It’s a game of two halves as veteran midfield workhorse
Bobby Womack proved on Tuesday when he performed a couple of sets at the Forum
in Kentish Town.
In the first half he lined up to showcase songs from his
current The Bravest Man In The Universe album.
He began, sat on a stool, with a guitar, by delivering a soul-stirring reading
of the old gospel standard “Deep River”. It’s one of the best tracks on the
album but to witness it, to experience it first hand, shone a light on how
powerful and affecting live music can be. That was true of the whole set which
featured mainly new songs plus a couple gospel classics. His small combo featured
the album’s producers Damon Albarn and Richard Russell who let Bobby’s voice –
soaring high, swooping low and with those gruff bluesy licks like Bobby Bland -
take the lead and accompanied it with a fat bass sound, minimal percussion, and
various electronic beeps, clacks and squiggles. Womack - in black hat, nice
black jacket, shades and striped jersey - sounded timeless yet the music was now and worked
well, especially in a live setting. I wasn’t too fussed about the album beforehand
but it came to life here and showed soul music can be contemporary yet still
keep its church roots. An uplifting “Jubilee (Don’t Let Nobody Turn You
Around)” ended the first half before Bobby departed and left everyone to “go to
the bathroom or go for a joint”.
The second half, with a completely different and larger
band, bought a complete transformation from the instant Womack was introduced with
a cry of “It’s Showtime.” And showtime it was: Showtime on an expensive cruise liner
or showtime around the pool in Marbella in 1988. Bobby, having looked the model
of understated cool, had changed into a red leather cap and jacket mistaking the
Forum for a fetish club. The songs were drawn out and embellished with guitar
solos, alto solos and a herd of backing singers fighting for attention; all of
which threatened to drown out the vocal he’d so impressed with previously.
I’ve focused on the negative and on other occasions I
might’ve been content simply to hear “Across 110th Street”, “Harry
Hippie” (which I love), “That’s The Way I Feel About Cha”, “Stop On By”,
“Lookin’ For A Love” etc (all of which he sang) but it was impossible not to
notice the stark contrast to the first set. Judging by the audience reaction to
both I was in the minority as what looked like the North London Guardian
readers’ convention whooped their delight every time he broke into a tribute to
Marvin Gaye or Wilson Pickett or whoever. Womack’s CV - from his Sam Cooke days
to Gorillaz - is phenomenal, I can’t knock him and the fella has even been
treated for colon cancer this year so to then do shows like this speaks
volumes about his character. He wasn’t bad - far from it, he's voice has kept remarkably well - but this soul
cabaret "this is for all the lovers in the house" style is horribly dated and does a man of his standing no favours. By
the time it got to a plinky-plonky version of “It’s All Over Now” I was wishing
it was.
Back in the late 80s The Housemartins scored all their
gigs like football results. Applying that here Bobby Womack stormed to a
deserved 3-0 half-time lead only to throw it away in the second half. Final
score: 3-3.
No comments:
Post a Comment