Toots and the Maytals 1/10/1980

In honour of Toots who died yesterday I thought I ought to remind myself of the one gig I saw of his at Brighton Top Rank in 1980. One oddity about this gig was the live album that was available at the gig (and of which I bought a copy) which was a recording of the London gig two days earlier. Apparently only a thousand were pressed so I have a rarity. I also recorded the gig at the Top Rank - I am going to have to search through my cassette tapes and have a listen. I remember a high energy performance, reggae at its earthiest. I remember 'Pressure Drop' of course and 'Get up stand up' but the rest is a blur. If he played the same set as at the Hammersmith Palais then he also played 'Sweet and Dandy' and 'Monkey Man'and 'Funky Kingston'. When I find my tape I may know better.

Eric Clapton 'Backless' Tour Nov/Dec 1978 w Muddy Waters

Still puzzling over the details of this magnificent tour. I'm pretty certain I saw seven of the ten gigs on this tour but I am only sure of five of the venues. I know we saw him at Victoria Hall, Hanley, Gala at West Brom, Gaumont Southampton and twice at the Hammersmith Odeon and I feel reasonably confident we saw them at Brighton Centre but if I saw seven then was the seventh City Hall Newcastle of the Manchester Apollo? Perhaps I'll never know. What I can say was that the sets and the gigs didn't vary that much - from an extremely high standard I might add. It was a real privilege to see Muddy Waters seven(?) times and Clapton was pretty much near his peak. There was blues a-plenty, 'Crossroads', 'Double Trouble', 'Worried Life Blues', 'Key to the Highway' and so on and long blues solos plus the now mandatory 'Layla', 'Cocaine' and so on. 'Tulsa Time' used to feature at this time and that was real buzz live as was 'Badge'. The Clapton band was: Eric Clapton - Guitar / Vocals George Terry - Guitar Dick Sims - Keyboards Carl Radle - Bass Jamie Oldaker - Drums They were all formidable musicians - loved the George Terry guitar period and Jamie Oldaker on drums was as good as it got on Clapton bands Muddy Waters was superb as well. He played all the famous stuff and his voice was as bluesy as it gets. I followed a Clapton tour in 1980 as well - good times to remember as we stay in Lockdown from the virus with not a gig in five months and we probably won't see one for at least another five.

Roy Harper 17/3/1974

I found out the date of the gig I saw in 1974 from an online complete list of Harper gigs. It was March 17th 1974 at Newcastle City Hall. This gig was notable for a weird reason - the morning of the gig I sat upright whilst still asleep and said 'Zieg Heil we're going to a rally'. I was woken up and asked what I was dreaming about but I had no recollection. Fast forward to the gig when about twenty minutes in Roy gazed at the audience and said ' This is just like being at Nuremberg'. Weird! As to the gig, I can't actually place specific songs or memories. So many Harper gigs over the years that they merge into each other. Safe to say that during this period you got to hear '12 Hours of Sunset', 'Highway Blues' , 'One Man rock and roll band' and 'Another day' for sure. By 1974 Harper had a tremendous catalogue of songs to pick from, his guitar playing always rhythmic and confident,and provided he could drag himself away from extended monologues every gig a joy.

Joanne Shaw Taylor 3/3/2020

This was a first for me for both artist and venue - Komedia in Bath. It was a nice place with some seats in the balcony that were preferable to me over the standing area downstairs. Support was from Sonia Leigh from Nashville who had some nice songs but a rather harsh tone to her vocals, maybe partly due to the acoustics or the sound set up. One thing I was impressed with was that her guitar was one she'd bought that day from a Bath guitar shop and it was not a standard electric guitar either. It takes some balls to try it out on a big audience as the support act. Joanne's set was comprised of the most recent album, Reckless Heart, in full followed by some songs from the back catalogue voted by fans as the ones they wanted her to play. The album starts off with the uptempo rocky blues 'In the Mood' including a storming riff. She does those rocky riffs really well with ultra fast chord changes and the whole album has an energy about whether it is charting a break-up or a make-up with both types of song on the album. There was a guitar change to one with a great tone but she only used it for a couple of tracks. I particularly liked 'Creeping' and 'Break my heart anyway' but the album is all of a good level, bluesy, raunchy with a sort of 70's feel. She reminded me a little of Stevie Ray Vaughn in the general tenor of the music, lots of great riffs and heartfelt solos. The requested songs were great as you might expect as they were the best of her back catalogue. I don't know their names but I liked the bluegrassy one in particular. All in all an excellent outing.

John McCusker, Mike McGoldrick, John Doyle 25/2/2020

In the foyer of the still closed Colston Hall (now due to be closed for a further year due to problems with the rebuilding) and an absolute treat. Got tickets just before they sold out, arrived in the post the day of the gig but still managed to be in the front row when this trio of outstanding musicians came on stage. I think the best tune of the night was the air that started the gig featuring Mike on bagpipes with John D on guitar and John M on squeeze box thing. I love bagpipes. I had had a great gig at that point but of course there was plenty more. I was amazed to see the speed of John Doyle's chord changes close up and given that the other two are masters of their various instruments this is really a celtic supergroup. John Doyle majored on Irish ballads, the others on tunes and the whole gig passed by in no time at all. I particularly liked 'Factory Girl', 'Blathanna' and what I think was 'I never let you know' a song about lost love, all featuring John Doyle and pretty much everything else that featured Mike or John M. Mostly I do love those bagpipes though.....

Mabon 22/2/2020

Perhaps the last chance to see Mabon who kindly included The Narth Village Hall on their farewell tour after twenty years as a band. It was storming gig, high quality throughout and we will miss them although I am sure that we will see some of them at least on the local music scene in different guises. Standout songs for me were 'The tale of Nikolai the Dancing Bear' which features some great changes in tempo, a Russian-sounding wistful tune with a great combination of fiddle and accordion, the slow and sweet 'Hummingbird', of course the fast and furious 'Accordionist's Despair' and a set of new tunes provisionally called something like 'The cat's Monday'?, There was a storming set of tunes for the encore and then that's it for another very fine gig in the village hall. Thank you Mabon

Beth Hart 12/2/2020

I went on reputation and on a whim and it was a good show. Beth is a fantastic singer and had a touch of the Janis Joplin's about her both in the intense singing style and the high maintenance personality. First up was an acoustic duo who introduced themselves as half of the normally electric Kris Barras Band. They were very good playing high energy bluesy rock with Kris on lead and rhythm guitar and Josiah Manning on rhythm guitar and percussion/bass (via feet). I particularly liked the rhythm guitar from Josiah that was fast enough to be frenetic. The only song I knew was 'Midnight Rider' and it was a good version (although having heard Greg Allman perform it many years ago it was not the best version I have seen!) but all the stuff was enjoyable. Kris had a slightly irritating personality but a good singing voice. Beth's band comprised of her on vocals, piano and occasionally guitar, Jon Nichols on guitar, excellent drumming from Bill Ransom and Tom Lilley on bass. But she was front and centre for the show belting out vocals in fine style. I didn't know many of the songs but that wasn't necessary to enjoy the intense experience. I remember 'War on My Mind'(title track of the recent album), 'Sugar Shack' and 'Tell her you belong to me' but actually every song was delivered with power and emotion. There was an acoustic session which was particularly powerful in its understated style and a solo piano song to finish with 'Woman Down'. An excellent gig - 2020 is going well so far gig-wise.

Transatlantic Sessions 7/2/2020

First gig of the year was a Birmingham trip to catch the annual Transatlantic Sessions gig. It is always a treat - you are guaranteed superb musicianship from the 'house band' and the featured soloists are often new talents that you are delighted to be introduced to. That was definitely true this time - I had not heard of any of the five 'soloists' before the gig but I would probably go to see each of them if they toured here. Perhaps pick of the bunch for her all-round musicality and the strength of her songs and vocals was Rachel Sermanni who in the first half sang 'Breathe Easy' and the a Robbie Burns song 'Ae Fond Kiss'. Before her were firstly Cahalen Morrison whose second song 'Wealth of Sorrow' was a tour de force vocally, secondly Cathy Jordan who has a classic Irish voice and sang a beautiful Gaelic song and thirdly Sierra Hull,- American mandolin player and singer whose first song 'How Long' was a brilliant combination of vocals and mandolin. Following Rachel Sermanni was a dynamic performance from Australian (that's a first for Transatlantic Sessions) guitarist Tommy Emmanuel who entertained first by playing some seriously fast tunes that had the Scottish contingent right on their toes determined not to be outdone by an Aussie and then by covering 'I'm on Fire' from the Boss. Of course there were also tunes from time to time and various fronting performances by members of the band including a Phil Cunningham air featuring Mike McGoldrick, a mandolin special from Russ Barenberg, a John Doyle led song and starting the second half a Jerry Douglas/Tommy Emmanuel instrumental that was of course a highlight. The second half included further songs from the featured soloists including another stunning song from Rachel Sermanni ('Eggshells'). Perhaps the best moments of the night were saved for the encores - a spine-tingling rendition of 'The Old Churchyard' with the three female vocalists singing harmony above just an accordion accompaniment from Phil and then a riotous tunes finish form the extraordinary band that included the amazing Aly Bain, John McCusker, Donal Shaw, Daniel Kimbo, James Mackintosh as well as everyone mentioned above. Always a pleasure and a 2020 was a very good tour.