John Mayall at the Civic. 15th April 2010

[bluesbass]

So... John Mayall last night...

I must admit that when I first heard he was coming to New Zealand I thought "Wow! Cool, I must go and see him, what with him being a 'legend' and all".
Then after I purchased my ticket and as I listened to some of his older albums I kinda got the mehhhhs, but in the last couple of weeks as the show got closer and I read up on his new band I got more excited about seeing him live.

This was a pretty old school sort of a gig.

John and some of his band were out in the foyer before the gig (and after too) selling and signing CDs, so I got to meet the man and shake his hand.

The gig itself was pretty cool, and it was almost like watching my band (well... sort of...) from the other side of the mic stand because John's band missed and fluffed a couple of queues, John started playing harp in the wrong key at the start of one song, and had to read the lyrics for a couple of others.
He thought he had completely messed up the settings on his Roland keyboard at one point and Tim Canning, the keyboard player, had to come to his rescue.

Guitarist Rocky Athas, who looks like the poster boy for Sunsilk shampoo, had pedal issues and was constantly fiddling with his amp for the first half of the show.

Jay Davenport on drums was a mutha fucka... a dead-ringer for that alien turned good guy from Star Gate and just immense.
The drum kit took an absolute pounding and at least 1 pair of drumsticks were sacrificed on the night.

The afore mentioned Tim was a bit of a one trick pony I thought, but a great lesson in when to play and when not too... playing (or rather stalking) a Nord I think.

I’ve seen Greg Rzab on bass before and he’s cool... played a bit of slide on the bass at one point, and his big solo was a wee bit OTT for my tastes, but pretty technically cool.

From where I was in the stalls, stage left as you look at it, both the bass and the guitar could have up in the mix a bit.

It was a fairly predictable set list I thought, and I could have done without California and Checking On My Baby didn’t really go anywhere.

If I wasn't recording and the gigging on Saturday, I'd head down to Hamilton to catch him again, because all in all it was an enjoyable show.

[TMG 03]

I got that DVD of his with Clapton ,Taylor etc and It was pretty shite. Put me right of spending any money to see him.

[bluesbass]

I got that DVD of his with Clapton ,Taylor etc and It was pretty shite. Put me right of spending any money to see him.

Thats a tad harsh... IMHO.
I'm not a huge fan of John's but there are some very good bits in that DVD, as there were last night.
Admittedly, Mick Taylor couldn't have looked any less uninspired, and Clapton's initial few songs with John and (guest trombonist - ) Chris Barber were pretty lame.

Whitington was great.

I wouldn't have let that one DVD put me off seeing John (particularly as it was 6 years or so ago, with an almost completely different band)... and didn't.

[Bg]

Yeah I was pretty dissappointed in the show last night - I thought the sound was pretty bad, Rockys amp sounded like it had a blanket over it all night and it was barely audible at times, I suspect it was a bad sound engineer rather than a bad amp and he was fiddling with the amp and pedals so he could hear it. A green TS and what looked like a mk2 marshall pedal, possibly a guv'nor, fender amp of some non-description. I moved around quite a bit to try and find a sweet spot for listening but it was dreadful all over.

John Mayall is a legend and at 75 or thereabouts, he still has a strong voice and his harp playing was pretty good, I think he can be forgiven the odd mermory lapse.

Considering the calibre of guitarists he's had in the past, Clapton, Greeny, Taylor, Walter Trout, Buddy Whittington et al.... Rocky was crap. He barely played anything coherent, just a random assortment of 'blues licks' with the odd Gary Moore flurry thrown in, not what I expected at all. He looked lost at points when Mayall gave him the nod to carry on soloing, and virtually just replayed the same 12 bars he'd just played. He needs a lesson on how to build a solo, not that I'm offering

Rest of the band was a mixture of session musos, good but nothing spectacular.

Good to see the man, good to meet the man and shake him by the hand, good to stay in the bar with iPod listening to 'Blues from Laurel Canyon' or the Beano album. I enjoyed it but it saddened me a little.

[thehenderson]

Did he slag off the blacks?

[bluesbass]

Greg Rzab and Jay Devenport are a little bit more than just session musos BG.
Greg has played with Otis Rush (for several years) as well as Albert Collins, Hubert Sumlin, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, and in Buddy Guy's touring band for a long time.

I'm not 100% sure of Jay's background, but I know he's played with some relevant cats too.

I know what you mean about Rocky though... mabye the gear issues he was having threw him off his game?

[bluesbass]

Did he slag off the blacks?

What?!

[Bg]

Greg Rzab and Jay Devenport are a little bit more than just session musos BG.
Greg's played with Otis Rush (for several years) as well as Albert Collins, Hubert Sumlin, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, and in Buddy Guy's touring band for a long time.

I'm not 100% sure of Jay's background, but I know he's played with some relevant cats too.

I know what you mean about Rocky though... mabye the gear issues he was having threw him off his game?

Yeah I know what you mean, but they came across to me as session musos rather than a coherent band... Great players undeniably.

[thehenderson]

Hehe he did this interview earlier in the year or late last year where he slagged off black people and women and lots of people got pissed with him. Man he's such a bad ass, what a white rebel

[bluesbass]

Hehe he did this interview earlier in the year or late last year where he slagged off black people and women and lots of people got pissed with him. Man he's such a bad ass, what a white rebel

Yeah? I'd be surprised if he did. If you can find it, can you post a link?
Are you sure you’re not getting confused with Rik Mayall?

[rocklander]

Hehe he did this interview earlier in the year or late last year where he slagged off black people and women and lots of people got pissed with him. Man he's such a bad ass, what a white rebel

you're thinking of this guy....



[edit]jinx@bluesbass[/edit]

[Some Bozo]

I see Henderson's back a-trolling lately after a bit of a break from it. He's talking about John Mayer.

[thehenderson]

olol

[bluesbass]

I see Henderson's back a-trolling lately after a bit of a break from it. He's talking about John Mayer.

Oh, right.
He's a cock.

[rocklander]