Jeff Beck - Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Jeff Beck Live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, England
May 31st 2022
By Robert Corich
The second of two nights with Jeff Beck live at the most famous music venue in London Town was always going to be an event.
Add to that, the knowledge Hollywood A-lister Johnny Depp might be loitering in the wings, it was always going to be an eventful evening.
The proceedings were ignited by the beautiful intro drones of ‘Star Cycle’ from Jeff’s 1980 album ‘There And Back’. Once the organised chaos of Star Cycle had died down his highly accomplished band headed into a blast from the past in the form of a Beckized version of Mahavishnu Orchestra’s ‘You Know, You Know’, this in turn was followed by another Billy Cobham favourite in the form of the title track from Cobham’s groundbreaking 1973 album Spectrum.
Bombshell drummer Anika Nilles handled all the intricacies of these two classics with finesse which is no mean feat. It was a joy to hear Beck’s interpretation of the Billy Cobham classic that Tommy Bolin had immortalised with his immense skills in front of the music world in 1973. It really was worth the price of a ticket to witness these epics aired by the master in such a beautiful concert setting.
Fifth on the menu was a beautiful version of ‘Nadia’ from the turn of the century album ‘You Had It Coming’
Big sound was delivered with ‘Big Block’, a key tune from Jeff’s epic ‘Guitar Workshop’ album. Big Block just seems to sound better every time he serves it up live.
Who else could deliver contemporary blues so eloquently as Beck does with 1999’s Brush With The Blues’.
Sublime doesn’t even begin to describe the beauty of Beck’s playing and this show so far had been an absolute triumph.
Just when one would think nothing could go wrong, something does, terribly, especially for the diehard fans.
Mr Dirty Laundry himself swaggers onto the stage with a guitar slung over his shoulder and in less time than it takes to boil a kettle an A-grade show was reduced to tepid at best.
Well, we all knew it was likely to happen after hearing about previous shows via mainstream media as his appearance at previous gigs. The Hollywood A-lister was going to gatecrash the party. Not that I’ve got a thing against collaborations, bring them on.
From a PR perspective it was probably a brilliant move and clearly there’s mutual admiration and friendship between Beck and his pirate friend that in the main the change in entertainment was welcomed.
This on stage guitar bromance thing does actually work of a fashion for a few songs. It would’ve been nice if it had been kept to just a few songs rather than the half a dozen that were ultimately served up. Just think, we could’ve had the complete ‘Wired’ or ‘Blow By Blow’ albums played live by Beck and his stunning band comprising Anika Nilles on drums, Rhonda Smith on bass, Robert Adam Stephenson on keyboards and Vanessa Freebairn-Smith on string things. Dreams are free thankfully.
As dedicated Jeff Beck fans who never tire of listening to the near aural perfection he can deliver with his exotic string bending who can blame them for wishing such things. I suspect at least half the audience were with me on this.
To be fair the Beck & Depp show was actually quite entertaining and in its own way it was endearing for the first few numbers which consisted of ‘Heddy Lamar’ and a rendition of John Lennons ‘Isolation’ their recent collaborative single. However let’s hope that after this tour the Beck & Depp show is only heard as echoes in the chamber of amber lit alcoves in the belly of such an esteemed venue as the Royal Albert Hall.
In saying that I can’t wait to hear the new album which, rumour has it features Johnny Depp collaborating. Then there’s the inevitable live album. I might have to eat my words yet.
On the other hand it’s great that artists like Jeff Beck will bring whoever they want onto a stage never worrying about trends or whether it’s deemed right or wrong, which in turn can give things an air of unpredictability.
If the diehards just want to hear Jeff Beck do his thing then there are the other half who are gagging to see and hear the Hollywood A-lister perform on a stage with a guitar player they might just about have heard of. There’s a silver lining to everything they say.
One thing is clear, Jeff Beck nearly always has truly amazing musicians around him and his current band certainly fall into that category which meant the rest of the show still had its moments and Jeff certainly claimed it all back in the encore with his stunningly beautiful delivery of The Beatles ‘A Day In The Life’
Notes fading he gently laid his guitar down on the stage, waved at the crowd and left the stage like it really was just another day in the life.
Which of course it was. What a cool dude.
Setlist:
Star Cycle
You Know You Know
Stratus
Nadia
The Rumble
Midnight Walker
Big Block
Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
Brush With The Blues
Heddy Lamar
Isolation
Time
What’s Going On
Little Wing
The Death and Resurrection Show
Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers
Corpus Christi Carol
A Day In The Life
Opening act, the beautiful and talented Sharon Corr performed an entertaining and vibrant, if rather short set playing songs from her most recent long player release ‘The Fool & The Scorpion’.
The set was long enough and interesting enough however to make reviewer note to self to try catch a proper gig sometime in the future. Recommend other punters do the same.
Photos by Eye Fone. Photo editing by Jeff Moh