Rory
Gallagher, David Lindley, Juan Martin and Richard Thompson
AT
LONDON’S DOMINION THEATRE
David
Lindly
Richard Thompson
Rory Gallagher Juan
Martin
If the music
industry ever gets around to awarding prizes for good ideas, my
nomination will be Paul Charles of Asgard. It was his idea to
bring four world renowned guitarists together under one roof and it
almost worked.
Part of the
reason it didn’t work one hundred percent was beyond his control.
Richard Thompson, up to his eyes in flu, and at the point of canceling
the gig, played well below his best, but more of that later. Juan
Martin, however, was a bad choice for this evening. Brilliant guitarist
he is, but his style of playing is so far away from the other three
that his performance on this night tended to kill the atmosphere.
An unfortunate choice.
The
profusion of Gallagher t-shirts in the foyer at the start of the
evening underlined who many of the audience had come to see, but they,
like the rest of the house, enjoyed an excellent set by David Lindley
that immediately followed the brief opening by the four artists playing
together. David played much of his spot lap-steel style, ranging
in material from his Kaleidoscope days through to more recent times.
He
introduced Juan Martin, a flamenco style guitarist who has shot to
national fame on the strength of his playing the ‘Thorn Birds’
theme. He showed there’s more to him than pleasant ditties, but
the numbers he chose were all on the long side. The audience got
restless. There was even a cry of “Speech!” from one wag during a
long introduction. For his penultimate number he invited Lindley
and Thompson to join him, but even this failed to catch the imagination
of the restless pack.
After the
break a well below-par Richard Thompson started the second half.
Clearly off-form, he did his best to go through a mixed set that, had
he been well and on form, would have demonstrated the wide range of
styles he can play in. Slip-jigs, new self-penned material and
rock & roll, all were tried, but his flu-racked body couldn’t keep
it together.
The yell
that heralded Rory Gallagher confirmed that he was the man many had
come to see.
Changing
between acoustic, National steel, and, for an all too brief two song
spot, electric guitar, he put a show together that was head and
shoulders above anything else that night. What a great player this man
is! There was a fire about him that only David Lindley had got
even close to matching. When the other three guests returned for an
encore with Rory, the interplay between him and Lindley was a treat to
the ears.
The “Egg on
Face” Award of the night went to David. There he was wondering
why no sound came out of his instrument, whilst behind him, much to the
crowd’s amusement stood a roadie with the D.I. lead in his hand!
So there you
have it - a curate’s egg of an evening. When it worked, it worked
well. I for one would love Paul Charles to have another go soon -
flu permitting.
JOHN GARRET
This article
comes for the 3/24/84 issue of Kerrang about "Guitar Night at the
Dominion Theatre"
Thanks to Brenda O'Brien for sharing and preparing the article
reformatted by roryfan
366
added 12/9/07
