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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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WALTER
TROUT AND THE RADICALS
Astoria 2, London, October 3rd 2007
We
thought we were going to the Mean Fiddler to watch
“blues legend” Walter
Trout, but when we got to the door
(late, because we’d been enjoying a
very interesting dinner along with our mates
and decided to have “that other bottle of
wine”) discovered it was the Mean Fiddler
no more, having transformed itself into the Astoria
2. You see there’s been some movement in
the tectonic plates of the live music business
– probably the most profitable place to
be in music at the moment (closely followed by
merchandise and intellectual property –
aka ring-tones and licensing). The Mean
Fiddler was set up in 1982 by Vince Power,
an Irish music entrepreneur with something of
a reputation ('I'm very soft and I'm very hard
and I'm trying to find the middle ground. If anyone
tries to turn me over, I take a very hard view
of it.'). |
(Attention readers: may we suggests you order
this book before you read this review?) |
| It
was originally a club in Harlesden – but became
the name of the holding company that controlled
almost all the live music venues in London, in addition
to the Reading Festival, the Fleadh, the Leeds Festival,
Tribal Gathering, and the management of Glastonbury.
And the club in turn moved to the basement of the
Astoria, taking its name with it. But in 2005 Power
sold out (for about £13 million) – forming
VPMG and managing
a variety of London restaurants and small venues
including the ghastly Pigalle. |
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The
buyers were Live Nation, with a 51% share, and Power’s
long time business rival and fellow Irishman, Denis
Desmond, who in addition to owning Ireland’s
largest festival Oxygen, also has significant interests,
through various businesses in T in the Park, the
V Festivals and the Isle of Wight Festivals (for
what it’s worth Desmond is also joint franchisee
of Yo! Sushi in Ireland). They subsequently tried,
but failed, to buy the Brixton Academy and Shepherds
Bush Empire. And last year they signed a 15 year
deal to manage the refurbished Wembley Arena. Then,
in August this year, Mean Fiddler Holdings (or to
be absolutely correct Hamsard 2786 Limited) sold
the Hammersmith Apollo and the Forum, and then its
smaller London venues, its interest in the G-A-Y-E
nightclub, and its name, to the MAMA group for (apparently)
over £40 million. |
| The
remaining business – the Festivals and the
Astoria (and Astoria 2) was renamed Festival
Republic, and they appear to have used some
of the dosh from that sale to purchase what remaining
acreage of the Reading Festival site they didn’t
already own. MAMA
(with over 50 per cent of their business owned by
institutional investors) owns (in addition to its
recent acquisitions) the expanding network of Barfly
venues, and a management business that handles a
number of leading producers and artists such as
Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and the Cribs. |
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They
plan to refurbish the ‘old’ Mean Fiddler,
“roll-out” the Jazz Café brand
across Europe, and further expand the Barfly business
(and reopen the old Mean Fiddler in Harlesden).
And more besides I’ve no doubt. Ant the reason
for telling you this? Just so you remember that
while we’re out there having fun people are
making serious, serious amounts of money out of
live music. And it’s rarely the bands. |
| Ok.
So we got there late and walked down into the small
concrete-clad club where the band was already on
stage. Middle-aged men, heavy odour-rich clothes,
white faced, lank unwashed hair, soulless staring
eyes. And that’s only the audience - the majority
of whom formed a phalanx at the front of stage staring
intently at Trout’s fingers as they danced
up and down his fret board. Actually it could be
a fair description for the band too – who
to be frank, despite the fair amount of energy in
their performance, look dog-tired. I’m not
surprised. They’ve already played over a hundred
gigs this year before coming here, and their October
tour of the UK sees them playing on 29 nights –
just two rest days. They’re then doing almost
the same during November in Northern Europe. It’s
a tough life. And, no doubt, not as rewarding as
owning a chain of rock venues or a couple of festivals,
or the whole bloody lot. |
| Trout,
you will know, is a 54-year-old New Jersey native
who having taken up the blues guitar, travelled
to Los Angeles where he played in the bands of a
variety of biggish names (Percy Mayfield, John Lee
Hooker and Joe Tex) before joining Canned Heat in
1981. |
| Four
years later he joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
where he stayed for five years before going solo
and building a substantial following in Europe through
non-stop touring. And, in addition to releasing
almost twenty albums, non-stop touring is still
what he still does. He is, I can see, a hugely accomplished
player, but in the cramped Astoria 2 he chooses
to devote much of the time to what I would best
describe as ‘Hendrix moments’ –
and very extensive ones at that. It’s fast,
it’s frenetic, and it’s fascinating
for the ageing guitar geeks at the front, but from
where we are it’s frankly as boring as hell
after the first ten minutes or so. |
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It’s a shame, because when he does slow down
you can really see and hear the talent (and if you
like you can hear some nice stuff on his
myspace page), but it’s mostly subsumed
in this manic gun-slinging guitar. Anyway the audience
love it and bring him back for an encore. And Walter
loved it too. “Thank you London. Thank you
London. I really needed this gig. I really needed
this gig. You know I haven’t been feeling
too well recently, but I really needed this gig.
Goodnight London. I’m Walter Trout and I’m
cured”. |
| And
I didn’t make that up. - 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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