Category: MTW Music Reviews

Carvin Jones Band @ Irish Blues Club, JJ Smyths 30/05/2006

Almost 12 months to the day the Irish Blues Club opened its doors once again to the amazing Carvin Jones from Phoenix, guitar player extraordinaire and one of the happiest guys ever to walk into a room with a guitar around his neck.

With his long time buddy Will Troxell on Bass and stage management duties and new black leader clad Drummer Pino Liberti from Rome in top form fresh from a string of dates up the road at the Warrenpoint Blues Festival, Carvin tore up JJ Smyths with his high energy guitar blazing mix of Rock n Blues.

Recently voted as one of the top 50 guitarists in the world its easy to see why as Carvin in white cowboy boots and black hat turns the entire floor area of JJ Smyths into a stage, playing fast and furious at the end of a 100 foot lead through a tube screaming Fender amp.

All the crowd favourites are present Hideaway, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Red House and Boom Boom Boom Boom played back to back with Drum solos, Bass Solos, in the fast lane hardly coming up for air in-between the intense and powerful shuffles.

Carvin Jones name is synonymous with guitar showmanship and his stage antics are the ultimate celebration of blistering good time entertainment, acquiring accolades from Eric Clapton,Buddy Guy and BB King.

If you want to make a decent living at this business then you have to make the people listen to you and most of look at you and send them home feeling like they had the time of their lives.

If you go to the trouble of opening a store you can’t just stock the shelves with all the things you like yourself, you have got to put what the public want on the shelves as well or else you go out of business, and that’s why Carvin has his store jam packed with all the goodies, SRV, Hendrix, Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and ZZ Top on top of his own classics.

His new CD I’m What You Need is full of the fiercest sounds to come from a six-string guitar, exquisitely presented on a bed of humorous lyrics, Drowning On Dry Land, Ya Drive Me Crazy,Born To Win and my own favourite Wanna Walk Wicha Baby.

His biting attack and stinging axe work is a roller coaster ride for the audience in JJ Smyths, The Sky Is Crying, All Along The Watchtower, and Voodoo Chile are giving the bone fide classic treatment as Carvin assembles his lexicon from a variety of sources, traditional blues, classic rock, R&B tapping into the bone chilling adrenalin rush of the 12 bar blues progression.

Carvin lets it all hang out on Johnny B Goode which was sent into deep space many years ago by NASA as a representation of life on Earth aboard the Voyager as a message of good will to other alien civilisations and if you wanted them to witness what a good time fuel injected rock n blues show is all about then Carvin is the ideal ambassador.

Carvin creates a compelling web of guitar tones wielding his battered black Strat around the back of his neck, bouncing it off the floor, playing with his teeth, sending it flying down the floor in full volume with a smile of devilish excitement beaming from ear to ear.

The atmosphere is solid gold entertainment, is magically unpredictable and intoxicating with non stop excitement as someone remarked,

 “I don’t know whether to eat it, drink it or ride it.”

Just like last years performance there are no barriers between the artist and the audience at a Carvin Jones gig, just the feeling that you are in the presence of supreme confidence, natural friendliness and a super talent.

Its excellent guitar skill given freedom of expression, driven by passion by one of the happiest guys on the planet backed up by a pile driving rhythm section.

It was the best fun as always, vital and interesting at the Irish Blues Club on Tuesday night, and that’s probably the best complement you can pay someone at the end of the day.

Well done Carvin Dublin loves you.

John Primer @ Madison Bar, Dublin 25/05/2006

The sound of Chicago blues was heard loud and proud in the centre of Rathmines last night and it was a joyous night, a blues feast, of grooving, dancing, carousing in the company of the legendary Chicago Blues Guitarist John Primer.

The original show was scheduled to take place in MB Slatterys regular home of local blues promoter Pat Cannons Saturday Sessions, who found thankfully that the interest in the John Primer gig exceeded the capacity available in Slatterys and so we were treated to a large, well spread out and good stage visibility venue across the road upstairs in the Madison Bar.

John Primer earned his stripes riding shotgun with Willie Dixons All Stars, Muddy Waters Band filling the lead guitar spot until Muddy passed away in 1983, and moving on to a huge favourite of mine Magic Slim & The Teardrops before enjoying well-deserved front man status himself in the 90s, releasing hit albums like The Stuff You Got To Watch and The Real Deal among ten of his solo albums.
John originally from Mississippi moved to Chicago in 1963 cutting his teeth in the West Side Clubs of Chicago by the side of Junior Wells, Sammy Lawhorn and Buddy Guy and has evolved as a superb electric Blues troubadour with his own clean, uncluttered and ever reliable traditional blues solo phrasing and fast bottleneck signature sound.

Proceedings got off to an unexpected and excellent start with the arrival on stage of John Quearney, Pat Farrell and Jimmy Doyle popularly known to us all on the Irish Blues scene as The Business.Pat Farrell is a terrific guitarist and was in particularly fine form in this fast opening act set from these local stalwarts which caught fire from the start with solid groove favourites like Talk To Your Daughter, Dimples and a superb traditional Chicago blues treatment of Seamus O Hendrixs Red House.

Pat Farrell demonstrated an impeccable blend of blues techniques on the night that never once sounded crowded or overblown and it was a sizzling set and such a pleasure to settle into a night of blues in the company of such accomplished and unassuming flag bearers for the blues in Dublin.
Willie Dixon and T Bone Walker also got boiling arrangements from John Quearneys bass lines with Pat Farrells molten guitar lines slashing through clean and articulate, full of variety, energy and spontaneity topped off with tasty harp from Glen Baker joining them on stage for the night.

John Quearney is a joy to watch on stage showcasing a command of numerous musical styles using the neck of his Bass Guitar as a sort of baton to gesticulate the pace and groove reigning in Jimmy Doyles jazzier improvised flourishes again with the neck of his bass acting as a third drumstick.

A regular musical treat for myself recently has been one of Johns other projects the Wildmans Blues session in the Annesley House on the first Monday of the month with Jimmy as his regular drummer creating the backbone for a different line up and surprise amalgamation of Dublins finest musicians each month.

John Primers backing band for his Irish dates including the Warrenpoint Blues Festival was The Lee Hedley Band who took to the stage and warmed up the main phase of the show for about 30 minutes with some of their own favourites starting with Canned Heats On The Road Again.

“My dear mother left me when I was quiet young,
She said, Lord have mercy on my wicked son”

The groove was turning into a party at this stage as promoter Pat Cannons fears of solving the commercial nature of this venture were assuaged and calmed by the arrival of many familiar blues fans, Anna Livia 103.2 Bluestrain presenter Charlie Hussey, both Northside and Southside Eddie, Peter Moore just out of hospital for the event and local blues guitarists Ben Prevo, Pat Mc Sweeney and Graham Hynes all present to celebrate and support the arrival of this much respected guitarist from the Chicago Blues Scene.

Lee Hedley on Harp with his brother Mark on drums, flanked by Aaron Loughran on Electric and Double Bass and Lou Campbell playing a white Strat on Rhythm and Lead guitar duties have a friendly good time charm about them on stage.

It was my first time come across this competent and friendly bunch of guys from across the border who have a jam band, bar room roadhouse repertoire to suit all occasions with Hookerish/SRV Boogie pieces, the Fabulous Thunderbirds Tuff Enuff, The Rolling Stones Miss You and the ever popular Commitments song Treat Her Right all setting out the stall to get down and get with it.

By the time John Primer joined them on stage to rapturous applause they were pulling out all the stops with Lee wailing away to his hearts content on his Blues Harp on Johns classic Knocking At Your Door.

John moved about the stage with his favourite weapon of choice a hollow bodied Epiphone Rivera until he got the sound he wanted around him on stage moving on to another classic JP hard driving shuffle The Stuff You Got To Watch.John Primers seasoned guitar genius prevails from the start in a warn confident and unpretentious style show, that brings the band, the crowd and each song rumbling along like a latent volcano that climaxes with his trademark emotive, stinging axe work. His voice is confident and soulful and his bottleneck technique is pure traditional fifties Chicago blues producing pointedly wicked guitar solo after solo that serves tradition well.

John has a great sense of humour on stage his lyrics recalling adventures he had with some Red Hot Mamas across town and about the dilemma of having someone elses mule kicking in your stall, turning the atmosphere from groove time to party time and had the ladies shaking their beautiful asses all around the front of the stage.

“Everybody say yeah”
“If you got a mouth use it”
“If you ain’t got a mouth I still luv ya”

The Lee Hedley Band does well to stick the almost three hour pace this being the first time out of the traps with John Primer who confessed to not sleeping for two days, and even when they lose their footing there is a great sense of imagination and daring bobbing and weaving around Johns expertly delivered guitar playing.

The great affection the audience has for the traditional Chicago Blues set is often the familiar and accessible repertoire of classic songs like Sweet Home Chicago, CC Rider, Got My Mojo Working and Hideaway which cut straight to the chase, meaning for middle aged groovers like myself I don’t have to speed date a load of new songs to get into the groove.

John had to part with his hard working hollow bodied Epiphone and strap on what looked like a sunburst Les Paul mid song for string breaking version of I’m A Man with bite and girth, reassuring the audience that they will always have a friend in John Primer reaching to the shouts of approval with a vigour and love for both life and his top flight blues guitar music.

Magic moments were a plenty with the diversity of John Primers delicious guitar lickery ringing out effortlessly from the man known as The Real Deal and certainly satisfied the blues fans in Dublin with almost three hours of genuine house rocking live blues music reverberating around the Madison on Thursday night and one gets the feeling that when the groove is good these Chicago Blues guys would play all night long as was the case for the late Luther Allison up in the Monaghan Blues Festival back in the nineties on another memorable night.
Fortunately I got a chance to have a chat with John earlier on that night and found him to be an engaging affable man full of stories about the Windy City Blues scene and his travels.

I bought him a cranberry juice and we talked about hollow bodied Epiphone Rivera guitars and how his use of the same sweet toned hollow body through a Fender Twin is his desert island choice and how he had influenced many of his contemporaries to convert to hollow bodied Epiphones as well over the years for that traditional raw edged and uncompromising windy city blues style.

Like a good wine when it comes to guitars there are good years and bad years you have got to get the vintage right before you part with your money and he has a 1965 the bitch of the bunch.He is a very likable guy and great fun to spend time with.I told him in jest I had told my own father I wanted to play blues guitar when I grow up and my father had told me you cant do both.

Above all John Primer is fond of the past but he is not one for reclining on his laurels, constantly looking forward to the next performance with enthusiasm and good will and greeting all around him with a big broad smile.

Johns philosophy is simple, play from the heart and make people happy and hopefully be a success in the process and there was a house full of contented fans in Rathmines last Thursday night and early into Friday morning who would willingly confirm and second that emotion and the success of his philosophy without the slightest hesitation.

“She spends your dough
She drinks your gin
She rolls and she tumbles
Then she’s ready to go again
That’s the stuff you got to watch
That’s the stuff you got to watch
If you don’t wanna lose that girl.”

Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band 5/05/2006

The Boss came back to the Point Dublin on Friday night for an electrifying hard working performance from one of the most influential entertainers on the scene exclusively dedicating an entire show to some of the most significant old folk, gospel and blues songs from the past inspired by his portal to the same tunes through the music of Pete Seeger.

This was my first time to see Bruce Springsteen perform since witnessing his memorable shows in Slane and the RDS in 1988, which defined him as a Superstar and one of the very best live Rock Acts in the world.Another reason is that its become a lottery trying to get a ticket for a Bruce Springsteen show in Ireland such is the huge demand and the enduring loyalty of his fans and by all reports the shows on this current European tour sold out in less than ten minutes.

During his two hours on stage Bruce with his 17 members of the Seeger Sessions Band including his wife Patti Scialfa on guitar and vocals, turned The Point packed like a sardine can into a good old fashioned Barn Dance revitalizing classic tunes that go back to the Wild West day’s like Jesse James and Buffalo Gals and gave all an insight of the mass movement rally’s with sacred anthem spirit raising numbers such as We Shall Overcome creating an atmosphere of joyful celebration.

Since receiving a present of Bruce’s new compilation of traditional songs, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, which he had himself come across on old Pete Seeger LP’s from my good friend and Americana music collector Sean Finn I have been eagerly awaiting this opportunity to see these wonderful tunes performed live on stage and seldom has the wait exceeded all expectations and more.

These songs in years gone by, pointed people in the right direction in times of struggle, protest, disaster and now in the hands of a master communicator like Bruce Springsteen, experience a well deserved new lease of life on the international soundtrack of our lives, a well deserved revival and acknowledgement, providing hope and inspiration for the troubled communities of America as the modern generations experience the mistakes and disasters of the past being revisited in disbelief like the displaced populations of New Orleans and the neighbouring States and the divisiveness of the Iraq War.

As the musicians all filed on to the stage and Bruce directed them into “O Mary Don’t You Weep” followed by “John Henry” with super lap steel solo from Marty Rifkin one of the many assembled musicians on this tour who Bruce has played with before, but this is the first time they have combined their talents and played together for this jubilant jamboree on tour.

The stage looked like a Wild West tavern with pink and purple Grapes of Wrath backdrop and similar coloured chandeliers hanging overhead and when Bruce launched into the sweat dripping “Old Dan Tucker”, I half expected Trampas and the Virginian to ride on stage.Bruce Springsteen has always used his talent and popularity to represent an independent political voice an alternative source of information, a moral compass for his audience and never more has the sincerity of that voice been heard so passionately as in the dramatic interpretations of songs like “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize” and “We Shall Overcome” and pity the fool that tries to distract him from that mission such as his remark to a noisy member of the audience, “There’s a little man talking to me down there trying to keep me from fucking up.” Any premature clappers are advised to keep their hands in their pockets, The Boss sets the pace and he is deadly serious about the message contained within his performance.

Down through the years Bruce Springsteen has earned unquestionable respect and regard for his stance on civil rights, economic justice and a sane foreign US policy and when he performs the pain and protest sentiments contained in his Dixieland version of “My Oklahoma Home” its currency is as valuable as ever as millions and millions of residents of New Orleans found their homes and possessions washed away leaving them with nothing but the mortgage as the music of America’s shared past in the dust bowl and depression era is as real today as it was back in the 30’s and 40’s in helping people put it all into focus.

Before his own inimitable version of the nineteenth centaury Irish Ballad “Mrs Mc Grath” Bruce humorously informs the audience of a phone call from a well known Irish Musician and friend who admonished him over his pronunciation of the aforementioned Mrs McGrath as follows,” Bruce, you dumb bastard its Mrs McGrath not Mrs McGrate”. In fact the phonetic difference works perfectly as Bruce aligns the chorus to suit and its fun and its Bruce in top form.

“No, I wasn’t drunk and I wasn’t blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
A big cannon ball on the fifth of May
Tore my two fine legs from the knees away”

Bruce Springsteen is a mighty performer on stage in full control and steel driven in his conviction as each song is given his trademark key changing dynamic, the multiple climax. Bruce takes each song to an exhausting finale and then takes the audience willingly through several more bouts of foreplay building the song up for multiple climaxes with his awe-diance firmly in the grasp of his hand.

Jacobs Ladder he describes as a song abut this enormous “Fuck Up” who went on to find himself in God’s good books and it gets the aforementioned Springsteen signature treatment to perfection as well as the key changing sea chantey “Pay Me My Money Down” with that familiar voice booming powerfully around the Point leaving not a disappointed fan on this first date of the European Tour.

For me the real buzz here is the huge contribution, credibility and new doorway this opens for a whole new audience to traditional folk blues and gospel. The irony is that throughout Ireland there are thousands of musicians playing these songs with passion, week in week out and now hopefully this international attention will help fuel an energising enthusiasm and new audience interest.
Bruce Springsteen has been heralded as many things over the years from the new Dylan, to rock’s great white hope and the future of rock and roll and he has taken it all in his stride uncompromisingly following the voice in his head.

He is a charismatic performer beyond compare, who has always played by his own rules, making sturdy rhythmic harrowing bluesy folk arrangements of the modern world, of homeless, jobless, displaced, frustrated and confused people and creating morality pieces of art that mirror the world around him in the same way as Woody Guthrie, Lightning Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Hark Williams. His songs are consistently about hard people making hard choices some of their own making and some as a result of bad government or corporate greed and neglect.

I recall my own introduction to some of these tunes watching Frazzle’s Pat Mc Sweeney putting down his Strat and strapping on his Banjo, downstairs in Toners back in the late 70’s for a version Jesse James, sandwiched between Cocaine and Smoke On The Water and it was always a roof raising crowd pleaser and favourite of mine. Then their was PJ Curtis’s radio programs which I would tape and make up compilations of preferences from, which laid the groundwork for an amazing journey back through previous decades to join up the extraordinary music of previous generations and put it into context and its been an inexhaustible pleasure ever since.

As the encores of “Buffalo Girls” and “When The Saints Go Marching In” sends everyone out of The Point, The Boss’s reputation for being a superb live act is confirmed in a gutsy performance of deep inspiration, demonstrating the potency of a reputation that stands for thoughtfulness, integrity and conscience whose musical endeavours leaves an indelible fingerprint on the imagination of this generation.

Bruce Springsteen deserves great credit from all lovers of our musical heritage for taking such a wonderful collection of songs off the sidelines and giving them another chance to play. The music needs you Mr Blues Springsteen.

Now there’s tears on the pillow
darling where we slept
and you took my heart when you left
without your sweet kiss
my soul is lost, my friend
Now tell me how do I begin again?

My city’s in ruins
My city’s in ruins

Now with these hands
I pray Lord
with these hands
for the strength Lord
with these hands
for the faith Lord
with these hands
I pray Lord
with these hands
for the strength Lord
with these hands
for the faith Lord
with these hands

Come on rise up!
Come on rise up!
Rise up

Bonnie Raitt @ Olympia Theatre. 23/04/2006

Flame haired bottleneck blues guitarist Bonnie Raitt dropped into town to meet up with a full house of friends on Sunday night at the Olympia reminding us how this stranger to commercial success for two thirds of her career, is no stranger in the hearts and minds of her loyal Irish following devoted to this American Blueswoman since her arrival on the scene in the early seventies.

This LA woman has been playing guitar for fifty years since she first became enthralled by the wood and wire at eight years of age.Since then Bonnie has fused together her unique blend of laid back bottleneck saturated traditional blues and rock&soul music and has released ten albums before she broke massive in 1989 with Grammy Award winning compositions like Nick of Time and continued up to her current total of eighteen albums with some of the most subtly ingratiating blues music of recent years as well as appearances on another one hundred albums.

This lady blazed a trail for the emotionally conflicted rock chick long before it became a genre for adult female sensibility, and now is regarded as one of the most contented sensible touring acts on the road with a healthy off stage work life style balance producing music that is diverse and challenging.

“You gotta do stuff that stretches you,” says Bonnie Raitt. “I would hang up my spurs if I didn’t have something new to play.”

It’s a night duty life style where day time is recreational time, sleep walking to the Hotel room at 6am in the morning after a tour bus drive through the night to avoid traffic gridlock, and Bonnie believe quiet rightly that a healthy balance of good organic food, sleep and meditation makes for a more happier and effective life as a strolling minstrel. She likes to get to the local parks and exercise or just relax with friends like she intimated on Sunday with a pleasant walk with Irish friends in the Botanic Gardens.

It’s the music that makes it all worthwhile as Frank Zappa once said: ”Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid”.

When you’re in your twenties and living the life of a touring musician you can get away with tearing it up at the backstage parties and mood altering substances, but when you get on in years the road will throw you off kilter, curve balls zooming at you from all directions, you hurt a lot longer and you heal a lot slower so common sense must prevail if you are to succeed and more importantly survive.You don’t want to be a slave to the backstage, you need to semi detach yourself and have a life outside that keeps you grounded.

During the day on the road, she connects with her world of friends, musical cohorts and political causes through e-mail being as well known for her solid commitment and lobbying skills to environmental protection movements like No Nukes in ’79 and anti apartheid featuring in the Mandela concerts, causes like Forest policy that have got her arrested twice, alternative energy and Native American and American foreign policy awareness, and numerous other causes more recently her tireless efforts on behalf of the many musicians left homeless and without instruments following Hurricane Katrina’s brutal assault on New Orleans and surrounding States in America last year.

Her Band includes Nashville bases George Marinelli on Guitar and vocals who has also worked with Bruce Hornsby, Vince Gill and Joe Ely. James Hutch Hutchinson on Bass&Vocals who played with The Neville Brothers opening up for headliners like the Rolling Stones and was introduced to Bonnie by Ian Mc Lagan of Small Faces fame back in 1982 and has stayed with her since. Jon Cleary Keyboards has worked with Taj Mahal and BB King and has been writing and making great music with his own band The Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

Ricky Fataar Drums originally from South Africa has played with the Beach Boys, Ian Mc Lagan and Crowded House before joining up with Bonnie. Vance Foy is the opening act on this tour and he warmed everybody up nicely with a selection of his own songs on acoustic and keyboards and is certainly a talent to watch with rich melodic numbers easy to hook onto and strong vocal range that makes you feel like there is something inside so strong.

Bonnie and the Band hit the stage and its one thrill after another switching various Strats in different opening tunings and sending spinechilling slide riffs into the sweet embrace of her audience hanging on every spoken word and gesture. The relationship with Jon Cleary is superb sharing vocals on Jon’s own Unnecessarily Mercenary and swapping musical phrasing with Hutch, George and Ray as they weaved support around each song seamlessly.

I Will Not Be Broken is her powerful anthem to survival off her new
Album and a classic already as Bonnie introduced it by saying,” She can bend but she will not be broken.”She launched into a Fabulous Thunderbirds twelve bar ordering the band to smoke it on Kim Wilson’s I Believe I’m in Love with You.

Bonnie’s credentials are impeccable having mastered her stagecraft in the commercial wilderness in the early years in the physical shadows of blues masters like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Sippi Wallace and Mississippi Fred Mc Dowell and of course contemporary rock bottleneck guitarists and songwriters like Little Feats Lowell, George, Richard Thompson, Rory Gallagher and John Hiatt. She is the face of the memorable melody and the infectious funky blue groove represented superbly in her hugely successful collaboration with John Lee Hooker in the early nineties and on Ray Charles final album Genius. My own introduction many years ago to Bonnie Raitt was through the raunchy Chris Smither song Love Me Like a Man which she made her own with a laid back blues mama sassy tease.

Bonnie spent fifteen years on the road with Sippi Wallace and paid tribute to this major inspiration with a feel and authority that comes from a well-served apprenticeship with her essential rendition of Women Be Wise.

“Women be wiser, keep your mouth shut
Don’t advertise your man
Now don’t sit around girls
Telling all your secrets
Telling all those good things
He really can do
Cause if you talk about your baby
Yeah you tell me he’s so fine
Honey I might just sneak up
And try to make him mine
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don’t advertise your man”

Bonnie dedicated Nick of Time to her folks, who made her what she is, she went on to say that people live on in our hearts and memories and her dedication to the legacy her musical parents and her blues heroes handed down to her, will keep the flames of love alive in her music in a most perfect tribute to their memories. Bonnie Raitt’s religion is gratitude and represents the strength of the human spirit, taking life one minute at a time, living in the moment having lost both her parents in recent times and helping her brother recover from stage four cancer.

Over the years Bonnie Raitt’s greatest challenge has been to make the music she loves appeal to the new generation of music listeners and strike an often-critical balance that solves the commercial nature of the business with exciting, evolving and vital embellishments and improvisations to the traditional form.

It’s a no win situation facing many talented artists working the blues form like Bonnie Raitt and Eric Clapton, you either remain puritanical and stay poor and frustrated or you reach out to the mass music markets and upset the comparative sensitivities of the ethnomusicologists standing at the pearly white gates of judgement.Bonnie had commanded huge respect for navigating these waters, freely mixing road ready, tightly knit classic blues with her own stellar, powerful sassy brand of rock and soul music honed into a sleek bull’s eye performance.
She holds our own Paul Brady in the highest regard and cites the marriage of Irish Traditional music with popular trends as a major inspiration. Luck of the Draw the title of her 1991 album is given a passionate rendition in the Olympia with excellent lead guitar flourishes from George Marinelli.She turns her capable hand to a variety of grooves, its mature soul satisfying a range of strengths from low down blue to jazzy, chilled out for most chilled out, sophisticated ballad that’s big and bouncy and is rocking and rolling across all the state lines of musical influence.

She knows what she it and it is what it is, good songs in the hands of the diamond cutter, refined and polished by years of tough road tested craftsmanship, shining bright like a nightlight.Regarded as an honest hard working musician, she connects with her audience in ways other artists can only dream about.

There is an atmosphere of accessibility in the air, no barriers because for her fans Bonnie is a beacon of hope and guidance, her own life and experience shaped from having to draw on every last reserve of hope and determination she had at times. There is only one other singer can do that for me to that extent and that is Honor Heffernan a lady with a voice that calms stormy waters, who was sitting a few seats in front on me and its always so good to see her because she left an indelible imprint on my memory many years ago with her performance on a bitter cold winters night with Louis Steward down in the basement of the old Clifton Court Hotel on Eden Quay. As evidenced several times throughout Bonnie Raitt’s performance in the Olympia, it’s the power of the human voice and personality to cast a spell of absolute magic at times in our lives as we pass each other along the way.

The atmosphere was buzzing by the time Lets Give Them Something to Talk About, brought the main show to a close followed by several encores all given a massive reception by the audience before finally Bonnie sent everyone home on a soul satisfying high note with Angel from Montgomery written by another favourite on Irish soil John Prime.Bonnie Raitt’s performance fuses together a cohesive harmonic unity, excellent interpretations of finely crafted songs, given that signature trademark of hypnotically sexy drenched vocal and her electric exceptional raunchy command of slide tone and emotion from the neck of large wine bottle caressing the electrified metallic strings.

Inspired by her uncle’s Hawaiian lap steel initially and having the rare privilege as an aspiring young white slide guitarist to play with, talk to and be around the real deal her style encompasses the technique of the first half of the 20th Century, matured along the way to drive the new blues music of the later half with modern soul and a funky New Orleans ambiance.

It was a must hear mesmerizing performance from an artist comfortable in her surroundings forging sexuality and sensuality together with grit and gutsy style backed by a top class, dynamic aggregation of rock steady musicianship.
Bonnie Raitt’s is now my official definition of class and style.

Chartron and Zed @ MB Slatterys 25/03/2006

Has a very enjoyable musical treat in the centre of Rathmines Saturday night on my first visit to this upstairs candlelit traditional Irish pub that’s nowadays a very welcome music venue showcasing premier foot stomping blues, rock and traditional local and international attractions.

The entrance to this warm and handsomely decorated lounge is tucked away just off the main street and the minute I walked up the stairs and entered I felt a relaxed ambiance, enthralled by its huge old style gleaming bar running almost the length of the venue that recalls ancestral footsteps to mind from decades before creating the same spirit of our greatest character trait, the cead mile failte.

A collection of Buddy Guy’s pioneering and immensely influential classic tunes tearing it up in Chicago in the early sixties was creating an atmosphere to inspire the audience and the artists for the night ahead. There’s hundreds of ways to play the blues but getting that respectable tone right on the money like that from hearing Buddy’s classic old blues cuts can only come from a player who knows his blues onions and ear candy.

On stage another first for me in Chartron and Zed, a French Blues duo who bring a very tasty collaboration of delta blues and modern guitar styles and techniques out in a very well mixed sound topped off with a low down Mississippi Delta, John Lee Hooker style vocal further enhanced by Jean Laurent Chartron’s melodic French accent.

Chartron and Zed are both left handed guitarists a feature I have found that brings its own unique approach to the wood and wire as is the case with Albert King, Otis Rush, Jimi Hendrix and our own Ed Deane especially when they play the strings upside down like Jean Laurent Chartron. Zed brings the modern coat to the finish with his conventionally stringed Johnny Winter, SRV, Claptonesque influenced Gibson Les Paul and Cry Baby going through a Classic Fender Twin amp on loan from Andrew Strong that was slightly miked into the PA mixer.

Jean Laurent Chartron used two acoustic guitars one big old Spanish flamenco bodied guitar for bottleneck accompaniment in Open G tuning and the other in standard tuning and uniquely like the legendary aforementioned players with the Bass Strings closest to his shoes.

Chartron and Zed bring a fascinating, absorbing new dimension to the music of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Ry Cooder, Robert Johnson and Mississippi Fred Mc Dowel with the blues deep in their hearts and the ingredients fluent at their fingertips.The performance was a sparkling and endearing variety brought out with grace and charm as the consummate chemistry filled the atmosphere with a rich and warm sound, pumping acoustic percussive rhythms and screaming wailing sustain and wailing, pinched harmonics played with such intensity that at least five guitar strings threw in the towel on the night.

The blues hearted audience applauded with pleasure and clearly loved the excellent and exceptional talents of these two blues loving French men who give their best on stage. One of the signature sounds of Chartron and Zed is the percussive boogie pulse rhythms Jean creates on the reverse string upbeats picking frantically with his thumb and index finger.On Baby Please Don’t Go the groove was relentless and deep, working the familiar John Lee Hooker figures and Zed powering on the hard rockin groove with his Les Paul crybaby overdrive.

The Key To The Highway started off for me like an old Ten Years After song called Hear Me Calling a familiar cover song from back in the good auld day’s when I first started hanging out at the front of the stage watching the magic being unleashed into the stratosphere.

Little Hobo was a funky Ry Cooder/Bo Diddley groove that developed into a full-blown cross between Voodoo Chile and Not Fade Away. Again and again because of the well-balanced sound the acoustic pick ups going directly into the mixer created the perfect foil and blend for Zed’s magical touch on the Les Paul with his searing guitar work being partially miked into the seamless mix.

Rambling On My Mind and Goin Down Slow were perfect vehicles for this type of arrangement and whether intentional or not I couldn’t help noticing the recurring matriarchal theme running through the set on the eve of Mothers Day.

“Won’t somebody write my mother and tell her the shape I’m in
I want somebody to write my mother and tell her the shape I’m in
I want to tell her to pray for me
Ask her to forgive me for all my sins”

Crossroads was given this essential signature sound treatment forging the primitive Mississippi Delta acoustic with the electrified urban sound of the city today. Two sizzling guitar languages in harmonic motion with two passionate pair’s of hands digging into the merciless strings to provide extra twists of tension.

Jean’s bottleneck technique was also a treat to watch due to his unusual bottleneck slide. There have been many implements used by bottleneck guitarist’s down through the years, Fred Mc Dowel used to smash the neck off a whiskey bottle, Leadbelly used a pocket-knife, Duane Allman used a Coricidin medicine bottle for his tight sound and less sustain, Muddy Waters preferred a craftsman’s 5/8 socket and Jean Laurent Chartron let me try on his severed piece of bathroom towel rail with a rounded top for added tone and access an ingenious and nifty idea that allows this oversized nimble a few more angles for inventive and safer sliding.

“I went down to the crossroads fell down on my knees
I went down to the crossroads fell down on my knees
Asked the lord for mercy,
Save me if you please”

Chartron and Zed let their hearts lead their fingers into the blues heritage and the result is fresh and exciting set of classics invigorated with individualism. It’s a no mercy approach that gives these guys a hard working charisma on stage that guarantee’s them respect and admiration.

Chartron and Zed have mastered the first rule, the law of attraction, which is all about attracting into your life the people who share and harmonise with your thoughts. As the night drew to a close Chartron and Zed were like two living magnets on stage, drawing satisfied encouragement and delighted waves of appreciation from the audience in Slattery’s of Rathmines and that’s also how stranger’s become friends.

Promoter Pat Cannon’s has a determination to bring top quality Blues to this venue and his ability to do just that was clearly in evidence on Saturday night and I also bought some tickets for the real deal, Chicago legend and former Muddy Waters and Magic Slim and the Teardrops sideman John Primer’s gig on May 25th which is one of the best bits of blues news for me in 2006.

“ Well I’m a stranger here baby
Never been here before
I’m a stranger here baby
Don’t you turn me from your door
Don’t you know that a stranger’s
Just a friend that you don’t know.”

The Pale @ Annesley House, North Strand. 17/12/2005

Dropped into the Annesley House on Saturday night to witness the second coming of the well established live reputation of that ever popular late 80’s and early 90’s musical phenomenon around Dublin and further a field called The Pale. It was a cracking carefully crafted performance from the three musicians on stage who clearly take their job to entertain very seriously, to a full house with many of the original cult following in attendance.

Nowadays, original members Shane Wearen on Mandolin’s and Electric Fiddle, Matthew Devereux on Vocals, small bodied Taylor Acoustic Guitar, Drum Loops and Samples are joined by multi instrumentalist singer songwriter producer Jimmy Nail look-alike Colm Querney son of the excellent blues bass man and vocalist  John Querney.

Its a high energy well structured in yer face fused brew of amazing musical styles and traditions, Eastern Block Folk, Ska, Mod, Urban Reggae, R&B, Northside Blues literally something for everyone in the audience all topped off by the funny antics and humour of Coolock front man Matthew Devereux.

Matthews’s strong lyrical epics of life on the Northside have become anthems for the audience delivered on a bed of very diverse innovative, instrumental textures and big chorus sections with each number getting straight to the point. Matthew is a natural on stage, charismatic, jumping around the stage demanding the audience’s attention looking like the amphetamine popping hip hopping over opinionated Jimmy the Mod from Quadrophenia.

Very much mavericks in the cradle of Dublin’s scene first time around and way ahead of their time Shane Wearen ushered in a whole new style of music for the mandolin and demonstrates on stage the vast possibilities of the mandolin with his dazzling virtuosity, melody, harmony, complex vocabulary and combination of styles flourishing even more proficiently after the dark years in between.

In the same way that The Chieftains draw on the styles that grew from the  roots of various cultural musical traditions, The Pale’s music draws you in with the same warmth and immediacy in Mandolin maestro Shane’s  expansion of that often subdued instruments repertoire.

Adding some new fingerprints to The Pale sound on stage was Colm Querney on spidery bass played very much like a lead rather than rhythm  accompaniment alternating with an acoustic guitar played with a subtle, nimble wrist movement creating layers of compelling minor rhythms full of fresh rootsie variety and colour and great rhythm flexibility.

The rebirth of The Pale is in full blossom with a growth spurt honed by experience and time where the members now collaboratively take chances and push the music in new directions and let the beauty of the old songs shine through beautifully with the myriad of cultural influences present seeping into the mix like osmosis. As poet Brendan Kennelly puts it:

“All songs are living ghosts that long for a living voice”.

Crowd favourites like Small Town, Good Ship, Final Garden and Church of Bones are tastefully arranged contemporary grooves of neo spirituality and themes, like the pre Celtic tiger economic desperation and emigration and teenage migration, that seen Matthew spinning around to his mates in Coolock on his BMX only to be informed that they were settled in Australia and Germany and other far flung destinations in search of a future with potential, lyrics written with a real and potent ability creating vivid interpretations of the human landscape around him. In his lyrics as  subjective as words can be is friendship and hope challenged by the unsweetness of life and the horrors of hypocrisy in the need to have faith in something bigger than ourselves yet the disillusionment with clericalism on the ground floor. On stage Matthew has an expressionism that is full of gestures giving his words power, real introspection and virility not afraid of ridiculing himself, grabbing the attention, challenging the witty hecklers with intensity in his performance.

If you like to wander into the musically unexpected every now and then, The Pale will satisfy your needs that’s for sure. Check out their site for gigs in Carlow, Galway and Mullingar and I’m sure it won’t be long before they are back in the Annesley House again.

“This is such a small town
Someday you will find out
But you won’t hear it from my mouth
But it happened hear be in no doubt
Right here in this small town”

Brian Meakin Band @ JJ Smyths, Dublin 23/07/2005

The Brian Meakin Band’s show is a high energy, maximum entertainment value, sizzling six-string, no bull, tour de force. When it comes to the vigorous lightning fast technically proficient guitar techniques of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Rory Gallagher there is no doubt that Brian has studied each of his heroes well, obviously practiced his ass off and is now like a kid in a candy store capable of giving you any flavour you need, putting real spirit and not just technical ability into the traditional three piece landscape.

This three-piece powerhouse outfit is tight with an energy and primal intensity, which runs through renditions from the aforementioned gods of rock n blues with a passion oozing and dripping out of each of them.These guys can walk the walk and when they talk the talk they pay homage to the music that we all love so much and to the musicians that inspired them to get on a stage in the first place.

As time marches on we have lost many of the Brians heroes but we will still have their amazing guitar techniques and signature sounds demonstrated with pride and joy and dedicated to the joyous preservation of their musical legacy as long as talented guys like this combine their love for the music with their love for what they are doing.

What The Brian Meakin Band has got going for it is the ability to not only capture your ears but to capture your attention and hold it which is crucial in terms of attracting fresh new audiences around Ireland in through the front door to discover the musical magic of a bygone era. From the minute they walked on stage they had that in your face attitude like horses at a starting gate with a mission to keep the customer satisfied.

Brian’s guitar style is a neat hybrid of Blues and Rock that has been revisited and reshaped for the last five decades with a contemporary dynamic tube screaming analog crunch maintaining the consistent attack, making the notes sing on his green Fender Stratocastor, which is down tuned a half step to E flat giving the sound a beefier big and bouncy bite, with his right hand picking strengths adding texture, overdrive and Cry Baby wailing overtones with perfect execution on the Jimi and SRV double stop and microtonal bends.He harnesses the sound to each song with confident control creates exactly the canvas he wants without any involuntary extraneous noise or signal colouration as evidenced on his version of Rory Gallagher’s Laundromat Blues that took me back through time with authentic passion to the National Stadium on the Live in Europe tour such was the spot on tone and tempo.

He can progress confident in his ability to nail down that much loved modern blues fat swooping sound and big vibrato and he is on those slippery triplets to maintain momentum like a dog with a bone with the sound greased nicely with tube screamer, wah – wah and some sort of vibrotone creating that rotating Leslie type effect that was a staple of Jimi and Stevie Ray’s set up which he told me he had only received the day before and that the jury was still out on whether it should Clash (should it stay or should it go).

Mary had a Little Lamb, The Thrill is Gone and Jimi’s Berkley University version of Johnny B Goode show how quickly Brian switches lead to rhythm and back again throwing in a veritable encyclopaedia of blues and classic rock phrases shredding up the neck into a frenzy of melodic melting pot licks and screaming bends. Brian’s guitar performance is chock full of Texas hook-tastic heavy arm riffing, perfectly crafted slices of classic blues rock guitar that recall Green, Clapton and Pages front door mat welcome to the blues relaying a brew garnered from their own inspirations in Chicago and Texas from a generation earlier.

It’s the wonderful beauty of music, the only international language that we have got that thankfully what goes around comes around in a beautiful relay of who influenced who that should be cherished and embraced on positively blues street.Brian’s got an infectious enthusiasm on stage banter fantasizing about babysitters, G strings and focussing dedications towards some of the pretty women in the audience in a bid to channel some x and y sexual energy into the sound and the atmosphere of JJ’s on a Saturday night.He can rest assured that there is no cheese cutter walking about likely to get as much hardship as the G-string on his green Fender Stratocastor.

It all worked a treat on the night even if it’s a risky technique in Dublin with the mating response of many the macho native I’ve witnessed in the past threatening on such occasions to “shove that guitar up your hole if you don’t stop messin’ with me bird.”

Top marks for being a very hard working, genuine, dyed in the wool, music loving band and a very talented, cheeky and likable showman in Brian Meakin, spell that M…. A…. N.
The line I shoot
Will never miss
The way I make love to them
You know they can’t resist
I’m a man
I spell it M…. A…. N

Carvin Jones Band @ Irish Blues Club, JJ Smyths 7/6/2005

Always a” must go” for me when an American Bluesman comes to town and boy was I delighted to be in attendance for this high energy, cocktail of trailblazing guitarmanship, on stage acrobatics and solid gold entertainment.

Carvin Jones and his very competent and capable Band have their priorities right, its all about having a good time and I get the feeling that they don’t ever give up until everyone in the audience feel like their on stage and participating in the celebration, except that their way of doing things is by way of bringing the performance down with fifty foot guitar leads to the tables and sitting in between the amazed members of the audience, laying the regularly abused and evidently long suffering Fender Strat wailing like a banshee to rest across two tables and adopting a lap style technique in mid song and without any interruption to momentum of the piece of music filtering into every crevice in the room.Nothing stands between the artist and the audience at a Carvin Jones gig, there are no barriers, and it’s a wonderful feeling and a testament of his self confidence and natural friendliness on stage or off that leaves one and all thoroughly entertained.

Just watching someone like Carvin is enough to ratchet your own guitar confidence up a level on the stage presentation front alone.At one stage he invited Jennifer a beautiful American Lady and self confessed fan of the Blues in the audience beside me to dance a few steps while his guitar lay reverberating on the ground between the tables.

Carvin arrives on stage in top Texas form smiling like a showman that’s got more than enough to meet the challenge ahead, immediately stepping into a comfortable pair of Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrix’s boots with an effortless combination of charisma, soul, showmanship, and guitar vocabulary that pays homage to all the great influential masters of Blues. Carvin thankfully doesn’t go for the pain and sorrow approach to interpreting the blues preferring to whammy it up with joy and pleasure as central parts of his armoury.

Carvin is an ace player and delivers the set of classic covers and medleys with an uncompromising muscular brass knuckled style on his Black Fender Strat, that takes you to the hearts and hands of the essential bluesmen enhanced with some signature sounding effects that deliver right to your doorstep that combine to create a fusion of pile driving rhythm and screaming notes that suspend in the air long enough for someone to run downstairs in JJ’s and outside and rotate a flat tyre on Augier St if the need existed.

Like Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Stevie Ray and Jimi its got more to do with passion than technique at times stepping outside the minor pentatonic box scales and making the magic happen in the intervals, working the space between the notes till there fingers bleed, weaving in and out of the prescribed 1- 1V – V harmony and orbiting around the original influence until its time to land it on your own runway.

Hammering on double stops and rubbing sensually against ninth chords with power tube distortion, its Guitar Slim hanging out with ZZ Top and the wind cries get out of the way or its going to run you over.There is no standing on ceremony here, no bandstand meandering ,if its reverences you want you’re in the wrong house at a gig like this, you need to cross the street and go up to Whitefriars Street Church. Hideaway, Voodoo Chile, Little Wing, Sweet Home Chicago, Boom Boom Boom, Johnny B Goode, Dust my Broom are all just ingredients for the Blues n Boogie stew boiling away on stage.

If we are ever going to reclaim the blues for this generation and the next and solve the commercial nature of it for all concerned, then this sums up what a live performance is all about. This is what Guitar Slim and T Bone Walker has to do fifty years ago along the roadhouses of Highway 61 walking out through the crowds with a 100 foot lead snaking its way from the stage and playing back in at the audience through the window. This is a barrier removing participation tradition that must not disappear and is a signature trademark of the Blues performance and as necessary a credential as an Albert King wide interval bend, BB Kings vibrato and the bone chillin legacy of Albert Collins or John Lee Hooker already incorporated into the standard.

I witnessed our own Peter Moore weave a similar magic in JJ’s one freezing cold night in January, flanked by Ben Prevo and Johnny Reynolds on guitars and with Irish John Earl and the rest of the International Blues Band when the audience and musicians were as one and the atmosphere was warm, wonderful and spine chilling.

Peter also works from a tapestry of diverse and unique delights, one minute your head is in Mississippi and the next you’re a Blockhead in a burlesque London pub gig.So it is when Carvin plays its about attitude, he has one hell of a take no prisoners right hand approach snapping and popping the strings with utter conviction on his beat up Strat at one stage sent sliding down the floor of JJ’s at full throttle. Slashing and cutting the chords, chicken picking and damping arpeggios the reverb drenched sound commanding attention at all times with foxy pull and slide manoeuvres and the occasional bottle whipped off a table to add the bottleneck touch to proceedings.

He is unpredictable and cagey thriving in the fertile soil of Blues, Soul and Rock churning out a mix to keep things interesting, watching the eyes watching him from beneath the Texas Stetson. The Bass and Drum rhythm gives a rolling motion to the boogie as Carvin grafts on cunning grooves and hard rocking riffs delivered in an alternating fluid and piercing attack. Just as Muddy was the master of forging Delta acoustic music into the electrified, Chicago blues of today the flame still burns as long as players with the passion and vision of Carvin Jones are playing from the heart with that gift for spontaneous reorganisation and give freedom of expression to the music so that the end result is larger than life itself.

“If I can bring joy into the world…then I’ll be successful”. Bobby McFerrin musician said and if you want to see that demonstrated treat yourself to a Carvin Jones Band gig.

As I left JJ Smyth’s last night and fair play to the lads in the Irish Blues Club for their efforts to keep the Blues scene alive, someone outside the door told me that the powerhouse rhythms from upstairs had caused the air bags in a Toyota Avensis to involuntarily explode outside the door. Legendary gigs when reminiscing have a habit of prompting exaggeration as time goes by and this one deserves to get off to a good start.

The Who @ Vetch Field Football Stadium, Swansea. 12/06/1976

This was my first opportunity to see The Who play live after years of adoration and admiration. I had all the records and my bedroom was wall to wall posters featuring the members of The Who, regarded by me as the greatest Rock Band in the World.

I set off on the Friday evening with my two precious tickets and met my girlfriend in the Horse and Tram on Eden Quay who was not committed to the journey up to that point but after a few hours whispering in her ear that she was the only one for me, ever was and ever would be fuelled by countless pints we set sail together across the Irish Sea from the North Wall.

With nothing but the faded blue denims on our backs and the two Who tickets in the breast pocket of my Wrangler Jacket, we made our hangovered way to Lime St Railway Station in Liverpool to catch a train to Swansea via Birmingham arriving in the early afternoon. As the train weaved its way through the rolling hills and mountains of Wales I was picking out the symbols of the times, spotting a series of caves on a mountain side inhabited by a chapter of the local motorcycle gang with swastikas crudely painted on the rock face and camp fires sending up smoke signals into the landscape.

The only thing I knew about Wales up to that point was its famously long place names, and a story about an Irish guy travelling to a Welsh caravan park, who had ran off the road and made his way to a roadside AA phone box to call for assistance. When asked where he was, he said the sign up the road said Dangergoslow and he was promptly told by the AA operator that there was no such place and that the sign was actually Danger Go Slow. This was my pilgrimage to Lourdes, being swept along amidst a sea of similar like minded fans on their way to pay homage to these gods of live rock music. It was momentarily exhilarating, momentarily intimidating, walking towards the Stadium surrounded by my generation most in a reduced state of awareness festooned with embroidered logos and badges with one common denominator, The Who.

The Who were the ultimate live rock harmony of guitar, bass and drums on stage, the legal limit was 90 decibels but this three outdoor Stadium Tour of Britain, had the band cranking it up to 120 plus in Charlton Football Ground London, on May 31st, Celtic Football Ground Glasgow, and now Swansea. This gig in Swansea would turn out to be the last major concert that Keith Moon played in Great Britain before he went to the great stage in the sky apart from a few specially invited audience gigs in London for the filming of their movie The Kids Are Alright. I picked up a local paper en route and found that page after page referred to this afternoon’s event, I felt I was apart of something huge and all around us was the evidence of a major happening. The streets of Swansea that afternoon were a profile of The Who fan base, Mod fans from the mid sixties when The Who exploded on to the scene with anthems like My Generation, Substitute and I Can’t Explain, fans from the late sixties turned on by the Monterey, Woodstock, and Isle of Wight Rock Festival appearances and the seventies converted by the Who’s Next LP and singles like Won’t Get Fooled Again, Join Together and Squeeze Box currently sitting high in the charts.

The thunderous sound of motorbike engines suddenly captured everyone’s attention as we turned to view a convoy of Hell’s Angels cruise by with the ugliest specimens of mankind riding in filthy black leathers covered in tattoo’s and chains on top of spotless chrome plaited high powered bikes. The attitude and menacing expressions would be fierce enough to wilt the flowers in your front garden were they ever to call to your front door. These guys were notorious for their activities, stories abounded in the press about the fact that they would pull out your teeth with a pair of pliers as quick as look at you, and how they rated the exhaust pipe on their souped up Harley Davison higher than the moll sitting on the back seat. As we made our way into the Football Ground we passed a mounting mound of broken beer bottles, cider flagons and cans all removed and discarded by the Security into rows of skips.

Inside the Stadium everyone was settling in, organising their patch on the field or up in the stands and within each group someone was delegated to rolling up the joints, gumming the rizla’s ,making the roches and formulating the recipe for an amazing trip all performed with the brazen confidence of a highly successful cottage industry. The overwhelming sensation on entering the inside of the stadium was the sound coming from the stage PA system, a booming sound that hit you in the middle of your stomach, unlike any stage sound I had ever experienced, the four thousand capacity National Stadium on the South Circular Road was the biggest rock gig I had been to up to that point to see our own Rory Gallagher. The support acts on this tour made their way onto the stage as the afternoon progressed into nightfall, their current popularity creating the hierarchy or pecking order.

Some of the earlier bands on stage were Widowmaker and Streetwalkers who performed good sets but apart from pockets of their own support the crowd remain largely indifferent as happens at such multi act events. The Outlaws were a three guitar Southern Boogie Band riding on the crest of the Lynard Skynard, Allmann Brothers Band style of rock. The colourful shirted Little Feat were a laid back Southern Funk outfit (featuring a fantastic guitarist called Lowell George) with a lot more going on, most of which went over my head on that overcast Saturday afternoon in Swansea. I had bought their album in anticipation of the concert and was already hooked on a song called Long Distance Love and All That You Dream. Their stage set featured props from the cover of that album, a giant cactus and other Texas desert paraphernalia which was breaking big across the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and loads of tambourines and percussive type accessories creating that Southern Funky Dixie Chicken picken funk. Unfortunately this was a great band in the wrong place and the tetchy, restless, drizzled upon crowd were not that appreciative, throwing back the complementary gestures of tokens to the audience such as tambourines and maracas and hurling them back at the band on stage.

Alex Harvey Band were creating a real buzz on the scene at the time bringing a loyal band of Scots with them on tour who seemed to be shouting for the band to come on from minute they stuck their heads into the Stadium, some of them so tanked they continued to shout for the band while they were doing their stuff on stage. They were on top form with loads of theatrics and props, Nazi uniforms and make believe walls to topple long before Pink Floyd arrived with the concept a few years later. Standout songs for me if my memory is correct was versions of Delilah and the Boston Tea Party both great sing along tunes pumped up with the excellent guitar work of Clem Clemson. The comic book imagery of the stage show was fantastic to watch but the impact was somewhat diminished in the daylight. I was feeling quiet nervous in the middle of dampen crowd, along with my equally worried girlfriend as we watched scuffle after scuffle erupt around us as the crowd suffered withdrawal symptoms from the drink they had consumed on the way and angry at the fact that their drink supply was confiscated on the way into the grounds.

There were several coach loads of fans from London, who had been turned away from Charlton because of overcrowding and they were sporting the latest Punk fashions breaking big out of London at the time, the rip shirts and Mohican hair styles, studs, safety pins sold with lots of attitude and aggro. The Who were one of the few bands drawing the Punk audience because so many of the new wave bands were openly influenced by the earlier Sixties three minute power singles like Substitute and My Generation.

Then after a long wait for The Who to hit the stage, interrupted by a huge fight up near the front of the stage, the four people with the power to make things happen arrived for a blistering set, a brilliant performance. Keith Moon cart wheeled onto the wet stage and ran about waving his arms at the crowd before settling in behind his double kit that seemed to take up most of the stage. Roger Daltrey swinging his mike in 20 feet circles around his head and Pete Townshend in double waisted trousers and Doc Martens commenced to rally the crowd with one classic after another. The quiet one John Entwistle tied it all down with his thunderous bass sounding like a 747 revving up to take off, bedding down virtuoso flourishes from Pete and Keith with slabs of foundation. When a skirmish broke out in front of the stage at the start of the set, Pete Townshend marched to the mike and threatened to send in The Who’s minders to sort it out which immediately restored calm. One of Keith Moon’s minders was reputedly a burly former New York Police Detective who was dismissed from the force for allegedly bringing in a suspect in the glove compartment of his car.

Suddenly there was a wild rapturous applause all around me and I knew then that this was what I had waited nervously for all afternoon. It was exactly like I had long dreamed it would be, every line and chord maxed out for maximum rock n roll. We were ecstatic in the stands high off to the right hand side of the stage carried along by the relentless pace of set. The mean and restless crowd of early, were now clearly euphoric and overjoyed roaring on approval as if the band were scoring a goal every three or four minutes. It was an amazing transformation and relief for us to suddenly feel apart of a sea of brothers and sisters in arms. Pete Townshend slashed out power chord after power chord with wide windmill swings of his right hand across the strings of his guitar and Keith Moon swinging sticks like an octopus behind his armoury of drums. Sadly this was to be the last time Keith would play live in front of a major concert audience in Great Britain and his wild ways on and off the stage were in top form that day in Swansea.

The Rolling Stones Mobile recording studio was on site to record the performance but it was twenty years later before this material surfaced, Dreaming from the Waist from Quadrophenia and John Entwistle’s My Wife from Who’s Next were released on The Who’s Box set Thirty Years of Maximum R&B and Behind Blue Eyes and Squeeze Box came out as extra tracks on the CD reissue of The Who by Numbers. The real magic of The Who’s powerhouse performances was always the stage, capturing the energy and fire of the individual talents and pulling the best out of each of them. Their collective stage presence was larger than life and overwhelming especially for me seeing them for the long awaited first time live. As The Who moved through their set with incredible power, it was like watching weapons of audience destruction being wielded; they had a tradition of doing a big job and using big weapons to get that job done. Loudspeaker Cabinets shook violently with electric intensity as John Entwistle spidery thunderous bass lines clashed seamlessly with Pete Townshend’s awesome attacking rhythm and lead guitar work, so familiar with each others sense of timing, firing on all cylinders, locked into groove after groove in a dynamic, explosive spectacle and display as the reigning Best Rock Act in the World at that time and absolutely huge on their home turf. Charles Shaar Murray my favourite writer in my bible those times the NME described the The Who as “The most powerful and majestic heavy metal roar available”.

Pete was building the crowd up to fever pitch doing his inimitable jumps and leaps across the stage, everyone staring breathlessly as he screwed up all his energy to perform one of his full arm swinging windmills across the tortured strings on his guitar. As the daylight disappeared the lights around the ground started to become a major feature of the show. Near the finale during We’re Not Gonna Take It massive mirrors had been positioned around the roof of the Stadium and when the Laser lights came on the atmosphere was filled with spectacular colour formations rebounding over the crowd’s heads. The misty cloud of smoke and breath arising from the Stadium was turned into a multi coloured mushroom over the ground. When the show ended with the classic Won’t Get Fooled Again the lights were blazing with blinding energy pulsating to the finale, a stadium full of fan conquered and converted by Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and the incomparable Moony.

See Me
Feel Me
Touch Me
Heal Me

I had waited for years for this and this was my Woodstock, this was what a rock show was all about, celebrating the music of the band you worship in their own church. Years of listening to the music at home and reading about The Who’s legendary exploits all around the world, paled into insignificance as I watch them create a live performance before my very eyes. When the show ended we all spilled out on to the night streets of Swansea and headed for home, except that we had no plan for the way home. The sheer anticipation of finally seeing my heroes had focused all my energy on getting to the gig and not a moment spent on what would happen afterwards.

Decided to get off the busy streets and wait for the exit march to subside, settling into a small Swansea pub and tucking into some local brew and crisps. Got the last train out of Swansea and got as far as Cardiff where we crashed out for the night along with a station full of nomadic rock and roll travellers. The night suddenly became a bonus when we came across a group of hippies with an acoustic guitar playing the soundtrack of the times. I joined in having broken the ice by having a few plectrums in my jeans and playing my three chord versions of The Who’s catalogue and a few Jimmy Reed tunes that I had mastered. I was particularly getting a buzz out of playing The Who’s blues version of My Generation with its Jimmy Reed style rhythm that I had first heard on the televised Charlton Concert in 1974 on the Melvin Bragg Show and had also featured in the show that afternoon. I had to abandon an attempt to provide backing for one of the girls singing a Sandy Denny song called Who Knows Where the Time Goes which has been a cherished memory to this day the sound of her voice that is and not my poor technical proficiency on the guitar. Another rock fan passing by joined in and sang the entire Jetro Tull album Aqualung unaccompanied in a thick Yorkshire accent that was captivating and bone chilling in that cold damp Welsh railway station at 4am in the morning.

Spent most of Sunday travelling to Liverpool reading out passages from The Who Put The Boot In Tour Program which I still have to this day. When we got back to Liverpool we found the whole city practically empty on that Sunday afternoon, walking the legs off ourselves looking for infamous Beatle landmarks immortalised in song, down memory lane like Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. Found a cosy little pub opened at about 7:30 that evening and started to spend the last of the money on a few more pints of local Ale and more crisps and peanuts. Our unkempt appearance long hair and unwashed denims were also starting to attract attention. This was 1976 and the Irish accent was often greeted with suspicion and concern to put it mildly and was understandable because of the recent IRA atrocities in Birmingham and Guildford. Like most of Europe at the time, England was going through bleak times as well with high unemployment, high oil prices, soccer violence and an angry Punk and Skinhead movement roaming the streets looking for any excuse to vent their anger. It was a relief to get on the boat back to Dublin that night and fall asleep in one of the couch like seats in the Bar on board for almost the whole crossing.

When we finally went our separate ways on O Connell Bridge the next morning we both realised that the trip had taken a heavy toll on not only our bodies but our relationship as well. That was finally confirmed however when she rang to tell me that I was in deep ship with her family who had an S.O.S out all weekend looking for her. We did however remain good friends afterwards and she subsequently sent me postcards from many foreign adventures she was to embark upon to places like Israel and Brazil always asking how The Who were doing in passing and citing that our trip to Swansea on that June weekend in 1976 as the motivator for her travel bug.

I arrived in the door of my family home and went straight up the stairs put my cherished copy of the The Who Put the Boot In Tour program in my wardrobe and slept for at least 36 hours straight. A bullet proof and resilient twenty year old hippie from Dublin I was shattered but ecstatic after my trek to see the Greatest Rock Band In The ‘World right before my eyes. I would travel again many times to see my favourite group The Who play but that virginal experience has always remained in a special place in the attic of my mind.

The future trips were always by air and included hotel accommodation:

  • The Who & Friends @ Vetch Field, Swansea, Wales 1976
  • The Who Roar In gig in Wembley Stadium in 1979 supported by ACDC, The Stranglers and Nils Lofgren.
  • The Who @ NEC Birmingham 1982 supported by The Steve Gibbons Band
  • The Who @ Wembley 1985 for the Live Aid Concert
  • The Who @ Hyde Park 1996 supported by Alanis Morisette, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton
  • The Who @ London Arena 2000 supported by Joe Strummer and The Mescalaros
  • The Who @ Wembley Arena 2000 supported by Joe Strummer and The Mescalaros.
  • The Who @ Valley Amphitheatre, Marysville Sacramento California 2002 supported by Counting Crows.
  • The Who @ Oxygen Punchestown, Naas Co Kildare Ireland 2006
  • The Who @ Marley Park, Dublin 2007
  • The Who @ The Marquee, Cork 2007
  • The Who @ O2 London 2009
  • The Who @ Hammersmith Odeon 2011
  • The Who @ O2 Dublin 2013 supported by Vintage Trouble

Long Live The Who