aaamusic | On 18, Oct 2011

London, 08 October

Considering it’s a Saturday night and the venue’s one of London’s most famous clubs based smack bang in the middle of the West End the turn out for opening act The Dave Sinclair Trio is woefully diminutive to the extent that the limited seating area is sufficient to accommodate the audience.

 

That being said, the mature band (in both senses of the word) fall back on their consummate professionalism and don’t let their disappointment show as they blaze through a set replete with, amongst their own work, distinctive covers that would put the originals to shame.  The David Sinclair Trio most importantly seemed to enjoy every minute of their set and a lot of people would have done well to have witnessed their clinical 90 minutes of raw blues revival.

 

After a tasty warm up set from XFm’s Steve Harris the attendance had reached in a matter of minutes an acceptable level in time for headliner Stephen Dale Petit (SDP) to take to the stage accompanied by his youthful backing band who were clearly relishing playing with an artist of his stature who when he last played here I believe it was alongside close friends Ronnie Wood and ex-Stone Mick Taylor in a concert to save the club from administration.

 

Anyway, SDP did not disappoint with an extended set in which he proved beyond doubt that even after such success as an artist one can continue to improve with his recent stint in Tennessee proving beneficial with his playing this evening being reminiscent of a true bluesman rather than a rock guitarist playing blues.  To confirm the aforementioned Stephen faultlessly nailed a cover of Freddie King’s intricate and extremely challenging ‘Have you ever loved a woman?’ with his, at times criticized vocals soulfully drawing on a depth of emotion.  In contrast, another highlight of the set was SDP’s ode to California set to the riff from Tupac Shakur’s ‘California Love’ that had him disappearing into outer space with displays of guitar virtuosity that would put the very best to shame.

 

One criticism of the set would be the poor mixing of the vocals that were at times drowned out by the band and hence a feeling that it was an evening packaged to showcase the guitar gymnastics on display.  Stephen has an album out at present called ‘Crave’ which does illuminate his improvements vocally, however this event was aimed at celebrating the release of his BBC Blues Sessions with Bob Harris that are set to come out in the not too distant future.

 

All in all it was a great night and a pleasure to witness one of blues guitar’s greats performing at his stunning best and in such an intimate manner.  Merely the cheers from the crowd alone were testament to that.

 

Bruce Jenkinson