Monday night in Leeds and playing to a packed Love crowd, CHRIS HELME is devoid of his band The Yards and - perhaps understandably - a little nervous. His first song, the abrasive "Get Off My Back" collapses when he realises too late that his guitar's not in tune and when he does get it right, the end results are tense and brittle.
Not an auspicious start, but Helme's a fighter and it doesn't take him long to find his feet and get to grips with what is an all too brief set. "Only Myself To Blame" and "The Devil Is Alive And Well And In DC" are also paraded from the recent Yards EP and both sound purposeful even with only Helme's strident semi-acoustic for company. He adds a snatch of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" to the tail end of the former and suggests "we can't be rid of him soon enough" by way of tribute to George Dubya when introducing the latter.
Both songs are fine examples of concise, affecting songwriting, but they're not the only aces Helme has up his sleeve. He also showcases "Firefly" and "Moonbeams" from the forthcoming Yards album and they've all the hallmarks of yet to be established classics. "Moonbeams", especially, is vulnerable, fragile and quite lovely. That long-awaited album is surely gonna grab him back some kudos.
And talking about waiting, your reviewer's had to wait until now to finally see the living legend that is ARTHUR LEE with the reconstituted LOVE. But within mere seconds, it's entirely apparent the patience this has required has not been in vain. They open with a magnificent "Live & Let Live", and from that bizarre opening line ("Oh, the snot has caked against my pants" - and this from 1967?!) onwards, it's patently obvious this is going to be something way beyond special.
Indeed, once your correspondent has got over the fact that he's been assaulted with a slew of tracks from the ageless "Forever Changes" (a breathtaking "Alone Again Or", a tender "Andmoreagain" and a beefed-up slash through "Bummer In The Summer" come tumbling out in succession), he's just about aligned himself to the power of the new Love line-up. Sure, there are no strings or horns here, and it's a far harder, edgier sound, but the quality of the musicianship is simply first rate, with an inordinate number of the melody lines adapted to perfection by brilliant, livewire lead guitarist Mike Randle: a chap who's quite a showman in himself.
But there's no upstaging the man we're all truly here to see, Mr.Arthur Lee. One of the few people who actually merits the "living legend" tag, he's just mesmerising onstage, especially relatively up close and personal on an old, Victorian-era stage like the City Varieties. Charisma personified, his movements alone are amazing, with the way he stamps and stiffens his body particularly memorable. On several tracks he plays rhythm guitar with a strange, thumb-heavy style all his own, while his harmonica skills are something to behold. He demonstrates this when the band dip into their debut album for the deceptively gentle "A Message To Pretty" and a superb reworking of the chilling "Signed DC", where Lee's wailing harp duels with Randle's ace, Jeffrey Lee Pierce-style slide playing and gives you goosebumps in the process.
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It's no exaggeration to say the whole set's a masterclass, with the highlights virtually impossible to keep pace with. If your appetite's not already whetted, how about if I tell you they also played a blinding version of "Orange Skies"? Or that "The Red Telephone" still teeters on the brink of madness? Or that - unbelievably - they actually tackled the choppy chords and propulsive potency of the obscure single "Your Mind & We Belong Together", where Randle seals the deal with an extended, Hendrixian workout.
The other good news is that Arthur's beginning to take an interest in new material, too. Tonight, he introduces a new song called "Rainbow In The Storm" (I think this is the title, though it's a little hazy), which is pretty cool. Admittedly it has fewer switchbacks and chicanes than some of the classic songs, but it's immediate, poppy and stands up well in such auspicious company. Not bad considering a blistering "7 And 7 Is" and a positively show-stopping "You Set The Scene" come along in its' wake.
They return for a solitary encore of "Between Clark & Hilldale" with Arthur resplendent in smart, black nudie-style shirt, but considering the unimpeachable quality of just about everything they've presented tonight, to cavil about quantity seems redundant at best.
Indeed, as most of the material in their set approaches its' 40th birthday, Love are the most elusive of influential beasts. They are led by a man pushing 60 who's got more cool in his little finger than anyone gracing the cover of the NME and their audience demographic covers a range from teenagers to pensioners, while their songs sound fresher and more magical than virtually anything you care to mention that's shaped the face of the zeitgeist in recent times.
Living legend, then? S'pose so, but is any mere term really big enough to contain Arthur Lee? Seems to me he's still light years ahead of his time.
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