Gary Moore Live At Bush Hall 2007 does exactly that, puts Gary into one of London's loveliest venues, playing beneath the glass chandeliers, to a crowd of 400 fans who won tickets from Planet Rock radio on May 17th 2007. Gary played a set half comprised of what was then his latest album Close As You Get, that turned out to be his final studio album, that's being celebrated on 24th April this year with the re-issue of 5 albums he played on, from the 55th Anniversary re-issue of Heavy Pettin' by Dr Strangely Strange, the band he played with prior to joining Thin Lizzy, along with his final four albums. His band at the Bush Hall was old Thin Lizzy mate Brian Downey, Vic Martin, and Pete Rees. The album was produced and mixed by Gary Moore and Dave Wooster and engineered by Jonathan Tayler-Webb.
Gary opens the show by telling the audience that they will be playing stuff from the new album and not a greatest hits set, before they open with If The Devil Made Whiskey that was also the opening song on Close As You Get with Gary unleashing a sumptuous solo in between the verses while wondering what would happen if the Devil was a woman. They stay with the new album for a cracking run through Chuck Berry's Thirty Days this is a bit slower than on the album version, but they are clearly having a great time blasting it out, until that scintillating solo takes them to the gods, sounding so hot that he gets everyone to clap along and join in the chorus.
Trouble At Home slows things down a bit allowing Vic Martin's keyboards to take centre stage, being decorated by the guitar flourishes, Gary pouring out his heartbreak and his poor woman's tears. Hard Times has a hard strutting edge to it, while everyone is scrabbling around trying to get by, hoping to avoid the heartbreak of a partner cheating on him while he tries to cover the bills, wringing emotion from his guitar while the rest of the band cooks along.
Sonny Boy Williamson's Eyesight For The Blind is an immense rave up and boogie down, through this classic lovesick blues, for that woman who will blow his mind like his guitar blows his fans minds, the band are strutting and preening and making a glorious noise. I Had A Dream slows things right down to allow Gary to make clear to you that he really wants you to be his queen, with echoes of In The Heat Of The Night and a late 50's sensibility for everyone to gently sway along too.
Too Tired was the first song they played not on Close As You Get and no matter how many times Gary says he's Too Tired the band sound full of beans and blasting away at this Johnny Guitar Watson classic, making it if not their own, then at least one for the guitar mavens to drool over, his solo's truly energetic and enough to raise anyone from their torpor, Vic trades keyboard licks against Gary's immense fluid soloing, at the breakdown at the end you can hear the rooms resonance while they slip into Gary's Blues 1 an exemplary showcase for his talents and the talent in the band hamming it up and allowing Gary to steal licks and tricks from his own heroes.
They go back to Gary and Brian's time in Thin Lizzy for a slow burning fuse version of Don't Believe A Word playing this heartbroken love song, just a few hundred yards from where Phil Lynott was, with Stanley Bowles on the night the boys got back to town and he wrote that classic. This sounds like they want one more chance at love and the total restraint of Brian's drumming acts as a perfect foil for Gary's florid playing, with them getting far heavier as the song progresses.
Gary introduces Still Got The Blues by promising it will be in time, in tune and professional sounding for this windswept blues ballad that is every bit as monumental as you'd expect this hit to be. The keyboards act as the string section, accentuating the immortal solo, that you couldn't escape in the 90's, it was indelibly imprinted in most music fans heads, still sounding as over the top as it gets, so impressive to play live like this.
Jimmie Rodgers Walking By Myself is played as a sing along bar room blues standard, with Gary encouraging the sing along, sounds like everyone is having great fun rocking along to that swaggering riff and beat before Gary says goodnight over the blistering outro and histrionics, building to a perfect crescendo ending.
For the encore they open with Little Milton's classic The Blues Are Alright with a slow intro to that riff, that everyone knows and loves, it starts to barrel along, like a song every blues aficionado from the 50's onwards should know by heart, which is why everyone is singing along with the band, I guess with big grins at the outrageous solo in the middle of it, Gary gets them all clapping and singing along, a perfect fun encore song for all the individual band solos and huge great ending. The second encore is Gary solo on his acoustic guitar for Son House's Sundown being played like a back porch delta spiritual blues, the audience providing the clapped backbeat for this sweet close to what sounds like a stonking great gig.
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