Out Of Time, Out Of Sight: Chris Farlowe Live At The Half Brick!

Ah, this will stand as one of those great events in my life, and I only hope that the little audio clip will give you some of the flavour of a night in the presence of a British soul legend, Chris Farlowe!

Accompanied by Blue Eyed Handsome Dad once again, we embarked on a musical journey into British soul history. Dad recalled the last time that he was lucky enough to hear Chris Farlowe sing, which he believes may well have been at The Flamingo Club in Soho in the height of 1966, when Chris was most definitely Number 1 amongst blue-eyed soul artists. He was riding high with his hit Out Of Time on Immediate Records, and Jagger and Richards, not to mention Mike D'Abo could not help but proffer him amazing material to record. This followed an outstanding year 1965 on record, releasing his EPs of soul classics which showcased his roaring and soaring, soul-shaking sound.

Well, we set off from the shores of town, west towards the nearby town of Worthing, arriving at a small seafront inn called The Half Brick, renowned for a regular line-up of local blues artists and rock tributes. This was something slightly more important, however. All the more bizarre, then, to discover that the headline act had been shunted into a cramped corner of the bar to make way for a wedding reception in the function room! The bar was absolutely jam packed, and at first we wondered if we would be able to make our way around the corner to view the stage.

No matter, we were here because for some they had been there. Blue Eyed Handsome Dad bumped into at least two old friends who remembered the days of modishness and could not resist the pull of Chris Farlowe. We endured the slightly over long set by the support act and watched the man himself, who had been relaxing comfortably at the front, stand up and take his place.

The band cranked up, and began to play "Ladies and gentlemen, Stormy Monday Blues!" cries Chris, then stops! ... "Wait a minute! They've forgotten how to bloody play it!" ribbed Chris, abruptly breaking away from the mike to turn and stare at the band. With a smirk he folds his arms and observes the guitarist and bass, as they realise their mistake and try to crawl the chord progression back to the correct key. Well, they make it, and off they go into Chris' first British hit record.

A slower and more reflective song next, Handbags And Gladrags, his hit from 1969. It was written especially for Chris by Mike D'Abo of Manfred Mann. It touches many in the audience tonight, who reminisce about those years ago. But not to let the maudlin set in, Chris livens thing up again with a defiant gesture against the passing years, Never To Old To Rock, Never Too Young To Roll.

Fired up by that, how could they but follow Chris as he berates the out of touch and old at heart with the astonishing Out Of Time? Well, at least the crowd are keeping up, singing along for all its worth. For some it seems the pace is getting to them: "I said baby, baby, baby .. you're out of tune!", adlibs Chris at one point, giving the band a worried glance.

Chris lets us pick anything we like for the encore, then immediately proceeds to sing exactly what he had prepared anyway, Johnny B Goode. Then he finishes with a storming rendition of Route 66 effortlessly better than Jagger could churn out.

I'm only sorry I couldn't share that one with you, but here is a taste of Friday's rendition of Out Of Time to give you a flavour of the night. "We hope you've had a good night, and you feeling alright; we thank you for coming along, hope you enjoyed the song, alright."

Chris Farlowe - Out Of Time (Live at the Half Brick, Worthing, Friday 1st 2008)

Thanks for a great night organised at the Half Brick by Bob. You can contact the Half Brick for other events at www.thehalfbrick.co.uk

Return Of The Groove Merchant: Lou Pride Is Back!

I am in a groove this week, and the posts keep coming...

Great news for soul fans! The Groove Merchant, Lou Pride, is back in concert in the UK this month. Sadly he isn't coming my way again to Brighton, but he will be at the following venues:

Oct 24 Canterbury Festival Club (St Alphege's Church) 01227 378188
Oct 25 London 100 Club 0208 460 6941
Oct 26 Stamford Arts Centre 01780 763203
Oct 27 Penrith Playhouse 01228 409795
Oct 28 Newcastle, The Cluny 0191 230 4474

Thanks to Harry Lang on the Yahoo Southern Soul Forum for tipping us all off to this!

"Let's See If Al's Still Got It": Al Green In Hammersmith 11.7.07

This post was ready last Tuesday, but I've begun my holiday in France and have had no luck getting to a computer until today! Sorry for the needless waiting!:

As Candi's band leave the stage I am joined by a bunch of people who are surprised to see such a soul great leaving so soon. Nevertheless, they are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Reverend Al Green. They have seen him twice before, and as one of them describes it: "It's impossible to stay in your seat when Al Green is on stage." They were right. I tell you, we did not stop jumping up, singing and responding to Rev Green the whole time.

At 8:30, Al Green bounds on to stage, carrying his trademark roses for the crowd, flanked by two warm up dancers who do a routine while Al gets into I Can't Stop. People are already out of their seats to find space to dance, and girls are pushing to the front and leaning onto the stage so that Al can reward them with a kiss or a plastic rose. As if sensing the exhalted, maybe fevered, atmosphere of expectation, Al finishes the song and greets us with humour:

"Now, sit down folks, relax! I'll do the work; you enjoy the concert..."

Al moves into Let's Make Love, which hardly serves to calm the ladies down, especially when he explains "I'm gonna sooooothe you...". Throughout this song, Al and his dancers go through a fascinating series of hand gestures, gentle twirls and poses. Sophisticated and smooth are just words.

Al chats about recent events: "Did you hear about those guys that drove into the airport? What was that? I tell you, friends of mine called me up from the US and they said, Al, stay over there! Sure glad they caught all them guys."

Time for a little bit of gospel from Everything's OK, as the Reverend Green sings Everything Gonna Be Alright (He's Coming Back). It goes down well, and we get to sing a chorus back to the Reverend and for whoever is up above.

"We're in Hammersmith (cheers)! You know, all I can think is, I wanna be out there with you! I went to the Royal Albert Hall (Al puts on an upper-class accent for this, and the crowd go 'oooh'). Man, I had to be careful I didn't walk on a rug!" And Al laughs at the memory.

I was reading beforehand some of the comments on the Southern Soul Group forum, and I had been a little taken aback at how non-plussed some of the contributors seemed to have been with Al Green at the Albert Hall. I did start to worry that the experience was not going to be up to my hopes. I suppose people were expecting something resembling a note-for-note CD recording, and were not prepared for the call-outs, the banter, the stagecraft and sing-along that we received from a consummate live performer. Equally, who should expect a pyrotechnic light-show, when the key to the music is the man, his heart and his voice. For that, a plastic rose in the hand of a woman (or man!) is the one-to-one connection that makes the song come alive. I have to say much of the trouble perhaps stems from the venue: the Albert Hall is not a venue that creates an atmosphere, and thus no wonder people would start to feel something was missing. It was all much plainer to see and feel when crammed into the more intimate and human Apollo theatre. It's getting so warm, Al tears off his jacket and throws it down:

"Somebody told em, Take it off! Somebody else said, put it on - its cold in here!"

Al brings us to a hush and begins to sing Amazing Grace, and asks us to sing with him. The moment of reflection is brought to a close when Al directs us:

"Let's take it back to the beginning. 1972." And he sings Let's Stay Together.

It's all about the moments and the personal stuff. Al gives us another hit straight away, with How Can You Mend A Broken Heart. This is when he introduces us to his daughter Deborah Green, on backing vocals. Al does a nice line of 'la la las' in synch with Deborah's backing, then abruptly signals stop: "Wait!"

Everyone holds their breath. What could be wrong?

Al smiles. "I wanna make it sound just like the record!" And he launches straight back in, this time floating even more effortlessly!

It seems the song has put someone into the mood, and Al is quick to spot them:

"Hey, leave the lady alone, I saw ya! She don't holler like that for nothing!" But who can blame them, and should we stop them? After all, Al tells us, now its "1974!". It makes the world go around - Here I Am, Come And Take Me.

Things take an unexpected detour now.

"I'm feeling like I wanna sing songs that aren't on the list. Songs that tell you where our songs come from, so you know why they lasted so long. Maybe they've helped somebody along the way. Raise your hand if they've helped you along!" The hands go up all over. Al treats us to a medley of short snippets from a few popular soul classics, all familiar, in tribute to his vocal heroes and southern soul antecendents Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. The Four Tops also get Al's salute, as he sings through Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch/Bring It On Home/My Girl/Sitting' On The Dock Of The Bay/Wonderful World.

I'm So Tired Of Being Alone gets us back up to a fever pitch again, and Al is loving it so much he has to do something to savour the moment. He halts before the crescendo to holler:

"Let's see if Al's still got it! He used to have it... YEAAAAAHHHHH!"

And he falls to his knees and nails the high note.

Al Green goes into the crowd in the next song to show I'm Still In Love With You. Walking back along the front row, a blonde woman stands up and blocks his way, so that Al is going to give her that hug she is after! Al clambers back on stage, and while the band play behind him, he tells us how proud he is to have his daughter working with him, and carrying on the singing tradition. But there's still stuff he can teach her, he teases:

"She's always asking me, How do I hit that high note, Dad?" Al looks over to Deborah, smiles, and hums a little pastiche of Mercy, Mercy Me. I assume Debbie Green is used to this!

"Well, you do it something like this .... AAAHHHH!"

The band kick in more powerfully, and now we are into the final song Love And Happiness. And as we get to that moment, Al has to milk the crowd some more:

"Wait! Let me do it once more! I like that!" One more high note!

The crowd cheer and clap as Al waves goodbye and leaves the stage, and the band segue into their instrumental showpiece, Funky Nassau. One by one they are introduced by the musical director and get to do their thing. I was particularly impressed with the sound of Dave Cook on the electric clarinet, and now I can place that strange pulsating buzzy vibe in so many songs!

It was all over as the lights came up, and we had been treated to a show. Only three questions troubled me as I left the gallery. Why no encore? Still, you can't say Al Green hadn't given it his all. Next, why did the musical directer go wild with a Hendrix style 'throw the guitar on the ground and jump on it' routine? Well, he's got to be as excited as we were! Finally, why was the intermission music made up entirely of Roxy Music tracks? Which just goes to show you great music comes in many forms!

Al Green Set List:
I Can't Stop

Let's Make Love
Everything's Gonna Be Alright (He's Coming Back)

Amazing Grace
Let's Stay Together
Here I Am (Come And Take Me)
Medley: Sugar Pie Honey Bunch/Bring It On Home/My Girl/Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay/Wonderful World
I'm So Tired Of Being Alone
I'm Still In Love With You
Love And Happiness
(Al Green departs)
Funky Nassau (band only)

As usual, I can't take photos of anything! Images of Al Green from the Al Green tour programme, and from Juan Pérez-Fajardo's photos of the Madrid show on 11th July - EDIT: Blogger has just deleted the picture I uploaded for the third time!!! Follow the link to see the photos for yourself.

The Best Thing You Ever Had: Candi Staton In Hammersmith

I've finally gotten around to dragging out my notebook and writing up a little report about Al Green and Candi Staton at Hammersmith Apollo. I've split it up into two posts, to give each artist their credit.

I almost thought I wasn't going to make it up to London in time, after a last minute planning meeting at work meant I left an hour later than planned. But as the time hit 7:30, I was rushing out of the underground, trying to pick the correct subway exit to come out in front of the Apollo. No time to waste, as the sound of Candi Staton in full swing was roaring out into the foyer! I stumbled my way upstairs to the gallery, and found my seat, with a wonderful clear view down onto the stage below, where Candi was in the midst of singing the song Elvis Presley admitted she could do better, In The Ghetto.

Candi was looking glorious, and dominated the stage, moving about so much that sometimes the lighting crew had difficulty keeping the spot up with her. "Who loves the blues?", she called out, "I love the blues!"

Candi can sing blues but equally can soar into gospel heights. Candi's life story is filled with many trials and difficulties, but also relates how they can be overcome, emerging triumphantly. So that now Candi is able to get every woman in the auditorium standing up and building a mood of confidence as she sings another track from her 1973 album, The Best Thing You Ever Had. Candi boosts the women while slyly ribbing us men for our biological flaws:

"Girls, sing it with me - I'm The Best Thing You Ever Had! ... Sometimes, our men just don't appreciate us, do they? When we're out with our men, they keep looking around, like this (she does a mean impression of one of those corner of the eye looks we do when something aesthetic catches our attention). They just can't see what they already got! Boys, I don't need no internet to see what I'm looking for!"

Time to make up, guys and girls, and everybody gets to sing along with Candi's uplifting disco hit Young Hearts Run Free. For her final number Candi sings her dance classic You Got The Love.

As the band play on, Candi introduces us to them - Ernie on bass, Suzy and Xavier on vocals, Tom and Ritch on horns, and Terry Williams on congas: "He's from Atlanta Georgia. I should know, 'coz I was there when he was born. He's my third son!"

And then its her second son, Marcus Williams, who completes the set with a storming drum solo.

And that was the end of Candi's set.

Short but sweet!

Sadly, I don't have Candi Staton's United Artist album, or even a CD with Best Thing You Ever Had or In The Ghetto on it. So perhaps you will enjoy instead another track from her FAME debut:

Candi Staton - Sweet Feeling (from LP I'm Just a Prisoner - Fame LP 4201) 1970

NEXT: Al Green!

As usual, the concept of taking my own photos in the dark has baffled me! So, the photograph of Candi is from a recent concert in Holland, taken by Eric Van Nieuwland. A nice interview and biographical details about Candi Staton can be found at divastation. Go and buy Candi Staton's new album, His Hands.

Soul Britannia: Geno!

Last Friday night, I went the Komedia Bar in Brighton. Coming along also was my father (going for now by the moniker Blue Eyed Handsome Dad) for a glimpse of his Sixties past and a little generational discussion about the legacy of soul music in this island nation. And some beers. And some great soul music from an Anglophile soul man who almost single-handedly brought a live soul presence to the small towns and dance halls of East Anglia and southern England. We were waiting to see Geno Washington and The Ram Jam Band! My father remembered going to see Geno at a university hall somewhere in London back in 1967. It was with a mate of his, who he hasn't seen since the mid 60s. If you remember Dave Whatman of Auckland Drive, Bevendean, in the 60s, leave a comment!

"RAMAJAMAJAMA!"

Geno Washington, born in Evansville Indiana, is of paramount importance in the history of live soul music in Britain. How did this occur? Geno was serving in the USAF and stationed at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk. After being demobbed, he was hanging out in local clubs in Ipswich, when he happened to go along to a gig by Shane Fenton and The Fentones. Seeing their performance convinced him that he wanted to do that too. Geno is the only soul singer to have been inspired by Fenton, read name Bernard Jewry, later to become the glam rocker Alvin Stardust. Geno admits that one of the primary motivations he had for getting into music at this time was to impress women. Travelling to London in 1965 to try his hand as a singer, he was invited to join a beat group put together by Pete Gage.

In one version told by Geno himself, the band passed by an A1 motorway service station called the Ram Jam Restaurant, and the Ram Jam Band they became… or they could simply have chosen the name from The Ram Jam Club at 390 Brixton Road where they were opening for The Animals!

From 1966, Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band toured across southern England, performing covers of up and coming soul hits and their own material. It was a high-energy, non-stop performance, showcasing not only Geno’s powerful voice and the Ram Jam bands tight authentic sound, but also Geno’s dancing, and his humour and repartee, none of which were familiar to reserved British audiences. This was one of the few ways in which provincial soul fans were able to hear authentic soul live during that time, while waiting for the tours and revues of American soul artists. The level of touring that the Ram Jam Band put in paid off in terms of record sales, despite being signed to Pye Records, who as with The Vagabonds, did not exactly know what to do with a soul band, and initially offered Geno songs such as Que Sera Sera. Both of the Ram Jam Bands first albums, Hand Clappin’ Foot Stompin’ Funky Butt … Live! and Hipsters, Flipsters Finger Poppin’ Daddies! were recordings of their live performances. The first album, on Pye Record’s Piccadilly label, stayed on the chart for 48 weeks in 1966, becoming the third- biggest-selling album in Britain of the year. The Beatles Revolver was not even in the top three…* Finally though, in the end of the 60s, Geno decided to stop the exhausting touring, which had made the record company wealthy, but not him.

After recording back home during the 70s on and off, everything changed again in 1980. A song by Dexy’s Midnight Runners went to number one. Friends called Geno up at his home and told him: the Number One record in England, it’s about you… Geno was back out on the road, and back in the UK.

"RAMAJAMAJAMA!"

The concert is about to begin. My father mentions some ska records that come through the post addressed for me. Just then, they start playing One Step Beyond. He says that it was around 1964 when he was travelling around the West Country on a scooter that he first heard about ska, from a group of London girls they’d met. You didn’t hear it in the local Brighton clubs back then, even along at the club above the shops on Western Road next to Codrington Mansions.

Stanley ‘Wolfman’ Williams cranks out the guitar riff, then tenor Orlando Star and original baritone saxophonist Buddy Beagle punch through with the horns, and the Ram Jam Band start to Pick Up The Pieces. Then a familiar Otis Stax fanfare comes in, and Geno Washington comes on stage to wild applause and the first of many begin to leave their tables to dance at the front. Geno is singing I Can’t Turn You Loose, with his own lyrics, then segues into Wilson Pickett’s Feel It. Halfway through, he sings a dedication for tonight’s show:

“I love Elvis, I love BB King;
I love James Brown, I know he’ll be back again.”

Geno gets us hollering back lines from Land of A 1000 Dances, and gets us clapping, and then gets us dancing with Get Up Offa That Thing and exhortations to do the Funky Broadway. The call is answered by an eager crowd made up of young hipsters and potential artificial hipsters. Geno welcomes them all:

“We’re all gonna tell the truth, ain’t we? Yeah! Man, I see a lot of good looking people out there tonight. Yeah! Damn! I see a lot of damn ugly ones too! … Yeah, I remember the 60s, sorta – back in Vietnam – Major Washington – I didn’t fly jets, flew copters. And I also lie a lot!”

Geno volunteered wisely for a posting in England partly to avoid a more hazardous posting to Vietnam, and partly to further his athletics career, in which he excelled in 110m hurdles. He served as a physical training instructor.

In The Midnight Hour a lot of strange things seem to happen to Geno:

“Last night we were kidnapped by six skinhead Japanese! True. They made us drink six bottles of Jack Daniels! Bastards!”

Green Onions, accompanied by Geno's lyrics, becomes a melancholy plea, Maybe Can You Be My Baby. All the generations up on the dancefloor slow down instinctively to the strange, solitary, half turning, half shuffling gait:

“Maybe, can you be my baby?
Coz I’ve got so much love to give,
Maybe, maybe, maybe…”

and ends by pleading "Baby, please don’t go back down to New Orleans you know I love you so…"

Stevie Deuce on bass leads us into Theme From Shaft, and Geno takes that into Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag. Then a guitar string breaks, and Geno takes a little break, while letting us into a little secret he just made up:

“I made Eric Clapton’s last guitar. Looks good. He plays like shit. Four fucking licks!”

“If we get to 11, you girls might get freaky, throw knickers on stage and shit. You might, they’re just bigger now, yeah!”

Screaming Jay Hawkin’s I Put A Spell On You, in which Buddy Beagle does a particularly haunting solo, becomes a musical and comic classic in the hands of Geno. Halfway through, Geno tells us a story involving the mysterious Madame Lulabelle, a fortune teller. She tells Geno that his wife, Lula-May, is cheating on him. He can’t believe it, so he formulates a plan:

“I go home and put on Teddy Pendergrast singing Let’s Both Wax That Ass – ‘coz in my neighbourhood, if you can’t score listening to that … I’m smoking a Cuban cigar, and I’m doing my best Barry White voice to my wife – ‘Honey, was you faking it last night?’ And she says, ‘No, honey, I WAS asleep.’ Shit, it wasn’t funny too much!”

Geno challenges us to sing back the opening lines of I Feel Good, storms through the song, only to have one guy in the last pregnant pause yell out the last "I Got You!":

“Bastard (pronounced correctly with the double ‘arr’)!! Bastard! We practiced that for six months! I was even gonna do the splits, and then while I was down there, I was gonna breakdance on your ass! But HE fucked that up!”

The band back up and redo the ending, and this time, the offender gets a full dose of “Lord knows what I’d a done to yo’ mama .. yo’ sister ….”

"But that don’t make me a bad person?” asks Geno, innocently!

“Van Morrison, he used to help me out. He was the first Irishman I ever met, he always lent me 1s and 2s but never a fiver, he’s so tight his ass squeaks!”

I vow never to accept a two-pound note from Van Morrison. And on to a rousing Gloria. Everyone is shouting out the name.

“Before I got confident, I’d do that Elvis pose, with your legs wide apart. Then I’d drop my microphone and stick my ass in the air! A luxury item around here! On the street it would be ‘Can I touch it, can I rub it’ all the time. Sometimes it would be ladies too!”

The home straight is Knock On Wood, and then back into I Can’t Turn you Loose. Geno tries to go, but its back for an encore:

“I thought I’d get an easy night. Take the money and run. My lobster’s getting cold back there! Don’t you care? They paid the band in euros and steak and kidney pies.”

The band finish with Everybody Needs Somebody, as at the Soul Britannia Barbican concert in February that was barely advertised.

The concert ends slightly abruptly with a few bars of Jumpin’ Jack Flash, which just stops, just as I’m expecting a Thelma Houston style rendition.

We are left with words of wisdom:

“It is better to be pissed off than to be pissed on.”

"RAMAJAMAJAMA!"

The DJ plays out with some Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and I recall how at the end of every school disco in the early 80s, the teacher acting as DJ would play Come On Eileen, and people would ask if he could play Geno as well, although I am sure that in some part of my mind back then I though it was actually a song about Dino, the dinosaur on the Flintstones. Somewhere probably in the audience is Dexy’s songwriter and Brighton resident Kevin Rowland, though I don’t catch sight of him. Then the play the fellow Anglophile Edwin Starr’s War, and Blue Eyed Handsome Dad is intrigued to know that there is a statue in his honour in the middle of Birmingham. Next up is Nutbush City Limits, and Dad reminds me of when my brother and I would listen to this on family car outings to a country pub, roll down the windows, and literally scream out our own words: “They call it CROSSBUSH! CROSSBUSH CITY LIMITS!”, and howl with laughter, it being a tiny, sedate village near the historic town of Arundel. Another variation used to be Nutwood, home of Rupert Bear... Finally, the Temptations put us both in a Ball Of Confusion as we try to work out who is the female singer singing at the beginning. After a knockout evening of non-stop soul, we both head off for a good pub…

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band - If This Is Love (I'd Rather Be Lonely)

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band - Jumpin' Jack Flash

The first song is not on the Ram Jam Band's sixties records, but was an unreleased track now found on their compilation CD and on itunes. According to London Lee, who featured this last summer at the sadly retired No.1 Songs In Heaven blog, it was first recorded by The Precisions. It is a particularly good example of how Geno Washington helped to spread the popularity of some exceedingly rare soul recordings to the furthest reaches of Britain. The second song is here not only because these are the vocals the song should have always had to do it justice, but because we only heard ten seconds of it on the night!

Thanks to The Komedia Bar for an excellent venue and nice food. Information for this post came from various sources, including the All Music Guide, and the article If The Blues Spirit Moves You in the News & Star, who provided the humourous but perhaps apocryphal motorway service station anectdote. Thank you also to my guest the Blue Eyed Handsome Dad, Dave Whatman!

*the No.1 album of 1966 was The Sound Of Music, followed by Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Love Will Make It All Right: Lou Pride In Concert

As promised, here is my description of the show by Lou Pride last Sunday night at the Komedia in Brighton...



Arriving just in time, I found a side table, and settled down to watch the band, Mo'Indigo, tune up. They began to play some blues entitled Fleetwood Cadillac and Kisses Like Fire, before introducing the syncopated notes of the WattSoul Horns.







Barely had the horns blared out their fanfare, when guitarist Terry announced,"Ladies and Gentlemen - Lou Pride!", and Lou Pride was on stage, wearing a fine white linen suit.

Catching the audience by surprise, he built up the audience by asking:
"When he said LOU PRIDE, I didn't hear no noise!"

He got what he was after this time, and then Lou kept us clapping and responding each time he called out All Night Long, a variation on the Hoochie Coochie Man lyric.

Lou introduced himself:
"It's my last night her in your country, so we're gonna do two sets for you... and by the time we're through, you'll just be in time for work tomorrow!"

From the back of the room the DJ, I assume local resident Little Rik, could no longer contain his enthusiasm, and holler: "Yeah! I'm Comun Home in the Morn'un!"

Lou smiled and soothed him down a little:
"Hold on, we'll come to that later on, I promise! We've only just begun..."

Lou Pride and the band lauched into a powerful funky blues titled Beware Of The Dog, and then another powerful number, but in a more regretful mood, Heavy Load All Over My Soul. The next number was a slower lament as Lou feels like he 'saw the sky fall down this morning', and looks for his 'broken down white woman' and asks us, does Somebody Know About My Baby?

Time for some more interaction with the crowd:
"I've played a lot of places in this world, and I'm blessed to do so.", says Lou.
The DJ cries: "You're Wigan's favourite, and always will be!"
Lou answers affirmatively:
"You know, I tell everybody I meet in this business, you've got to come here to this country to learn how to be a real fan! Yeah, I'll have upset some people now, but I don't care!"
It is unusual and cathartic to hear an english crowd roar and call out in approval.

Next up Lou introduces his rendition of Waiting In Vain, telling us a lighthertedly:
"I told Bob I was gonna do this song, but I had to tell him I couldn't sing it the way he does, I'm gonna have to do it my way."
It allows the organist Frazier to display his soloing talents during this one. The horns are tight, the rythmn focused and soulful.

Lou next does on of his classic numbers Bringing Me Back Home, and when I look around, there is a line of women who have got up on their feet and are dancing, and on into the final number of the set, an upbeat I Had A Talk With My Baby.

Back after the interval to hear Mo'Indigo go Spencer Davis Group with My Babe. Then Lou was back, having mopped the sweat from his brow and now dressed in blue, and starts to Twist The Knife in. Then he makes us realise that when Love Is Running Away From Me, it's more a case of "I never lost you, because you were never mine."

A change of pace for the next slow country waltz ballad, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, nothing to do with the Beatles number, which reminded me more of That's How Strong My Love Is. in some ways, and evoked a very simple and honest expression of human tenderness. Lou had won over the emotional sympathy of the crowd, and made the next song a personal choice:

"I want to introduce the next song, which is very personal to me... I have children, and I see the children growing up in this world of ours, surrounded by poverty and war and violence... and it's about time we made a change, we've got to do a little bit better in EVERYTHING!... I wrote this song for that reason, to show that we all know that a little Love Will Make It All Right."

It's a theme that has been close to Lou Pride's writing throughout his career in other songs like Message To The People, and while we know that the emotion of soul is an art form and performance, it is nice to know how the music can be inspired by the real feelings of the performer, to bring it to a higher level. Lou sings the line, "Love Will Make It All Right", and we sing it three times back, chorus after chorus, until he is sure everybody is together on this one and part of the communion...

Then the bassist kicks up a driving funky rhythm, and the WattSoul Horns hit a complex jazz-bop trill, Terry plays an F sharp chord, and for a moment few catch on, then my face lights up, as I realise we are about to hear a classic song from the writer and singer, and Lou Pride, staring out perhaps in my direction (ok, I was getting excited by the whole thing) grasps the microphone to sing, "I'm Comun Home In The Morn'un"...

Lou Pride - I'm Com'un Home In The Morn'un (Suemi ST4567) (1972)





Please come back we cry, and he does for an encore, light going up and Lou hitting the floor ot shake the hand of a boy in the front row: "Put it there, son!" His parents are dancing and are in seventh heaven by now. Lou tours the floor shaking hands singing a reprise of All Night Long. The blurry snaps were taken at this time, as I had forgotten how to set the flash in my haste.







A special night that I'm glad I was there for, and to see a performer who should be praised to the rooftops...

POSTSCRIPT: All of you who were at the show in Stamford - you bought up every CD and souvenir Lou had! Nothing left for us poor southerners!

Movin' with Melvin Brown...

Well, here it is ... my first live soul concert report! This does not happen very often where I live, as you might imagine. But, the Brighton Festival is on, and they bring in a lot of interesting things. Last night, a group of us went to see Movin' Melvin Brown at The Spiegeltent. Great venue and great music. The Spiegeltent is a 1940s German cabaret tent, and makes for an intimate and atmospheric experience, right up close to the performer.

And he is some performer! Born in Cincinnati, and now resident in Austin, Texas, Melvin has had a long career in music and dance, performing as an act alongside the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, James Brown and BB King. He is a great singer, and also an excellent tap dancer, which adds a great percussive element to some of his numbers, and really brings out the sweat. His current show is a sort of tribute to Ray Charles and Sammy Davis Jr, but with his own style and reminiscences on his career.

Melvin talked about the first time he tried to see Ray Charles play at the Cincinnati Gardens. He was in a singing group at the time, and their usual trick was to offer to be the opening number. No dice. There are dozens of local acts vying for the spot, then the national acts to come on, then Ray himself. So while Melvin and the others are checking their pockets to rustle up some cash, one of the group comes up with an idea. Why don't they climb over this wall, through a window and onto the balcony? Which seemed like a good idea at the time. Five minutes later, the ambulance is taking Melvin's friend to the hospital with multiple abrasions and concussion, and Melvin is waiting in line to buy a ticket...

The show was an inclusive affair. You never hear sulky British indie bands engaging in any call and response with the audience! People up on stage dancing with Melvin, dancing in the aisles, shouting out, joining in with What'd I Say? and Harry Belafonte tunes. The night finished with an encore of I Can't Turn You Loose, much to my delight, and others had to suffer the sight of my geeky white dancing.

During the early 70s, Melvin recorded for Philmore Sound in Cincinnati/Hamilton, with songs including I Know, I Was A Fool To Care, Soul Man and the great Love Stormy Weather with James Matthews. One of Movin' Melvin's labelmates was the Movin', Soothin & Stone Funk Band, although I don't know if Melvin was involved with this.

Melvin Brown raises money through his performances and CDs for his homeless charity The Change This World Project.

Find out more at www.movinmelvin.com.

On the two songs below, you really get to hear Melvin's passion for music. Melvin does his own background vocals on both tunes.

Movin' Melvin Brown - Everytime (2001)
Movin' Melvin Brown - Night Time Is The Right Time (2006)

For a discography of Melvin Brown's earlier career, visit this posting provided by Ohio Soul Recordings.