One off the bucket list last night as we caught Georgie Fame at the Apex in Bury St. Edmunds last night. We’ve seen him a couple of times in other settings (with Van Morrison and Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings) but this was the first time with the man himself as the star of the show.
Needed to catch him before one or the other of us is pushing up the daisies; and given the difference in ages (he’s seventy one) I hope its not too uncharitable to hope, in the nicest possible way that the odds are on him rather than me.
- Fame at work
Performing as a trio with his sons Tristan Powell (guitar) and James Powell (drums), the gig was a broadly chronological trip through a long and successful career. By and large this was a great show – any gig that can run from ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (hated it when he recorded it, hates it now) through to Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Red House’ is bound to have something going for it. Hats off to Tristan for his superb guitar work on that particular blues. Both sons proved themselves to be very fine musicians in their own right. The in between song reminiscing was always entertaining and occasionally enlightening.
It’s clear Fame still enjoys playing and last night proved yet again what a stellar Hammond B3 player the man is – not too shabby in the vocal department either and definitely not living off past glories. As well as the hits (‘Yeh Yeh, ‘Getaway’ etc.) there were nods to a number of his musical heroes (everyone from Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Mose Allison through to Hoagy Carmichael) in a well judged and nicely paced set. Would have liked a little longer set, but that’s a tad churlish; if I’ve got half the energy if and when I reach Georgie’s age I’ll be both delighted and somewhat surprised.