Reviews
Artist: Peter green and Friends
Venue: Union Chapel
Town: Islington
Date: 22nd March 2010
Website:
http://www.myspace.com/petergreenandfriends
Being a Van der Graaf Generator fan, the Union Chapel has long been a place of legend to me, as it was at a Peter Hammill concert here that the current VdGG line-up reformed. Was therefore really pleased to discover that Peter Green and Friends were playing there. Not sure whether I was more excited at seeing the venue or the band.
No idea how long I have waited to see Peter Green. Had almost given up hope that it would ever be possible, after discovering last year that he had just toured, and I'd completely missed it. Finally, managed to see him twice within a month, having managed to get tickets to see him at Farnham as well.
Having recently seen Soiree in St Paul's Church in Staines, this was the second music event I've attended in a Church this year. Somehow this seems an odd marriage between old and new religions, but with the excellent acoustics in a Church there is much to recommend it.
Union Chapel lies in a fairly quiet cul-de-sac-terrace in Islington. Being a Church, seating is on pews, so the seats are not numbered or allocated. To get good seats we arrived an hour before the start, and joined a fairly short queue outside. The queue rapidly grew. The weather was not brilliant, cold and drizzle, but nobody minded.
Was a bit surprised at the number of ticket touts outside. There were so many it seemed unlikely that the venue wasn't aware of them, and might even have condoned them. Suppose there is a religious precedent for turning the other cheek.
A few minutes prior to the official opening time, the staff announced that anyone who had real tickets could go straight in, whereas those that had e-tickets had to wait outside. Having queued for so long in the rain, there was a vast number of very disgruntled people. Our patience was further stretched when they decided that two queues were needed. One for all of the people with e-tickets and one for all the people who had physical tickets, and so we were all shunted about like cargo trains on a branch line, and made to line up in the opposite direction.
When we finally did get inside, all of the good seats were taken by the people who had been in the queue behind us, resulting in a massive air of resentment. It felt very nasty. Nobody wanted to complain too bitterly for fear of being barred from seeing the gig, but as e-tickets were the venue's recommendation, and as you pay extra for the privilege of having an e-ticket many people were far from happy.
Felt very sorry for the support act, a guy called Andrew Morris, as he was playing to an audience that were not in the best frame of mind. He played his own material, very much in the David Gray genre. Was very impressed when he broke a string (G) and simply removed it and continued on to the end of his set. By then, most of us had relaxed and were enjoying ourselves.
Peter Green and Friends were every much as good as I hoped they'd be. They are fronted by a young and energetic guy called Mike Dodd, on rhythm guitar and also lead vocalist on a couple of tracks, most notable being "Barefootin'", in which he urged the congregation to stand, threatening to make us kneel for the following track. Their keyboard player, Geraint Watkins "The Welsh Wizard", is extremely expressive, both facially and musically. Loved the way he screwed his face up when playing some particularly intricate piece. Martin Winning, on tenor sax, used to play with Van Morrison, I believe. Apparently he's the newest member of the band, but he fits in well. His saxophone has to be one of the least polished I've seen, but he still gets a really beautiful sound from it. The power house of the rhythm section is Andrew Flude on drums and Matt Radford on double bass. Mike said that they'd have Matt in the band just for his looks, even if he wasn't excellent on the bass. He was right, Matt's look is fabulous, think Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot, without the drag.
And then, of course, there is the captain of the pea green boat (as Mike described him): Peter Green himself. There is no doubt about it, he is still master of the blues guitar and his voice is absolutely perfect for the blues. You can hear the ravages of time in every note.
Highlights, for me, and I suspect for most people, were the Fleetwood Mac tracks that they played, such as Rattlesnake Shake, and Black Magic Woman. (Sadly not Man of The World, but maybe we'll be treated to that on another occasion). The absolute pinnacle, though was when they played Oh Well Part One, followed by the first few notes of Oh Well Part 2, before morphing into Albatross. It only took one note of Albatross for the crowd to go wild, and the band were awarded a standing ovation afterwards.
Not too sure I'd ever visit the Union Chapel again after the shambles at the door, but I'd definitely see Peter Green and Friends again, and would even see just the "And Friends" again should they ever happen to be playing without their captain.
Pete Bradley