Stan Webb September 2008

Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack
Chislehurst 2008

We had seen Stan Webb before (see review with John Mayall and Mick Taylor in 2004 & March 2008 at Herney Hill) a couple of times and it was with no hesitation that we went for the man again

After the usual confusion of who was driving who in the end Teresa & I made it to the Beaverwood Club in Chislehurst nice and early just the two of us. I paid for our full potential of 9 and we got in just as the support act, The Matt Bullard Band were finishing their sound check.

Having got a drink we sprawled ourselves across a couple of small tables at the very front waiting for the rest of the contingent to arrive. A few minutes later Brian & Margaret came in so the 4 of us sprawled. Pete Feenstra was on particularly good form tonight and after a while introduced the support to good applause.

They consisted of Matt on lead Strat, an aging bass player with a floppy cap to hide his lack of hair, a 2nd Stat player who wouldn’t have looked out of place in a dole queue and a lanky drummer. (Nicked from previous review – sorry) He has a basic web site and this is what it says about the bass and drums: Roger and Fred have been Matt's rhythm section for the past 12 years. They call themselves 'To The Bridge'. They are experienced, tight and really know how to funk things up! http://www.mattbullardband.co.uk/index.htm
They played loud, funky blues and were very good. They made no bones about being derivative so we got a good selection of old blues tunes played with verve and some good humour thrown in. They got a good reception from the appreciative crowd especially when Matt dropped his pick into a mass of cabling and couldn’t find it. He obviously didn’t have a handy replacement and took a lot of good natured ribbing from the rest of the band. As he said after it was finally retrieved – always carry a spare pick.

They finished their set, we finally all met up and Pete paid me for what I had laid out. Then we got ready for the man himself. After a short while and after the usual chaotic introduction form Mr Feenstra Stan’s back up band came on and were much the same as last time with Jim Rudge the perm-haired bass guitarist with the small hands, Gary Davis the sideways on 2nd guitarist and Mick Jones the permanently grimacing and gurning drummer.
http://www.stanwebb.co.uk/ - pretty basic but helpful web site with band details.

Stan came on and was extremely casually dressed in jeans and t-shirt. He was in very good form, not only on his gold Les Paul but conversationally. We had his views on various topics and of course they were hilariously irreverent. He saved most of his scorn for Gordon Brown, the government and Scots in general. When one foolish member of the audience asked what the alternative was Stan spluttered ‘well you go and do something about it then’. His nice Marshall amp was giving off quite a bit of mains hum that he didn’t appreciate and we got a few ‘fucking thing’ as he turned round to look at it and twiddle a few knobs.

Each song was delivered with 100% commitment except when something went wrong. In reality there are two Stan’s. There is the committed blues man who plays and sings with his soul and there is the between songs say what I damn well like Stan. Rarely do they clash but when he totally forgot the words in the middle of one song they did. He and the band were highly amused and it took him a while to find his way again.

His between songs patter was worth the price of admission alone. It was rarely anything less than hilarious. We got the ‘Well even Hitler had his faults’ and random comments on just about anything that took his fancy. His playing was as good and effortless as ever although from where we sat I was getting just a bit too much of the 2nd guitarist. Stan seemed to play a little less bottleneck than usual and although he had a wah-wah it only came into play at the very end of the set.

His rendition of I’d rather go blind was as heartfelt as ever and we got the stroll through the audience without his guitar as a treat. He had done the same thing at The Fairfield before but this was in a pub/club atmosphere and he enjoyed wandering through grabbing a pint, singing, chatting and being quite suggestive to some of the women. As we were sitting at the front we missed a lot of it but it’s good for those with less good views to be part of the action.

At the end he was of course dragged back on for an encore and he played tribute to Pete Feenstra for continuing to keep live music alive. Pete himself was so funny by getting everything wrong (when he thanked Matt Bullard he pointed out the other members of the band & called the 2nd guitarist Chris before admitting he really didn’t know what his name was at all!). Something just makes you feel good after an evening with Stan and I really can’t recommend him enough. He plays the blues and makes you laugh – what more do you want?