Philip Sayce (Page 3 of 6)

Roger - did he say he would back in a few months time to the UK?

Kenny

Thanks Pete - definitely two feet off the floor!

Philip told me that they would be back in the Spring   

Maggie        

It was another great performance from the Irrepressible Mr Sayce at the Borderline on Wednesday night. He really does have it all – fantastic voice, great chops, boundless energy and he attracts the ladies like a magnet. It makes you sick.

To set the scene, the usual crowd of Maggie, Lydia, David, Roger, Pete, Rob (Mansfield) and I were positioned in our Borderline place just to the left side of the stage and almost right in front of Philip’s rig and mike stand. First up was Marcus Bonfanti with a half hour solo spot. Marcus covered half a dozen songs from his current album plus one from his out of print first CD. One of the songs was dedicated to our Buddy, Roger, for “all he does for me” and he got a round of applause from the audience. I’m not sure what Roger does for Marcus, but it must be pretty special. Nice one, Roger. With his impassioned singing voice and stage presence, Marcus definitely deserves to be headlining at venues of the size of the Borderline before too long. It says something that it was Marcus’s voice singing his final song “Give Me Your Cash” that was going round in my head all the next day.

With around 200 people crammed into The Borderline, there was no moat at this gig.

Philip and his band of Joel Gottschalk on bass and Fritz Lewak on drums took to the stage at 9.00pm sharp and launched straight into their usual opener, One Foot In The Grave. Philip’s vocals were a little lost to start with but seemed to be brought back up in the mix as the set progressed. Anyone who hadn’t seen Philip before soon found out what they’d been missing and Lydia and Pete’s jaws were soon dropping. The rest of us just bopped and sang along, grinning inanely.

Before the end of One Foot the sweat was trickling down Philip’s face and he was warming up nicely as he segued into Powerful Thing. Philip has said in interviews that he was hyperactive as a child and I would say he still is – he just doesn’t stop and puts so much into his playing. It’s difficult to take your eyes off him scuttling around the stage, but if you do the faces that Joel pulls when he’s playing are pretty eye catching too. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen him.

During Powerful Thing Philip looked up to find a part of the lighting rig to run his guitar fretboard along
- something he often does at venues with low ceilings. At the end of the number he was passed a note which he read out: “Philip, the bar you ran your guitar along is part of the fire sprinkler system and may be set off!” We all laughed and Philip, full of bravado, was tempted to try it again to see if he could make it sprinkle, that is until I reminded him he might be electrocuted.

Bitter Monday (see Pete’s great video) was preceded by a mention that it was co-written by Richard Marx, who he would be playing with at Shepherds Bush the following night. The following number, As The Years Go Passing By (see other video) was dedicated to Philip’s mentor and former employer, Jeff Healey. Thanks for these great videos, Pete.

During Changes Philip set off on his tour of the audience while Philip’s guitar lead was wrapped around Maggie and pinning her to the edge of the stage. . I’m not sure if Philip made it to the bar but after five minutes came back to the stage with a pint in his hand and carried on.

According to the setlist, the encore should have been Cinnamon Girl and Were You There, but Philip decided that after a slow start to proceedings, London deserved Cinnamon Girl to be included in the main set and turned to Fritz and Joel at the and of Changes and mouthed the title.

It didn’t take too long before Philip was back for the encore of Were You There incorporating U2’s Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For to round off a great night and almost 1 ¾ hours of an amazing performance that left me feeling both exhilarated and exhausted.

As has been mentioned previously, it was loud but to me not excessively so. He did mention that they'd had some complaints about the volume but I found that my plugs were cutting too much of the top end and dispensed with them immediately. The only time it got uncomfortable was when he threw down the plexi shield in front of his speaker and stood on it. We were standing right in front of it and I spontaneously put my fingers up to my ears and Philip gestured to me and grinned. I put the plugs in then but they were vibrating so much I took them out again.

The full set list was:

1.     One Foot In The Grave
2.     Powerful Thing
3.     Over My Head
4.     Bitter Monday
5.     As The Years Go Passing By
6.     Scars
7.     Little Miss America
8.     Alchemy
9.     Angels
10.    Changes
11.    Cinnamon Girl
Encore:    Were You There

I can’t wait for next Spring to do it all again.

Phil
PS my pics to follow when they’ve been sorted on flickr.

...you got some fine shots there Phil.... might have to invest in a flash for my compact too!?.... but please remind me next time to bring my glasses...spent most of the night taking pic's of that Belly Dancer and all i got was some blurred shots of a guy holding a guitar?!? 

...you know...this guy!.... some Alchemy in Blue... thats the tint! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87reOWK4eYc

Just re-read Wooders' review of the Borderline gig and am kicking myself black and blue for not going to Mr Kyps a couple of weeks ago.  Ordered the new CD InnerEvolution as recommended by Wooders which arrived this morning and am just listening to it now and absolutely loving it.  Hope he comes this way again.

PS  Thanks Phil!

Oh meant to say that listening to this CD I can imagine how loud it might be live!

Playing at the Dutch Bospop festival on 10 July along with BCC, Walter Trout & Jimmy Barnes www.bospop.nl

I would imagine there will be more European dates around that time to promote his new live album.

Kenny

Tell us more Duncan - is he too heavy (music wise) for Mayport?

Kenny

He has at the moment 2 dates in UK in July, some more to be announced very soon