By Jack Massarik
29 Jun 2011
The blues ain't nuthin' but a respectable woman gone bad, as they say, but last night it was more a type of a big guy gettin' old.
BluesFest London 2011 needed BB King as its only authentic poster-boy, but at 85 the Mississippi guitar maestro is well past poster-boyhood.
After an ominously deafening 20-minute set by his brass-heavy backing band, he emerged from the wings to a tumultuous ovation. Waving graciously like a visiting head of state, he settled into a chair centre-stage, donned his faithful guitar, took the microphone and began to wander like your absent-minded grandpa at Christmas.
Chatting amiably but forgetting not simply his set-list but besides the names of his backing musicians, he refused to describe some forthcoming mystery guests "in case y'all walk out on me" first.
"Never!" screamed someone in the stalls. Your Love's All I Need featured that wonderful one-note shake, his remaining hand levitating on the string like a bee's wings, but things did not radically improve until guests began drifting onstage.
First up were sweet-voiced US singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi and her husband, slide-guitar virtuoso Derek Trucks. More cheers greeted Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall - "he's almost as red as me" - and two guitarists, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and Slash, the top-hatted kid from Guns 'n' Roses. Both remained coolly anonymous but King gave everyone adequate solo space. "I want I could do that," he mused after a particularly shapely Trucks solo, but of course his is the original style they all studied. An extended romp through The Kick is Gone and When the Saints Go Marching In left everyone happy.
Liza Minnelli plays the Royal Albert Hall tonight, Al Di Meola is at the North Chapel, N1. bluesfestlondon.com
Details are set at the meter of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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