15 October 2018 (gig)
16 October 2018
Glenn Hughes just keeps getting betters as he gets (even) older.
He is a veteran of a career going all the way back to Trapeze in the sixties, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Iommi and more recently Black Country Communion, California Breed and more collaborations than I could count.
His voice is virtually weapons grade and he is a superb bass player as well.
No surprise then that the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town was packed to bursting and that the temperature – on a cold Monday night in October – was hitting summer levels.
The crowd was buzzing with anticipation of the great man playing classics from his Deep Purple period and he didn’t disappoint.
He opened with a blistering ‘Stormbringer’, moving swiftly into a stunning ‘Might Just Take Your Life’ and the volume, coupled with Hughes incredible vocals, was giving the songs even more presence than the originals.
Hughes is the perfect frontman, it really is difficult to take your eyes away from his long ginger hair and impenetrable shades but the rest of the band were doing a great job of bringing the music to a point of combustion. Soren Andersen (guitar) has been with Hughes a while but his style seems brilliantly suited to the Purple material while Jesper Bo Hansen’s keyboards bring the songs extravagantly to life. Add to that Ash Sheehan on drums and you have a really potent outfit, capable of power and subtlety in equal measure.
‘You Keep On Moving’ brought the crowd to an even higher fervour with its soulful groove and then an explosive ‘You Fool No One’ with Hughes voice hitting notes that are illegal in almost all civilised countries and then into an extended ‘Smoke On The Water’ featuring solos from all members of the band.
They encored with ‘Burn’, always one of my favourites from back in the day, and then a very special guest, Joe Bonamassa, came out. The resulting versions of ‘Mistreated’ and a stunning ‘Highway Star’ showed just how strong the pairing of Hughes and Bonamassa is.
The support for the evening was Laurence Jones who had brought in a couple of excellent backing singers for the occasion. I haven’t seen LJ since he headlined at the Borderline and I was gobsmacked by the power and confidence he and the band showed. The crowd were loving him and he probably made a lot of new fans on this tour.
A brilliant night of great rock and no little excitement – my ears are still buzzing but in a good way.
Picture by Zoran Veselinovic
