A very special gig - Latin Quarter playing a 40th anniversary gig with a focus on the album 'Modern Times'. I had only seen them once in a pub in Leicester more than 30 years ago, before they disappeared off the touring scene. For this gig the rules didn't apply so we went all the way to London at a small standing venue ( the surprise was we got a seat!).
The support act was a California band called 'The Tearaways' who may have imagined they were the Beach Boys but apart from an exceptional drummer they weren't very interesting.
Latin Quarter included three original members with guitarist David Wright, Steve Jeffries on Keyboards and of course Steve Skaith on vocals and guitar. They had borrowed a bassist for the gig and there was a drummer. Both were good. They had also recruited a singer Mary Carew who had just the right vocals for Latin Quarter, pure and sweet but with emotion and force when needed.
They kicked off appropriately in this war torn year with'Remember' and then straight into 'Modern Times'. Fabulous so far.
The song choices were brilliant. I hardly expected to hear one of my later LQ favourites 'Bringing Rosa Home' and the choices from the even later LQ releases were also spot on. 'Nico' is a great song and the main set finished with 'Pantomime of Wealth' with an extended chorus of 'We are many they are few' sung by the audience until Steve had to stop them.
But back to the classic songs from Modern Times - we got 'Toulouse' and 'No Ordinary Return' and of course 'Radio Africa' and 'There's No Rope as Long as Time' and 'The New Millionaires' and 'The Truth about John' - 8 out of 11 ain't bad when you add in the must-have encore 'America for Beginners'. What a way to end the show with a brilliant low-key guitar solo from David Wright.
A cracking gig - thoroughly enjoyed
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