It’s doubtful
whether any of the of the blues fans attending this gig could have
anticipated just how good John O’Leary’s band was going to be.
And they were better than good! The crowd appeared to be a mix of
Torrington regulars, general blues fans, a gaggle of Savoy Brown fans
and the rest it seemed, came courtesy of a radio plug.
So much for the
marketing analysis and now for the music. With a classic twin guitar
attack topped by one of the most impressive harp tones in the
capital, The John O’Leary band powered their way through one of the
most enjoyable blues sets the old venue has seen in years. For a man
who has been on the European blues circuit for 35 years with Savoy
Brown, Mainsqueeze, Champion Jack Dupree, The John Dummer band and
who has fronted his own band for the last Dave for the last three
years, harmonica player O’Leary is still a breath of fresh air on
the live blues scene.
Together with one of the most exciting
line-ups in London, this 5 piece blazed their way through an inspired
set. And above all this was a band effort, with German drummer
Joachim Greve and the redoubtable Nick Townsend on bass holding down
the bottom end with panache while and John subtly coaxed the best
from his two young guitarists Jules Fothergill and Tim O’Sullivan.
The band took the stage for an untitled
funky instrumental, allowing each member just enough room to blow
away the cobwebs, before O’Leary led the ensemble into an original
reading of “Born In Chicago”, bolstered by a rhumba beat. In fact
both sets were infused with as much Latino rhythms as shuffles. Isaac
Scott’s “Let My Baby Ride” for example, offered a full blown
rhumba beat with Jules Fothergill teasing out as splendid jazzy
guitar run. John added a delicate harp solo to another funky Latino
arrangement of his hero Junior Wells’ ”Snatch It Back”, and
threw in an emotive vocal line and repeat harp excursion on the
nicely understated “Who’s Been Talking” The second set gave
full reign to the band’s virtuoso talents and even the most
potentially predictable of songs such as “Black Cat Bone ”,
became transformed into a funky workout complete with (don’t laugh)
a climatic and humorous drum solo. By the time dived into a raucous
encore of “Rock Me Baby” – complete with original Muddy Waters
lyrics, and flailing guitars – the audience volume nearly matched
that of the band.
In short The John O’Leary band came,
saw and beat fresh life into a ragged old genre