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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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PAUL LAMB AND THE KING SNAKES
The Borderline, London, June 17th 2006 |
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Left
to right, Paul Lamb, Raul de Pedro Marinero, Ryan
Lamb and Chad Strentz |
| I
couldn’t help thinking that ‘the best
blues band in Britain’ somehow deserved a
little better. I mean I know it’s summer,
it’s hot British barbecue bedlam time (“mmm…like
those rare chicken ribs Dad…”), people
are saving up for their holidays, there’s
football on the TV every night and in about a week’s
time Festival Frenzy grips London, with it appears
just about every public space available in the City
being used for day or evening events. But even so
that’s no excuse for an audience of around
twenty, miserably failing to make the Borderline
look anything other than empty. Now when I first
saw Paul
Lamb and the King Snakes, in one of
those forgotten and very dirty Edinburgh Masonic
Halls that only comes to life for a few weeks each
September, the place was buzzing. Everyone had come
to see the blues band that had won more awards than
any other blues band, the blues harmonica player
who had won more awards than any other blues harmonica
player, and the blues guitarist who’d won
more awards than any other blues guitarist. |
Jimmy Hill |
Well
it’s been a few years since the last plaudits
rained down on the King Snakes. Paul Lamb is still
fronting them up, playing his remarkably full sounding
‘urban’ or Chicago style of harp, switching
deftly (and often mid-song) between harps and chromatic
harmonicas. He’s still a great showman (‘though
it does lack a bit of conviction in front of such
a small audience), but I have to observe that age
has not served him well, and the alarming resemblance
that he now bears to former TV football pundit Jimmy
Hill sits uneasily with his reputation as a bluester.
Sadly Whitehill has gone – now that’s
not to underrate the performance of lead guitarist
Raul de Pedro Marinero, whose T Bone Walker style
licks were worthy of any stage, or ‘guest’
guitarist Ryan Lamb (almost a flock then) who added
a hard British Blues edge to the band when he joined
them. |
|
It’s just that Whitehill was pretty remarkable
(you’d have to be a guitarist to understand,
but just how he played like he did with such stubby
fingers I shall never know) – I swear that
when I saw him if you’d shut your eyes you
might have thought it was Peter Green. |
| So
in short the King Snakes seem to have lost a bit
of edge over the years, and also gained a bit of
a novelty act feel – not to be encouraged
– don’t go there boys. But even with
twenty of us in the Borderline they belted out a
raucous set and did their best to act as Ambassadors
for the Blues. And as I’m sure I’ve
observed before, if it wasn’t for bands like
them, where would the Blues be? - Nick Morgan
(concert photographs by Kate) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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