This is my first gig of 2015 but I could easily have been out at shows every night of the week leading up to this; not least at events at the 12 Bar Club, where their closing down festival took place all week long or at the 100 Club for the Resolution Festival of Punk that this show closed. I missed most of the support acts but got in shortly before PHILIP RAMBOW came on.
Well Philip Rambow opened with his best-known song Young Lust. It sounded great being played on an acoustic, so apart from the fact that these days Philip is a gent of a certain age that makes the lyrics to Young Lust seem woefully inappropriate. In between songs, Philip told some cool stories and introduced Night Out as being about going to see Television at CBGB's back in the day. It's a damn fine song although there were some bits that obviously needed more of a band to fill it out as the pauses and some of the changes sounded a bit odd.
He then brought things up to date with some of his recent songs; the first of which Who Cares Who Cares is a biting satire about the times we live in and just how self-centred everyone has become. I'm A Baby Boomer was a wry rumination of what it has been like to be part of the baby boomer generation who all liked to get high and try to change the world, even if he doesn't like the world we currently live in. He closed his set with a song about Happiness and managed to get most of us to join in. This was a short and cool set from the legendary ex-Winkie and member of 801.
Then it was time for CHRIS SPEDDING who was introduced by the man who promoted the very first gig Chris played at the 100 club back when he was in the Jack Bruce band in 1968. He also told us that Chris' current band featured Jack's son Malcolm on bass as well as Chris Page on Drums.
They opened with a storming version of Wild In The Streets and with Chris playing the same customized guitar he's played the last couple of times I've seen him with Robert Gordon and John Cale. It was about halfway through that he hit his first solo of the night and damn, it sounded brilliant. He then did a very cool version of Wild Women that had him swapping looks with Malcolm Bruce whose bass just rumbled brilliantly.
Then it was time for a couple of train songs as we rode Down In Louisiana and Chris' nice deep voice got us into the right mood to Catch That Train. Both of these had the band playing the rhythms as if the 100 Club was a train moving along some tracks. I was almost expecting them to play Click Clack next, but instead we got to find out about Mary Lou. That was greeted with much love from the packed club and it sounded every bit as good as it always has.
Then it was time for a western instrumental that sounded like they were playing the soundtrack to a messy gunfight and this was the musical showdown that could only be settled with the Silver Bullet Chris sang about on the next song.
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He sounded like he meant every word of Love Has Made A Fool Of Me: a wonderfully bittersweet song that was perfect to come just before the classic Hey Miss Betty. It had most of us singing along. The next song was about how the Future Has Gone Already. It was cool and a touch languid.
They did a very laid back version of Rip It Up that seemed to really emphasize everything in the song and it was very cool. Then Malcolm sang the old Cream classic Sitting On Top Of The World with Chris doing his best to out-Clapton Eric. He made it seem effortless and pulled it off again while playing I'm Walking With the Kid or whatever that was called. <
It was strange hearing Summertime Blues on a cold January evening but it certainly warmed the place up nicely in time to welcome to the stage long-time collaborator Steve Parsons who is the co-producer of Chris Spedding's latest solo album, Joyland which also features guest vocals from among others Mr Parsons, Andy Fraser, Ian McShane and Bryan Ferry. Steve injected a good shot of energy into Message For Stella: one of two songs he sings on Joyland which is out later this month on Cleopatra Records
Then it was back to the classics for Shaking All Over. That was rumbling and shaking all over the place. Then they did Goodbye Love before making everyone's night with a storming version of Motorbikin' before they closed with Guitar Jamboree during which (as usual) Chris played solos in the style of many of his heroes from Chuck Berry to Leslie West to Clapton and Hendrix.
Well, of course they had to come back for an encore and treated us to slow menacing version of Wild Thing. Oh yes, they certainly made our hearts sing. A very cool conclusion to an effortlessly brilliant set by one of the greatest guitarists to have come from these shores and a man who is still very much in demand. If you get the chance do not miss this tour and go and get Joyland.
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