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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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| STAX
- SOULSVILLE USA
The Barbican, London 25th April
2005 - by Nick Morgan |
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Have
you ever thought that there might be just
too much love in the house? |
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| It
went like this. First the lady who used to run the
tea and biscuit trolley at Stax
Records in Memphis – she’s now the
curator of the recently opened Stax Museum in a
recreation of the demolished studios – loved
us, for about ten minutes. |
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| In
fact she loved us so much that she came back after
the interval and loved us some more. Then Skip Pitts,
front man and guitarist with warm-up act the
Bo-keys (who played the wicha wicha
wah wah bit at the start of Shaft) loved us, as
did drummer Willie Hall (who played the tsshp tsshp
hi-hat on the same Issac Hayes mega-hit). |
Mable John |
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Ben
Cauley, trumpeter for Otis Redding, sang for us
and loved us too, and Marvell Thomas (son of Rufus,
brother of Carla) bowed his head in an almost reverential
act of love every time the word was mentioned. Mable
John, who was guest vocalist with the
Bo-Keys loved us in every key except the one the
band were playing in, and performed her hit ‘Your
good thing is about to end’, during which
she indicated more than once that she had a particular
affection – if not love - for the good thangs
of the men of old London town. |
| The
solemn and scholarly Booker
T Jones (Hammond Organ supremo par
excellence), when he finally climbed down from the
elevated Altar of Groove that he occupied for most
of the evening to speak to us, loved us from the
bottom of his heart. |
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 Booker
T and the MGs |
| Pony
tailed Steve
Cropper – wonder guitarist, genius
songwriter, arranger, engineer and ace producer,
loved us for being the people who brought Memphis
Rhythm and Blues to the world. Donald
Duck Dunn loved us for giving him the
opportunity to strut the stage, with awesome Fender
bass guitar gently perched on an equally awesome
beer-belly. William
Bell loved us for making ‘Private
Number’ such a huge hit, and Eddie
Floyd loved the bald man in the front
row so much that he couldn’t stop stroking
his head. So much love on one stage going out to
a long fully sold out Barbican for the last night
of the It Came From Memphis series of concerts. |
 Booker
T Jones |
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Of
course the guys had got this love fest the wrong
way round. We were there because we loved them,
and no disrespect to the Bo-Keys, or Mable John
(who did eventually get in tune), or William Bell,
or Eddie Floyd, but the ones we loved the most were
the quite remarkable Booker T and the MGs. Here
were three guys (performing with with drummer Steve
Potts in place of original skins-man the late Al
Jackson) who simply rewrote the book, and whose
influence on soul and rock music was arguably as
profound and long-lasting as the mercurial Beatles. |
| We
loved Booker T for his deeply soulful no-nonsense
playing – understated in gesture and flourish
for a Hammond player – and for the occasional
smiles that flashed across his face when Potts,
Dunn or Cropper delighted with their playing. We
loved Dunn for his jovial presence but simply wicked
bass playing – his short improvisations astonishing
even his colleagues on stage. And of course we loved
Cropper, not just for being one half of the partnerships
that produced ‘Knock on wood’, ‘Midnight
Hour’ or ‘Dock of the Bay’, but
also for his elegant minimalist guitar work, and
of course his Peavey ‘Cropper Classic’
guitar, one for everyone’s Christmas wish
list. We also discovered that we loved drummer Potts
for his rip-roaring power drumming. And we loved
the MGs together for ‘Melting Pot’,
‘Summertime’, ‘Soul limbo’
(a notable contribution to English cricket), ‘Hang
‘em high’, ‘Time is tight’
and ‘Green onions’ – all of which
featured in their set, which was a timeless, and
as fresh, as it was some thirty years ago. And we
did love Bell, Floyd and Thomas when they all joined
the stage towards the end of the set, arguing between
themselves like slightly forgetful old men over
who played what on which hit record and why. |
| Actually
forget it – sometimes there is simply never
too much love in the house. - Nick Morgan (concert
photo by Kate). |
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Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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