Cohen before. I appreciated his music in the early seventies when "Songs Of Leonard Cohen" and "Songs from a Room" were popular but I was never really enthusiastic. But when he released "I'm Your Man" in the late eighties I was a convert.

I had missed the earlier June gigs due to being on holiday and the rave reviews saw me heading to Bournemouth for the November show.

I have to see this was better than I could have hoped. His voice was incredible - it seems to have got better with age. The band were, without exception, exceptional. The show was somewhere close to three hours long and covered pretty much any song you might want to hear. The man himself bounced around whenever movement was called for defying his age but was not averse to getting down on his knees when that was appropriate.

It is actually difficult to pick highlights because the whole show was done to a superb standard and I pick the following tracks either because they are amongst my favourite Cohen tracks or because the particular delivery showed me something more in the song. In the former category would be "Ain't No Cure For Love", Tower of Song", "Everybody Knows" and "First We Take Manhattan". In the latter category would be "Bird on a Wire" and "Hallelujah" but really it was all superb.

Pink Floyd 9/11/74

Birthday gigs are always good and this was exceptional. There was a lot of hype at the time about the "quadraphonic" sound on this tour - which essentially meant that there was a set of speakers at the back of the hall. I sort of forgot about it until a horse began apparently galloping around the hall. There was inflatables - another first for me. I remember they did stuff from "Dark Side of the Moon" and I think they did "Wish You were here" but the specific tracks played are not coming to mind. What I do know is that I was blown away by the gig and that Gilmour's guitar playing was impeccable.

Paul Weller 22/11/08

I have always been a big Paul Weller fan since listening to and seeing the Jam. He had a rep as an angry young thing but he is a damn fine guitarist unlike some of the other people to emerge from the punk phenomenon. This gig was a disappointment and quite different to the previous time I had seen him at the same venue - the Trent Arena in Nottingham. There wasn't the usual focus on guitar playing and the audience was in sing-a-long mood. He did some tracks from "22 Dreams" such as the eponymous title track and he did some good tracks from "Stanley Road" such as "Broken Stones" and "You Do Something to Me" and he did some Jam classics - which is what I think the audience was after. Paul Weller needs to be seem in an intimate venue but it ain't gonna happen.....

Captain Beefheart June 74

This tour featured an entirely new Magic Band who have often been called the Tragic Band. That is a bit unfair but the quality of the previous tours' musicians made them a difficult act to follow. he was also promoting possibly his weakest album "Unconditionally Guaranteed" and the touring band did not play on the album. A tough ask for Beefheart. Onb the positive side he kicked off the show with "Mirror Man". He also did "This is the Day" which is maybe the strongest cut on the album. I can remember the musicians but not their music very strongly. The reality is that we preferred Rockette Morton, Zoot Horn et al and we missed them.

Oliver Mtukudzi/Baaba Maal 13/3/09

This was in fact the third manifestation of "African Soul Rebels" tours. The first group on were called Extra Golden and were a hybrid African/Western outfit who I enjoyed but they haven't lived on in the memory. Baaba Maal is a Senegalese legend and his voice and drumming were impressive but he was a little full of himself as if his presence alone was enough to excite the audience.
Oliver Mtukudzi, who came on last was the real deal. Absolutely in the groove that African musicians seem to specialise in, his playing was joyful, exuberant and deeply serious all at the same time.
There were some Zimbabweans in the audience who were ecstatic at seeing their country's musical legend live.
I first heard of him when Bonnie Rait did one of his songs at a gig which I loved. His live performance more than matched my expectations - I hope he tours the UK again.

The Who 7/11/73

For me the Who reached their peak with the 1971 release of "Who's Next". Their singles' days produced some outstanding hits but there was always something just a little bit off - maybe it was Roger Daltrey who moved seamlessly from hoping to die before he got old to owning a trout farm in deepest Kent and living like a country gentleman in between advertising American Express or whatever financial product he used to endorse. Pete Townshend was a real rock'n roller though and played a mean guitar as well as jumping around a lot.

There was a brilliant start to the set - "I Can't Explain" followed by "Summertime Blues" (I was big Eddie Cochran fan). Towards the end they did "Won't Get Fooled Again". Otherwise I am a bit blank about specifics.

I was personally pleased that Townshend didn't smash his guitar at the end of the gig - as he quite often did. It would have been a bit jarring for me. Overall I was impressed by him and his playing but could take or leave the rest of the Who.

Tinariwen/Tunng 19/3/09

I had seen Tinariwen a couple of times before and also seen Tunng as support on one occasion. For this gig there was a hybrid band featuring three members from Tinariwen and the whole of the current Tunng. The Tinariwen trio cranked up a few numbers of their rolling desert groove on guitar and then there were a number of collaborative efforts with everyone on stage. Some of these didn't quite gel or perhaps they hadn't been rehearsed enough to gel. Towards the end of the gig it became more Tunng-centric. An enjoyable gig but not the deep desert experience of the full Tinariwen. Tunng I actually enjoyed a lot more than when I had previously seen them. They did one beautifully melodic track that got my instant approval. I tried to track it down afterwards but failed. An interesting experiment to blend the Bedouin groove with the cool English folk but perhaps needed a bit more prep.

Rolling Stones 13/9/73

This was the Rolling Stones in their pomp. The previous two years they had released what for me are their finest two albums, "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile on Mail Street" and Mick Taylor was now a fully fledged and integral member of the band. For this gig I had seats about ten rows from the stage at Newcastle City Hall. The sound was so intense I had an effect early on that I have never had before or since at a gig which was that I lost the ability to sense which way up I was. The sound must have temporarily blown the spirit level in my ears that tells you about balance. I decided not to care but just to enjoy the music and the effect gradually faded.

The band kicked off in fine style with "Brown Sugar". That is one hell of a way to start a gig when you have Mick Taylor and Keith Richard on guitar. They were both awesome that night.

The set included a couple of "Sticky Fingers" tracks, some tracks from "Exile" and some tracks from "Goat's Head Soup" that had been released a couple of weeks before the gig.

Memorable, outstanding, tracks included "Let it Bleed", "Tumbling Dice", "Angie","All Down the Line" and "Streetfighting Man" which they finished with. Unforgettable.

Seckou Keita 26/3/09 & 27/3/09

One of the advantages of living in a village with a refurbished community venue (an early design by Christopher Wren) whilst there is a subsidised music programme called Centre Stage in the midlands is that you can get to see world class musicians appear a short walk from home.

Seckou Keita falls into that category being a leading kora player. The kora is an astonishing instruments with two many strings to count (well OK I counted 22 on his but that is just the single necked kora - he also plays a double necked one). It sounds like a cross between a harp and a guitar and the music just cascades from blurred fingers.

He and his band went down a storm in front of sixty or seventy privileged locals. During the gig I found out that he was playing five miles away in Asby the following day so we took that in as well.

Mahavishnu Orchestra 19/6/73

This gig had an extraordinary start that still lives vividly in the memory. We had seats in the front stalls at Newcastle City Hall. Mahavishnu Orchestra were at the peak of their fame (even if they were a minority taste) having just released "Birds of Fire" as their second album. The all-star line-up of McClaughlan (guitar), Cobham (drums), Hammer (keyboards), Goodman (violin) and Laird (Bass) didn't last much longer and the band exploded later that year to be reformed with McLaughlan and some different musicians.
They played fast and furious jazz-fusion in weird rhythms with the maniacally fast but always precise Cobham driving the tempo relentlessly. The soloists were constantly outdoing each other while the bassist tried to keep up. That's how I remember it anyway.
They came out on stage, the audience clapped and they started tuning up. After a few minutes people started wondering if there was a problem but they carried on, each individual apparently searching for the perfect tuning. After ten minutes or so the audience began getting a little restless but perhaps these devoted musicians deserved a bit of leeway. It seemed like fifteen minutes or so before they suddenly launched an avalanche of precision sound and the gig was underway.
I wonder whether each gig started the same.
McLaughlan was eye-catching - he had a guitar with two heads and one of those was a twelve string guitar. He switched between the guitars often and effortlessly.
They played stuff off the albums and I don't recollect what else but to experience it live and close up was astonishing.

Jackson Browne 8/4/09

A Jackson Browne tour was an unexpected chance to catch up live with a songwriter who I have been listening to for decades and the front row seats added to the anticipation. He wrote some great lyrics and I have a particular penchant for the following from "The Late Show". It's the way the detail is added to the analogy that I find compelling.

Look--
It's like you're standing in the window
Of a house nobody lives in
And I'm sitting in a car across the way
(Let's just say)
It's an early model Chevrolet
(Let's just say)
It's a warm and windy day

He didn't do this track but he did a number of classic tracks from his back catalogue as well as tracks from his most recent album "Time the Conqueror". After starting with a recent track "Boulevard" he did an older track that I hadn't come across before called "Barricades of Heaven" which was immense. "Fountain of Sorrow" came early on as well as one of the best of the recent tracks "Giving that Heaven Away". The incredible quality of the songwriting just kept coming as he did "For a Dancer" - so poignant; "These Days" - so introspectively honest; "Lives in the Balance " - one of the best angry political songs around.

There was some of his more upbeat output as well "Rosie" and "Running on Empty" before the encore of "After the Deluge" - another immense song and a perfect way to end.

Yet another contender for gig of the year

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee 11/6/73

I had seen a couple of blues package tours (can't place the dates yet) which featured some top notch bluesmen who were receiving more recognition in the UK than in the USA. You got four or five legends in one evening. A similar type of event has evolved recently with African acts. This was however the first straightforward blues gig I went to featuring authentic country blues. Strangely it was on at a local night club - the Top Hat at Spennymoor. I already knew some of their music but to be in a small club listening to them live was deeply moving and that was enhanced as you came face to face with their personal disabilities and saw how they had overcome those barriers.

Sonny Terry was an astonishing harp player, as good as anyone I have heard and I feel privileged to have been at the gig.

David Byrne 29/3/09 & 11/4/09

Having got the new Eno-collaboration CD "Everything That Happens, Will Happen Today" and loving the gospelly feel to it I was really up for the first David Byrne gig at Symphony Hall Birmingham. Travelling from Bristol for the gig and short of time, the accident we came across en route nearly made us late but it took just a few seconds of David Byrne to transport us to his wierd take on reality and for it to become a hot contender for "Gig of the Year".

This show featured three dancers as well as the excellent musician-type band members. Whilst I might normally look sceptically on such additions to a music show the point is that David Byrne has a clear vision for the gig and the dancers work really well in that context.

As ever the whole gig was strictly controlled and choreographed. It featured songs from the new album as well as songs from the previous eno Collaboration "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" and some top notch Talking Heads favourites as well. His singing was sublime and the music was tight, dynamic and exciting. Pretty much all the tracks were brilliant but "I Feel My Stuff" was just exceptional. The Talking Heads classics included "Life During Wartime", "Take Me to the River", "Heaven" and as an encore "Burning Down the House". It doesn't get much better than this. The pace was relentless. The last encore was "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today" and the haunting beauty of the music and words was a perfect coda to an outstanding gig.

After the gig I saw that he was playing Nottingham twelve days later so we took that in as well.

Captain Beefheart April 73

This was a very similar Magic Band to the one seen a year earlier with the exception that Elliot Ingber (Winged Eeel Fingerling) had been replaced by Alex St Clair on guitar. The tour was promoting the recent album "Clear Spot" more accessible than some of Beefheart's previous output but still distinctly Beefheart.

As before the gig started with Rockette Morton on bass and it wasn't long before there were four guitarists giving it some, front of stage. Alex St Clair wasn't the retiring sort unlike Elliot Ingber. Whilst the gig inevitably featured tracks from Clear Spot, I was delighted to hear him play a couple of older favourites that he missed on the first tour - "Mirror Man" and "Electricity".

One of the other highlights for me was "Big Eyed Beans from Venus". Beefheart's rasping voice said the appropriate words "Mr Zoot Horn Rollo - hit that long and leaning note and let it float".

This was Beefheart gig with a bit more emphasis on conventional guitar and a joy as ever.

Bob Dylan 29/4/09

I find Dylan a bit hit and miss these days. When he's good he's very very good but sometimes I find it a bit forgettable. This was one of those lesser occasions for me. It didn't help that it was the NIA and the sound was not good. I was amazed to find the sound so much better when I went to the Eagles later in the year at the same venue so I don't know what the issue was.

I like the way that Dylan is constantly reinventing tracks but sometimes that can mean you get a version that for you doesn't really work. I think a few old favourites fell into that category this time. "Desolation Row" should be searing but it was too upbeat. "Highway 61" and "Like a Rolling Stone" lacked venom. I think the generally ordinary band and the sound didn't help. Bob's singing was good given the other limitations, there was a good choice of tracks and I did enjoy it - just not as much as I could have done. There is always at least one outstanding track in any Dylan gig and for me that was "The Man in the Long Black Coat".

Jeff Beck 9/2/73

This gig was memorable for a number of reasons. It was my second date with my wife and one during which her handbag was stolen. So much for heroism and making a good impression but the reality was that we didn't know it had been stolen until Jeff had finished his encore.

The band was called either the Jeff Beck Group or Beck, Bogert, Appice - the situation was dynamic and the legalities convoluted. Nevertheless it was the combination of the former Vanilla Fudge rhythm section and Jeff Beck.

I have no recollection of the support and I can't name any of the tracks Jeff played. I do remember the gig as loud, exciting and with Jeff in typical virtuoso mood. Bogert and Appice were a storming rhythm section and the overall sound was dense and loud. The hall was small, the floor was sticky - this was definitely rock and roll.

Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham 6/5/09

This was an intimate and genial gig at a small Nottingham Uni venue. We were in the front row which helped in creating the cosy atmosphere.

Aly and Phil are the real deal in terms of British traditional music. Aly is the archetypal shetland fiddle player. The emotion he evokes is rooted and deep.

Phil accompanies on accordion although that sounds a bit mean as he is an exceptional musician also.

The material includes a lot of traditional tunes and also newer stuff. A couple of the gaelic ballady tunes were outstanding.

Eric Clapton 13/1/73

This review may be slightly out of correct order as at the moment I can't recollect the dates of any gigs between April 72 and January 73 - I'll add them as and when they become clearer in my mind.

For those that weren't around at the time, this was a momentous gig. Clapton had basically disappeared for two and a half years in his heroin phase and this return to the stage aided by an all-star band was big news for Clapton addicts like me.

The gig was driven by Pete Townshend who played rhythm guitar on the night. With Steve Winwood on keyboards and vocals, Ronnie Wood (guitar), Rick Grech (bass) and Jim Capaldi, Jimmy Karstein and Rebop on drums/percussion.

The music was not the best live music that Clapton has played but it felt great to have him back and the vibe from the gig was positive because of that. Winwood was awesome as usual - the voice is so distinctive and so soulful. Townshend stuck to rhythm guitar and really thumped it out, arm wheeling over his head most of the time. The percussion was superb, two rock drummers and inimitable Rebop on percussion.

The tracks included old Clapton stuff like Crossroads and Badge, lots of Derek and the Domino's tracks, stuff from Blind Faith and Traffic. I loved it live; the recordings released later show it was not inspirational Clapton guitar but still agreat night to be part of.

Mick Taylor 15/5/09

I have always been a big Mick Taylor fan particularly since I spent three months in 1971 with only five tracks of music to listen to and it was five tracks off "Sticky Fingers". I had seen him with John Mayall about five years previously and found that he still had that trademark fluidity that made him one of the best blues guitarists of his time. On this occasion he was touring with Stephen Dale Petit who I had not heard of before. The gig was very low key in that it was at the Market Harborough Leisure Centre.
I didn't like Stephen Dale Petit, neither his guitar playing nor his persona.

Mick Taylor came on for the second half of the show and thankfully played the majority of the lead guitar from then on. He was very good although a little older and slower. The most surprising choice of track was that he played the Stones' "No Expectation" off Beggar's Banquet which was recorded before he joined them. The only other Stones track I recollect was " You Gotta Move".

Captain Beefheart April 1972

These gigs featured a stupendous opening to the main act and prior to that one of the worst support acts (Foghat) I have seen. They were loud, played crude guitar and were full of themselves. Back to Beefheart. The opening featured first of all a ballet dancer followed by a belly dancer with a distorted backing track. Just as you were digesting them on came the amazing Rockette Morton prancing around the stage in his stockinged feet playing a freeform bass guitar solo. There was also a cigar-lighting hiatus in the solo. When it came to an end Rockette started the deep, heavyweight, floor-shaking bass riff from "When it blows its stacks" and then the Captain's amazing voice sang the first line from the song. At that point you were absolutely with the programme and in the zone.

The band were all bizarre and eccentric but in a nice way. Winged Eel Fingerling was at the back of the stage facing away from the audience as he played some amazing unconstrained lead guitar. Zoot Horn Rollo played slide. Ed Marimba was on drums. Orejon (Roy Estrada in real life) played a normal bass to add to Rockette Mortons bass which he played like a rhythm guitar.
Beefheart played a searing sax as well as vocals.

The gig was touring The Spotlight Kid album and so included a number of tracks from that as well as earlier stuff from Trout Mask and Lick My Decals Off. Apart from the opener the other tracks that stood out for were "I'm going to booglarize you baby", "Peon" and "Abba Zaba" but the whole gig was immense.

Always one for the clever pun, the encore was just the Captain singing "More".

Clapton 26/5/09 & 31/5/09

I managed to get seats for two of the gigs Clapton did as part of a stint at the Albert Hall. During the first gig I started to recognise guitar playing from the support act, ARC Angels, and it turned out to be Doyle Bramhall who I had seen playing with Clapton before. On the second night he went up a level and delivered some stunning guitar playing. Pretty much the last track the ARC Angels did featured him playing across and in between the rhythm and it was a joy to listen to.

Claptons band included old favourites Any Fairweather-Low (guitar) and Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon (keyboards) and Steve Gadd on drums, Willie Weeks on bass and back up vocals from Sharon White and Michelle John. In addition Doyle Bramhall joined the band towards the end of the set on the second night , which was the last gig of the tour.

It was a pretty standard set on both nights with just a couple of track changes. The first night we got an acoustic "Layla" whereas on the second night it was an electric version. On the second night "Lay Down Sally" got an airing. EC was in fine form on the second night, noticeably better than the previous gig and the whole band was definitely in the zone. Classic bluesy fare from EC. Standout guitar tracks were "Old Love" which was done early on and "Little Queen of Spades". "Lay Down Sally" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" were beautiful with the whole band in the groove. During the night there were some great Chris Stainton copyright keyboard thrashing solos and some Billy Preston like work from Tim Carmon. The last three tracks, "Layla", Cocaine" and "Crossroads" were graced with Doyle Bramhall's guitar and there were brilliant solos from Andy and Doyle on "Cocaine". Andy in particular played the best solo I have ever heard him play - he seemed to take up the challenge of Doyle's solo and just give it everything on this last gig night at the Albert Hall.

2009 has seen some classic gigs and this was one of them.

Hawkwind 5/2/72

Hawkwind were (and I guess still are) a strange phenomenon with their own niche and some devoted followers. For me they are a sort of cross between Status Quo and Pink Floyd but too much on the Status Quo side for me get too enthused. Nonetheless the gig was exciting and engaging. The riffs drove on incessantly, the synthesizers swooped and dived and the blue 'police car' light on the speakers circled endlessly.
The largely student audience at Durham was obviously not enthusiastic enough for the band though and the gig ended with a lot of swearing from the band and some puzzlement from the audience who had enjoyed the gig.

Christy Moore 1/6/09

If you have to have a gig the day after a Clapton gig then I guess something acoustic and gentle like Christy Moore is a pretty good option. Because of its proximity to the Clapton gig and the similarity of the gig to the previous Christy Moore gig I saw, I am struggling a bit to remember which specific tracks he played. It's also because I am not particularly familiar with his back catalogue having only a recent live recording in my collection.

I do remember his beautiful song "North and South" and also "Ride On" and a track that I hadn't heard before called "Does this train stop on Merseyside?".

As the last time I saw him this was an acoustic gig with accompaniment from Declan Sinnnot. I thought Declan was better this time more confident and assertive in his playing. Christy's banter was slightly more ascerbic this time but he still comes across as the nicest guy you've ever seen and his singing is beautiful and all done in that mellifluous Irish brogue.

Rory Gallaher 31/7/71

I have this down as a Rory Gallaher gig because he was the only act I both wanted to see and can remember from this early Crystal Palace Garden Party. Fairport Convention were also on the bill. The headliner was Elton John and Yes also performed. In fact I went because one of the guys working on the same building site as me had somehow got the job of organising a set of stewards and so I got paid to go to the gig.

Fairport I can't really remember and possibly I had some work to do during their set. Had Sandy Denny still been with them I am sure I would have clocked the set more closely. Rory Gallaher however definitely made an impression. He belted out some raw, bluesy guitar and put a lot of energy into it. He had previously been with Taste but had gone solo by the time of the Crystal Palace gig.

Neil Young 23/6/09

A Neil Young gig is pretty much top of the list now. You know he will deliver some great guitar and some great singing and he has a huge back catalogue of classic songs to choose from. Each tour is different so you are always in for a treat. This gig was at the Trent FM Arena (aka Nottingham Ice Rink) which for me is one of the better of the big impersonal arenas. As ever with such arenas you need to get a seat that has reasonable sound and we achieved that for this gig.

The support was Laura Marling a singer songwriter featuring quiet thoughtful songs. I enjoyed it but can't recollect any specifics.

Neil Young's band included Ben Keith on guitar, Chad Cromwell on drums, Rick Rosa on bass and Peggy Young on backing vocals.

He kicked off with "Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)". Immediately he was off playing that inimitable guitar The grungy style of guitar was something he took up well into his long career but it is that which will keep me coming back to the gigs.

The stand out track for me was "Down by the River" which was late on in the set - it was a deliberate and powerful version. "Words" was another highlight - I am not sure I have heard this live before. "Pocahantas" was also outstanding - a grungy version rather than the usual more delicate form.
And then there were the old favourites "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man" - for me he can play those every gig if he wants.

An extended "Rocking' in the Free World" followed by "A Day in the Life" ended the gig.
The thing about Neil Young is that he follows where the music takes him and nothing else matters. That is why he will never resort to concert tours to rake in money and why he continues to be edgy and innovative despite his age.

This immediately became another candidate for "Gig of the Year" and it was shortly to be followed by another (see Eagles gig).

Creedence Clearwater Revival 14/4/70

My first ever gig at the Albert Hall.

The support was Tony Joe White who I don't think I had ever heard of and he was brilliant. He was the first deep south singer songwriter I had come across and it is a genre that I have enjoyed greatly over the decades. It's partly a country-based music thing partly an accent thing and partly a sort of radical rebellious liberalism that you get from an area that has traditionally always been a reactionary stronghold. Tony Joe White's songs had a deep bayou ambience to them. The track that I can specifically remember from the gig was "Polk Salad Annie" which Elvis recorded at some point. Great song featuring 'gators and swamps.

Creedence were for me one of the most exciting pop/rock acts around - they had the same sort of rock 'n roll feel as maybe the early Stones although the music was very different. When I saw them the band included both Fogerty brothers although John was the main creative force. The gig was fast, furious, exciting and way too short. They ripped through a number of their hits and a few other songs and left the stage in under an hour. Great stuff but I am glad I also enjoyed Tony Joe White.

Jeff Beck 25/6/09

I really had no idea what to expect from Jeff Beck as he never followed a predictable path.
I think the last time I had seen him play was 1973 and he had spent a lot of the intervening time out of the limelight.
We had great seats in the fourth row at Symphony Hall in Birmingham and for once I had chosen to miss the support as I still had echoes of the Neil Young gig from a couple of days before in my head.

Jeff Beck was in a four piece but he was the centre of the music all night playing a loud lead guitar from track one and with no vocals. It was definitely jazzy rather than bluesy but also definitely lead virtuoso guitar. Being close to the stage we could see his extraordinary and unique style of playing which often involves caressing the strings with his whole hand rather than strumming or plucking. It enables an amazing subtley of sound.

The band musicians were very good and the bassist had a permanent wide smile as she was obviously enjoying every minute of the gig. I have never seen anyone look so pleased to be on stage.

He started with "Beck's Bolero" but other than that I only recognised "Peter Gunn" and "A Day in the Life" as I have not kept up with his own music. Weirdly he played "Day in the Life" as the first track in his encore and just two days previously I had heard Neil Young finish his gig with the same track. I am not sure I had ever heard it live before since it was released more than forty years ago.

The gig suffered a bit from being in the shadow of a brilliant Neil Young gig who has a guitar style I relate to more naturally, but I felt that I was present at a powerful and moving musical performance and I would welcome seeing another gig if he tours again.