Canterbury Review of Blues Band

[michelej1]

Kentish Gazette
http://www.kentishgazette.co.uk/kol0...ticle_id=50258

The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, Marlowe Theatre

There were grey pony tails aplenty in the packed theatre for this festival coup which really turned the clock back.

The great Mick Fleetwood is celebrating 40 years of the original Fleetwood Mac by getting back to his blues heritage, and his appearance in Canterbury was the second night of a European tour.

In a tribute to the original four-piece blues band that started it all in 1967, Fleetwood has got together with guitarist and vocalist Rick Vito, bass player Lenny Castellanos and keyboards player Mark Johnstone.

Rick Vito has a great voice, bags of energy and is a brilliant guitarist - and he played with Fleetwood Mac from 1987 to 1991 - so is the ideal choice to front the group while legendary drummer Fleetwood is the backbone of the outfit.

The set included Albatross, which obviously got a huge reaction from the audience, but we were really there to celebrate the blues, with tracks like Oh Well, Shake Your Moneymaker and Black Magic Woman.

There was a dedication to Peter Green, naturally, and more mysteriously to unnamed people in the audience and particularly a woman known only as “you know who you are”.

These were four great musicians, all clearly dedicated to their craft, and the audience gave them a prolonged standing ovation.

For me, though, the only downside was the usual Marlowe affliction, the sound quality.

It has become a triumph of hope over experience every time I go to see music at the Marlowe and it’s the same old story - great musicians, shame about the sound.

I’m not expecting CD quality, the rawness of live music is all part of its appeal, but I do want to be able to hear all the instruments clearly, not just a muddy mix. This time the bass was so loud my bones were vibrating and the drums sometimes drowned out the guitar and keyboards.

It might have been fine in a massive arena -presumably the band’s sound man, having been with Fleetwood for years, is more used to that - but it wasn’t great here.

But that’s just me - the grey pony tails loved every minute and I guess that’s what counts.

Debbie Neech