An old school friend Paul contacted me via this site earlier this year. After a 30 year gap, we met up and still got on. He’s a big Ian McNabb fan and vowed to get me to one of his gigs……so as a final birthday treat (I’ve managed to spin this 50th lark out for over a month now) he got us tickets to see him at the New Roscoe. It wasn’t terribly well attended but those there were treated to a master class of songwriting…..well, he has been doing it steadily for those 30 years.
“You’re going to get the ‘play-as-many-songs-as-I-can’ show tonight as apposed to the ‘Drunken ramblings’ show” – Paul’s misses refuses to go and see him again after catching him at one of the latter shows, but tonight he’s on bottled water and in great voice. Beautiful lyrics, rolling guitar riffs, Neil Young-esk mouth organ playing – what’s not to like. A lot of his tunes tell of his passion for music Fire inside my soul or his politics No Hero to Me or just hope for the future You must be prepared to dream and there was even the odd ‘mega hit’ in there Love is a wonderful colour
His best ad libs were during Liverpool girl where he alluded to the 3-0 defeat Liverpool had at Old Trafford today….. There’s more than a touch of Neil Young to his guitar style and his lyrics (though not his voice). It’s no wonder he fitted so well with Youngs band ‘Crazy Horse’.
A great evening – I’ve now vowed to get Paul out to a gig by someone he’s never seen before
Bob the Chiropodist