A long, long time ago – well, Saturday evening actually; in a Blues Club far, far away – to anyone south of Nottingham; in a land where Boy-bands roam at will, 2 Fender Jedi knights arrived in a small town and in a pyrotechnic display of digital dexterity energised the local populace.
Or, on May 4th – Jedi Day, Aynsley Lister and Mitch Laddie rolled into Sedgefield and quite simply rocked the place to its medieval core.
Mitch was up first; Sedgefield pulling the starting time as early as they dared to give the band as much playtime as possible and Mitch, Rhian & Matt took it and ran full tilt. From the opener Time Is Running Away Mitch was on top form, leaping round the stage and firing off blazing solo after blazing solo. Paper In Your Pocket and Inner City Blues, indictments on current times written 40 years apart growled and snarled, alongside Mitch’s funkier moments like This Time Around and a new take on What Is Hip before he signed off his hour with Them Changes. No Surprise that Sedgefield wasn’t going to let Mitch go at that, despite time creeping round – he was called back for a rapid encore and a 7” run through Voodoo Chile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfRxXi8Ql0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AIl0g0RsiQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP3NJHkRmcc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlRwT0ZCYPo
After a short interval, time for the main man: Aynsley is the first headliner to re-appear at Sedgefield and this time he brought along, not only his brand, spanking new album but also his mates Andre Basing, Steve Amadeo and Boneto Dryden to play it, well, 3 quarters of it in the second airing of a new tour set.
Hero set the tone, and from there, Early Morning Dew settled people down, ready to be introduced to the newer material. Steve Amadeo got everything in a groove for Inside Out ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqYEX3ePlIk )which has been road-tested for a while now, as has Sugar, but Aynsley “sweetened” it a bit by inviting Mitch back on stage to trade some hot licks. New song Hyde got a very warm reception before the more familiar What’s It All About lead into Insatiable and the monster track Home that’s the album title track.
After a short interval where Aynsley was invited to present raffle prizes, as well as some calls to do bingo (howay! Its a northern club – what did you expect?), things started with another newbie, Straight Talkin’ Woman, a cracking blues stomper that got feet and hands going and will probably exercise a few vocal chords in gigs to come. Not content with that, another brand new song, Free came along and just blew everyone away with the passion and power Aynsley put into it. Then, he unchained his voice as well as Andre on keys for Feeling Good and then the whole band got everyone rocking and a good number dancing for Possession and set closer, again, a set newbie, Aynsley’s take on financial woes, Broke.
Aynsley and the band were on top form, even this early into a new tour, and certainly won’t going to be let off lightly; they were called back for encore; Running Out On Me was the track of choice, and great choice before a dazzling Purple Rain. If it hadn’t taken things right up to curfew, who knows what else we may have got, the band was having a good night, the audience were having a great night; CDs were flying out the door.
Yep, the Jedi certainly felt this one. This one was felt by a venue capacity audience and probably have sold a 2nd night. If you want to feel it, recommend you scoot along to Bury next week-end where it's been changed from solo/duo to full band gig. And don't forget Aynsley at hebden Bridge before he swings through Germany for a while.
(vids by Gary Grainger – hero! – more to follow or click here - Blues Show 206
Then at the bottom of the playlist look to where it says “1 comment” - click on that and you’ll see a link that will take you to the Dropbox page for the file. You can then download and listen to the interview with Aynsley. )
When life gives you lemons; don't make lemonade.
Give back the lemons. Why were the lemons free? What's wrong with the lemons?
Do Not trust the lemons...