Jeff Beck 16/5/14

I normally prepare for a gig by listening to the latest album or at least tuning into the musicians back catalogue. However I came to this gig fresh mainly because I had been at the Seckou Keita/Catrin Finch gig the night before and in any case Jeff Beck doesn't seem to have released anything recently. I also still had the amazing gig from the day before running round in my head so it was a tough task for Jeff Beck but he did pretty well given the circumstances. He first really got my attention about three tracks in when he played 'Little Wing'. You need big guitarist cahones to play a song trademarked by Hendrix and then Clapton but Jeff Beck has those and the skill to back them up. His version owed more to Hendrix than Clapton but was also indisputably Beck and it was superb. A lot of the tracks he played I had heard before although I couldn't put a name to many of them. There were however enough moments of guitar brilliance to make this an enjoyable and impressive gig. The band were excellent musicians; Rhonda Smith a pocket-size bundle of energy on Bass, Nicholas Meier on guitar clearly had a spanish-guitar background and , Jonathan Joseph on Drums was full of drive. The one vocal track during the main part of the show didn't really work as Rhonda's singing voice was not strong enough for the band sound but what did work was the vocal encore when Joss Stone came on and sang a couple of storming power vocals for 'I put a spell on you' followed by 'Rollin' and Tumblin''. I had not seen her before but the Janis Joplin style delivery certainly worked with the Beck guitar and the band's energy. That was a great surprise finale to the gig.