We had a choice for this one – either drive to Brighton on a Friday for a sit down gig or hike to Shepherd’s Bush the next night for a stand up. The sit down option won and I booked fairly reasonable seats in row H. After agonising over whether to stay the night and rave in Brighton or just drive home the prices of a one night stay forced my hand into driving back. That and the fact that the venue told me that it was a 7.45 start with no support for a 9.40 finish. We’d be back before midnight if I drove so that was that.
The drive down there was as you’d expect for a rush hour crawl through Croydon to the M23 but we had plenty of time. We parked in an NCP type place close to the venue which is on the front facing the sea and went in. The merchandising was rather desultory with half a dozen t-shirts and some signed old CD’s on offer. There was nothing there to tempt us.
We went up to the busy bar and had time for a quiet drink before going in about 7.30. Things didn’t bode too well is The Brighton Centre isn’t a theatre but more a big empty all purpose arena. The stalls are totally flat but the stage was quite high so you had a chance of a decent view even if it may come with a stiff neck if you were right at the front. Round 3 sides were banked seats and unfortunately it was only about ¾ full for a genuine legend.
As with most sports hall type places it was high and there was a distinct lack of atmosphere. In the winter I suspect it would be pretty cold as well. I can well imagine the place doing a Holiday on Ice spectacular in a month or two.
More or less on time the lights dimmed to near blackness for the audience and on trooped the band to great applause. As if to confirm my fears of cold Steve Stills wore quite a big coat that only came off after the first song of the second half. He went straight into Helplessly Hoping playing a gorgeous Gretsch White Falcon. The sound, aided by a couple of banks of curved PA speakers high up was absolutely superb. I was pleasantly surprised by that. You could have expected quite a bit of echo but someone had done their homework well.
The band was pretty stripped down with just Steve Stills on guitar, with 3 others on bass, keyboards and drums. The bass guitarist was tiny and had on Mexican trousers – you know ones with metal bits down the side which led you to believe that he was in fact Mexican but when introduced at the end he had an Italian name. On drums was Joe Vitale and he did some back up vocals as did the other two.
After the first song the band trooped off and on came the Martin D28. Once again the sound was very good but I think he must hold the record now for the number of guitar changes in a set. They were changed after every song and sometimes in the middle of songs as well. Fortunately it didn’t interrupt the flow. What followed was about 45 minutes of magic.
We had Treetop Flyer, Change Partners, 4 + 20, Blind Fiddler, Girl From The North Country, Johnny’s Garden, Cross of Freedom and to end the set Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (the band came on half way through this one as well). His voice although a touch croaky at first got better and better and he didn’t hold back at all. He did say that he wouldn’t be doing the castrato parts on a CSN & Y song but he managed them all with no disappointment.
We got a decent bit of chat with explanations of Johnny’s Garden (he inherited the gardener from buying a house from Ringo who bought it from Peter Sellers & the gardener came with it) and also the info that the gardener had given him the trousers he was wearing! He was also pretty chuffed with losing some weight. He was on the ELF diet he told us – eat less food! He definitely seemed to be enjoying himself which I like to see.
After the first set they trooped off probably to give his guitar tech a break as he hadn’t stopped at all. During the interval I was given a couple of chances to show off and I grasped them with both hands. First off as we stood to stretch our legs the guy who had been sitting next to me said he’d like to know how the Martin was tuned for Judy Blue Eyes so I told him straightaway – E E E E B & E. That was how I was going to tune my Aria acoustic as soon as I got home.
We decided to try the bar to find then both heaving with not enough staff of course. Teresa had suggested I take my sweatshirt off to show my loud Hard Rock Nashville guitar shirt so in deference to her wishes I obeyed as usual. I took it off in the toilet and had the weird sensation of actually being stared at as I walked back along the bar. Then when I reached Teresa at the bar she happened to be standing next to a bloke who was wearing a guitar shirt as well. Only it was rather a weak one and he went from being rather proud of it to blabbering his appreciation of my much superior effort. Poor man probably thought he looked rather cool until he saw mine.
We just had time to get another drink before going back in for the second half. This was all electric and as I mentioned earlier after the first song the coat came off and it was all rock’n’roll. Teresa was nowhere near as keen on the second half as it was like a series of electric jams. The couple to my right obviously had wind of what was coming up as they departed after the acoustic set. I liked the electric stuff but according to the Stephen Stills forum there were those who didn’t.
I wasn’t too familiar with the electric stuff but looking at the forum (you have to sign up to read it) we probably had Buffalo Springfield 's Rock ' n Roll woman, Bluebird, Tom Petty / Mudcrutch's "The wrong thing to do" ("a song about my life", he said)! The encore was Love The One You’re With and that was it. Looking at the forum he has varied the set list and I would have loved to have heard Dark Star or Woodstock which he played on some of the European dates.
The finish was as stated and although it was early he isn’t that young anymore and has had prostate cancer recently so he’s doing pretty well and we were overjoyed to have heard some great songs live at last. Teresa was a touch disappointed that Graham Nash didn’t come on and do Marrakech Express though! We were back home by 11.40 so Brighton was denied our presence for the night. Maybe next time.
http://stephenstills.com/index-v10.html - not the best web site in the world.
Here is something from the forum:
http://rockerparis.blogspot.com/2008/10/stephen-stills-olympia-paris-oct-5th.html good review of the Paris gig & good pics as well.
I have just seen SS at Brighton UK. His solo acoustic set was fantastic, he was in great voice and his playing was spot on. Several gags about his weight and the amount he has lost. He certainly looks a lot fitter. That's the good news. The electric set was a shambles - the numbers were all over amplified and instead of his trademark light inventive electric guitar licks we got heavyish blues playing of the standard that I can hear from pub bands any weekend of the year. He played the riff on Rock and Roll Woman with too much distortion which masked the melody, and put an overlong blues solo in the middle of Bluebird. I appreciate that he may want to update the sound, but sheer volume and overlong solos is not the way, in my opinion. I suggest SS revisits the tracks and plays them in a lighter style where the quality of the song and the playing shine through. SS needs to look at his audience and appreciate they bought the original records and are looking to hear something similar, or am I a lone voice.
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