Jeff Beck at the RAH, 4th July 2009

Saturday, 4th July was another memorable night at the RAH.  Having spent the day at Westminster Abbey – the first time we’ve been – we wandered through the parks ending up at the Lido in Hyde Park and remembered all the lovely Bonabuddies we met in May – happy memories.

Having read a few comments and reviews from the Birmingham gig, I was a little apprehensive about this gig. Furthermore, I hadn’t seen Jeff Beck for around 25 years and his style has changed quite a bit in that time.

Supporting was Imelda May. Although she has a good voice, if a little shrill, Rockabilly is not my cup of tea and we were glad Imelda was only on for 30 minutes.

Jeff came on at about 8.25pm and kicked off with Beck’s Bolero, then played an assortment of tunes which most of you will know from the Ronnie Scotts’ DVD. These included:

‘Cause we’ve ended as Lovers
Behind the Veil
Nadia
A Day in the Life
Led Boots
Angel - with that amazing technique of using a bottleneck as a plectrum (pick)
Goodbye pork pie hat/brush with the blues
Peter Gunn

Looking at some of the comments mentioned above, it seems that some were a little bored by his playing. I suspect that this largely due to the lack of a singing voice in each tune and the different structure that results from this. For this reason I half expected my mind to wander as it often does at gigs (I have a short attention span and don’t even like watching films much ), but was pleasantly surprised that I only noticed this once. He certainly has the most amazing technique and is probably the current king of the Strat’. This is, however, best seen in a more intimate venue than the RAH as it wasn’t always apparent how he was creating the fantastic sound he was wringing from his cream ‘Strat. If he ever plays Ronnie Scotts again, I’d love to see him there.

I was keen to see Vinnie Colaiuta for the first time as he is a great drummer and has fantastic technique and power. No drums that sound like card board boxes with Vinnie. The keyboard player, Jason Rebello, was good but his presence was not particularly eye (or ear) catching and I don’t recall any significant solo from him. Much has been spoken about Tal Wilkenfeld and I can see that she is a good bassist; I’m just not sure she is outstanding. I don’t know how much of the admiration is because she is a good looking young lady, so in trying to be objective I’m probably over compensating. No doubt you’ll tell me otherwise.

The real highlight of the evening came at the end when the band bowed and disappeared offstage. During the standing ovation the roadies rushed around and it became obvious they would be back, this time with a guest. Jeff and the band came back and started to play the hymn, Jerusalem then on came Dave Gilmour to a big cheer. Some of the audience stormed down to the front of the stage and the arena remained standing for the rest of the show. (I’m glad things were more civilised on 4th May with the lead to sit down being taken by the front row! ). Jeff tried to encourage singing of Jerusalem but no one was willing. Next was something I never thought I would hear, Hi Ho Silver Lining. You can imagine that the RAH was rocking by now and Imelda May came back to lead the singing. Then Jeff joined in and sang a verse. They all trouped off to another standing ovation and Jeff came back with Jason and played Where were You, the last tune on the Ronnie Scotts’ DVD. We left then (10.25pm) thinking that would be the end but I have since heard from a colleague that Imelda and Dave came back to sing another song, although he didn’t recognise it.

All in all, another memorable evening at the RAH.

Phil