Neither Teresa nor I had seen Jeff Beck before so we were not too sure what to expect. Also we were not over familiar with his less popular music so it would definitely be an experience one way or another. For a change I drove up to Waterloo and not for a change parking was difficult. NCP wanted over £9 for a few hours unsupervised rental of about 8 square yards of tarmac so we ended up by the Eurostar entrance for a bargain £6 as long as we stayed under 4 hours. The 5 hour rate was £12! Nothing would have been more welcome than a beer after that but the bar was heaving and as we hadn’t had time for any dinner I didn’t fancy a drink on an empty stomach.
The tickets said 7.30 so were sat down on time because these days you have no idea about support acts and the like. On the dot of 20 minutes late a couple of band members started up and a few seconds later Jeff Beck walked on already playing his guitar. The first number was Beck’s Bolero. He wore black cor blimey boots, black Levi’s and a black vest. He looked to have hardly aged but through the cruel eyes of the binoculars he did look a bit worn, still very good for his age and still totally skinny.
His band started off with a bass player, one woman guitarist, one male guitarist, a keyboard player and a drummer. It was nicely loud but not making our ears bleed. The stage set up was a bit odd as we could see before the start that two full drum kits were set up. This hinted at a support act but that was not so.
We were then treated to an evening of excellent music played by a variety of musicians who came and went with gay abandon. The one constant was Jeff Beck who was on stage all of the time. We were also treated to a very rare phenomenon. All through the gig Jeff played just the one guitar and even then he hardly had to retune it. Possibly it could have been one of his signature Stratocasters but it seemed to have a signature near the bridge rather than on the headstock. Whatever it was he used only the one and did give it a kiss at the end.
After a couple of tunes (with no vocals) the second male guitarist left and we had a few more with the altered line up. Jeff is not the most communicative performer in the world and all we got was some cheery but mumbled occasional thanks. After about half an hour a singer came on and did ‘I ain’t superstitious’. (Dino – he looked a bit like you only less good looking). He did another song and then went off. All the time Jeff wailed away getting sounds out of his guitar that mystified me. Even with the binoculars I couldn’t work out what he was doing. It didn’t help that there was still the other guitarist on stage and so it was sometimes hard to tell who was playing what.
The female guitarist had long blonde hair that reminded me of Jennifer Batten’s. All of Jeff’s introductions were inaudible so we didn’t know who was who. I looked on the internet the next day and found an interview with him and guess who played on his last album? Jennifer Batten of course, so I assume it was her. Also the article said that Jan Hammer was on keyboards. The rest I didn’t recognise. Jennifer played a custom guitar the likes of which I had never seen. She came out for the odd shared solo but was happy standing at the back avoiding the limelight and enjoying herself. Jan Hammer was even more inconspicuous playing away at the side in near darkness.
After the singers couple of songs the band stopped for an interval. We stayed in our seats during the interval and witnessed the crew setting up a third drum kit at the front. After our ice creams the band came on again, this time with some youngsters dressed all in red who treated us to a few garage numbers with Jeff contributing from the side. These youngsters turned out to be White Stripes, a popular new band from the States. To confuse matters the bass drum (and it was a very simple kit) had ‘Yardbirds’ on the front. They went off very grateful to have shared the stage with Jeff Beck.
Then we had another singer come on. She was very tall and willowy with a shock of blonde hair. She only did one song. Another drummer joined the group for a couple of songs and it was a bit like Piccadilly Station. Decent introductions would have helped but the show rocked on anyway.
The ads had said that Roger Waters should be appearing as well but we were seriously beginning to doubt it. So many musicians had come and gone that there didn’t seem time for any more. Then just as were thinking that maybe one of those who had already come on was also called Roger Waters on came the old Pink Floydie himself.
Teresa was surprised how tall he was until I pointed out that as a public schoolboy he had higher education. He was assisted by 3 black back up singers (regulars of his I think as one was P P Arnold). He was also dressed all in black and did some songs from a recent album. He could not have been more fulsome in his praise of Jeff Beck. He was very good but you had to wonder why a performer of his stature came on for just a couple of songs. But it all added up to a wonderfully varied evening.
For his last song Jeff did an instrumental based round A Day In The Life from Sgt Pepper. I still don’t know how he got the sounds he did from his Strat.
Jeff was very grateful for the reception he got and gave due credit to the band. For the first encore Jeff did a solo with an Indian sound to it. A tabla player had come on for the singer with the big blonde hair and for the odd other number and I still can’t work out how he got the sitar sound out of the Strat.
Biggest non-surprise of the night was the second encore – Hi Ho Silver Lining of course (good prediction Dave). Jeff ‘sung’ it and they were the only words of his that I understood all night. The solo was suitably unaltered from the original and all of the guest musicians came on and did their bit. It did seem that they all had a very enjoyable time, as did we. It ended at 10.40 so we got our moneys worth from Jeff and got back to the car just before the 4 hours were up. It was a hugely enjoyable evening and we haven’t had a bum gig all year.
One last note. In front of us sat 3 couples (Teresa & I disagree over their marital status) who were the audience from hell. They came in, with drinks, a bit late and spent the whole time moving, chatting, going out to get more drinks and generally annoying everyone else in the vicinity. They came back late from the interval of course and at least that meant that we didn’t have their heads bobbing about in front of us. One of the women was very drunk and made our night by staggering off and falling down the steps. She came back but was now in the ‘I don’t feel very well’ stage and kept quiet. The bloke she was with was so embarrassed by her that he left never to return! Jeff Beck was so good that they just were a minor irritation.
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