Gig review – Terry Reid

GIG REVIEW – TERRY REID

Currently on a short UK tour accompanied by pedal-steel legend BJ Cole, our London Guitar Academy reviewer Paul Wood caught Terry in concert at the much loved Robin 2 in Bilston.

Gig review – Terry Reid

For a man who is almost always described in journalists’ pieces as “the man who turned down Led Zeppelin and recommended Robert Plant to Jimmy Page”, it was rather fitting that Robert Plant made a discreet appearance in the audience at the Bilston show, as did Spike (lead singer with the Quireboys), who got to know Terry when they were both based in the States.

Gig review – Terry Reid

Bilston has been a permanent stop for Terry since he began a regular pattern of small UK tours on an annual basis. In previous shows at Bilston, Terry had played solo. On this tour Terry is joined by BJ Cole, the UK based pedal-steel guitarist with a roster of album contributions from the 70s onwards which is probably as long as two people’s arms!

Given that pedal-steel was an important part of the sound on Terry’s landmark album, “Seed of Memory” this gave the songs a much closer flavour of the original recordings, not to mention a more fleshed out sound on the tracks generally.

Terry was in fine form – although the vocal has (unsurprisingly) lost some of the range and power from his “Superlungs” days of the 60s and 70s, he can still captivate an audience and the spirit and emotion in his voice was enough to lead the Bilston crowd to show their warm appreciation at the end of each song.

Here’s Terry doing a band version of “Seed of Memory” from 2012:

Terry has a nice line of amusing between song banter and anecdotes from his earlier days. He even talks to himself midway through songs when he thinks something is going well (or not!) His guitar playing style is also something you need to see to believe – half skipping backwards and forwards, lifting his leg in the air, face smiling and eyes opening wide as he plays something he likes.

Gig Review

The set is mainly based around what many people regard as his two best albums “River” and “Seed of Memory” but you also get a rare outing of “Rogue Wave” (from the “Rogue Waves” album), more recent song “Night Of The Raging Storm” (which has not yet been given a studio recording but does appear on the recent “Live In London” album) and a bossa nova version of the Beach Boys classic “Don’t Worry Baby”.

Here’s Terry playing “To Be Treated Rite” (also from 2012):

For the last encore, Terry treated the audience to a version of “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying”

If you want to hear a good representation of Terry’s current set, look out for the recent “Live in London”, or better still, catch him on his next round of UK dates.

Blasts from the past

Here’s Terry doing “Rich Kid Blues” (recently covered by The Raconteurs) from German TV in 1969