This tour combined the talents of Ann Wilson from Heart, Paul Rodgers late of Bad Company and Free with his new band called Free Spirit, and the last was Jeff Beck. I thought wow, this would be great so bought tickets for the show which was held last night at the Budweiser Auditorium down on the lakeshore in Toronto.
I didn't think much about whether the three acts would coalesce at all as in the past Paul Rodgers had made albums which Jeff Beck had played on, notably blues albums on which he'd done a marvelous job backing The Voice. So I thought that maybe they'd play together for some songs... but they didn't. It was three separate sets.
The event was very well staged, organized and all logistics well thought out so when the ticket said they started at 7 pm, that's exactly what happened. So we missed Ann Wilson's first song and seemingly her only Heart tune called 'Barracuda'. However the rest of the set was pretty good and pretty well immediately she started showcasing her new album which is a batch of covers of old songs done anew.
Final song was 'Won't Get Fooled Again' which had the big crowd on their feet howling and screaming and by 7.45 pm she was off.
What exactly do rock stars do at 7.45 pm in an evening having played their one and only set? In the old days, she'd have been on around 9 or 9.30 pm and probably wouldn't have finished until past midnight, in those days there being no curfews like now.
This is the second time that I've seen AW, first was with Heart a few years back, and I did enjoy it although would have loved to have heard a couple more original Heart tunes. Like this one!
I love that song. Becoming a music nerd for a moment, I heard of the band pretty much as soon as Jefferson Airplane broke up and I was heartbroken at the thought of never hearing Grace Slick play again. I read a review of their first album in the English music paper, New Musical Express, and went out and bought it.
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For some reason I thought Jeff Beck would be on next but I was totally wrong as it was Paul Rodgers and he came out with a 5 piece band and played a terrific set. I sang along and clapped happily but as I love Free so much, I will further descend to nerd-dom and write a single post in adulation of these guys. Well the original guys actually even though the band was pretty good and rocked on well.
I did wonder though whether for the North American tour, they had to add more Bad Company tunes to the set as it was pretty much 50/50 Free/Bad Company tunes. I know that Free never really made it in the US back then. Their first tour was supporting Blind Faith and the band acknowledged it was terrible and finally it was the prospect of another tour that broke the band up entirely.
It didn't matter to me much though as using my nerd hat yet again, I can claim to have been there when Bad Company played their first show. Charlton in south east London in May 1974. Bad Company opened. It was only a short while after Free had finally broken up and nobody knew any of the tunes at all. You can hear it when you listen to the concert tapes (which I have). They were really good though.
I'd seen The Voice again in Virginia at some point in the 1990's (can't remember exactly) and it was more a Bad Company set then although they did play 'Mr Big' as they did last night. But that time you couldn't here anything but feedback, this time was a bit better. And I do say a bit better for it was still a bit fuzzy. Just listen to this one and see what the song should sound like!
The Voice is doing great though. He must be late 60's by now and is trim and in fine voice. Loved the show!
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First let me state here that I think Jeff Beck is a great guitarist. Some of the things he does for a man of his age (into his 70's now) are truly incredible. I don't they should be allowed personally. But after the 4th tune into his set I was thinking that this must be the most difficult series of tunes to listen to as they were all improvised and all over the place. Self indulgence was the phrase that came to mind. I nearly suggested to Viv that we should leave ... but the rest of the huge crowd were going wild and as I thought these people are both my age and clearly old time rockers, there has to be something in this at some point that I will enjoy and well the more I listened, the more I did. Enjoy.
Actually it was mind boggling. Viv said her heart was palpitating out of control during the set. I wasn't that far but after a while I was able to pick up themes within each piece... not tunes yet. Not quite melody even. But themes. And then... I recognized a tune!!! I was pretty pleased with myself. It was 'Little Wing' by Jimi Hendrix without the original melody and lick, but with a vocalist and a theme that was Hendrix all the way through it.
So the set started pretty much for me at that point and I was able to recognize some other tunes too as the set progressed. 'Superstition' was a song written by Stevie Wonder that Jeff Beck had said at a concert I had been to of his with a band called Beck, Bogert and Appice back in 1972 or 1973, I forget which. They finished with 'Day in the Life' by the Beatles and 'Down, Down' a Beck blues reworking. The crowd went nuts.
I still think though that I prefer him in a band. Like the Yardbirds, with Eric Clapton, or...
Like this!!!
All in all, this was a great Toronto night!!
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