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.
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