Well, I tried to resist temptation, what with all the other expenses over Christmas and the hassle of skiving off work etc but, faced with the prospect of missing the last McNabb gig this 'millennium' (I hope you're all as sick of this word as I am), I found myself on the phone booking tickets, and the next thing I knew I was paying my first visit to Liverpool.
Thank God for impulse buys!
Ironic it should be the same night as Paul McCartney decided to play too as this made finding room at the inn a little bit of a challenge. There was a bright star shining over the city that night....
Anyway, having arrived in plenty of time to acquaint ourselves with our new surroundings, we settled down in a nearby pub to get happily sozzled before being begrudgingly charged £2.50 A BOTTLE once we got in to the Voodoo Room at the Life Café!
Arriving there at around 9pm, I was not quite prepared for the size of venue - 'intimate' as the guy on the phone told me was most definitely an understatement! The place was packed, and I was dismayed to see they'd taken up most of the available space in front of the stage with seating. However, we were assured by those lucky enough to get to the previous night's gig as well that the atmosphere had been brilliant, despite the seating.
So we secured ourselves a cosy standing position and caught up with old friends before the lights were promptly dimmed at 10pm...
The announcer came on. The anticipated Macca joke came earlier than expected, as he announced how proud he was that Paul had decided to switch venues and perform for us at the Life Café....
And on came Ian, sporting a Paul McCartney mask and wielding a Beatles style bass with which he performed a very amusing mime to 'All My Loving.'
The mime over, he threw off the mask and asked 'Can we all get on with our lives now?'
The joke over, he then raced his way through the first set - all of which was acoustic and interspersed with only the odd 'Thanks for coming' and 'How ya doin'?' etc.
Despite throwing himself in to crowd-pleaser 'Hollow Horse' for starters the audience seemed more than a little unenthusiastic and, as I glanced around the room, I could barely spot anyone singing! (Perhaps they were all stunned in to awe-struck silence?)
The set was, if not order perfect, as follows:
Hollow Horse
'Sex With Someone You Love'
'Permanent Damage'
'Great Dreams of Heaven'
'One True Love'
'Little Girl Lost'
'I'm A Genius'
'Why Are The Beautiful So Sad'
'When It All Comes Down'
'A Guy Like Me'
Before I knew it, he was announcing the last song 'before we take a little break', - 'the story of my life so far in four verses'...
'Head Like A Rock'
He said he'd see us in 20 minutes.....Half an hour later and several more beers, he was back on stage.
He obviously noticed the audience's lack of fervour too as he said 'As you're all very quiet tonight, I'm going to take advantage.' With that, he continued the mellow mood and launched into 'What She Did To My Mind.'
As so often in the second set the mood was more jovial and we were treated to several quips. The set continued as follows:
'Merseybeast'
'You're The One That I Want' - yes, the song from Grease - sung in the style of Dylan!
At this point he started to unbutton his shirt to reveal his T-Shirt - only to discover he'd actually changed during the interval. What he was going to show us was his NASA T-shirt.... 'I thought it stood for NOWHERE AFTER SEVERAL ALBUMS!'
He then announced a song which expressed how he felt about us, his following ... 'Ah, my audience - I'd be nothing without you.... I'm nothing with you'.
'Camaraderie'
'Out of Season' - at last, he picked up the Les Paul for this electric version. Mmmmm.
Then 'A new one for ya' - 'Living Proof.' Not that I know much but, on first hearing I think it's the best song he's written in ages. The lyrics are great, as you'd expect, but the melody was a wonderful combination of chords!
As he began playing 'Liverpool Girl,' the crowd began to lose their inhibitions and call out song titles so he retorted 'we're getting near request time'. Sadly, however, we never did get to requests - there was too much for him to pack in for us, as it was.
He assured the locals that the aforementioned song was 'actually meant to be a compliment to the subject matter'. As usual, he also reminded us it had the best opening line since.............. 'see, I can't remember when!'
He stopped after it's delivery to wallow in the crowd's recognition of this genius bit of song writing.
Roy then joined Ian on the tiny stage for the next number, which again saw him pick up the electric (what a tease!)
'The Man Who Can Make A Woman Laugh'
Ian then dedicated the next song to Rick Danko, bass player with The Band, who had recently passed away:
'Too Close To The Sun' (Back to the Martin for this one)
He then went off for a few minutes whilst we all chanted for more.
This time he kept hold of the Les Paul for a three number first encore:
'Evangeline' was segued into 'Gloria' and then into 'Understanding Jane.'
Boy, the air guitars were in full action by this point and some guys stuck behind the seating area were doing their best to jump around!
Then another quick exit before reappearing to perform the following set of gems:
'Reaping The Richest Harvest'
'Fever' - 'Marc Bolan and T-Rex with Metal Guru on TOTP in 197..?' he reminisced.
'Birds Fly ....'
During which came along that familiar 'Magic Bus' with 'I Want Candy' tagging closely behind - and whilst thrashing all this out he broke the D-string yet carried on as if nothing had happened - Bloody show off!
....and a 'Birds Fly' reprise to wind up the second encore.
Needless to say, we were all mad for a bit more and Ian and Roy came back on to treat us to 'Little Princess.'
Coming back on to the stage for this, he thanked us again and said we'd made him feel all warm and glowing...
Then the inevitable 'Stone My Soul' signalled the end of the evening's entertainment. Whilst we all joined in, Ian sat on the front of the stage, concentrating on the strings as if he were learning to play it for the first time. He stopped intermittently in order to let us take over the singing and savour the pleasure of having so many show their admiration for his work - having to pick the tune from time to time to prevent us speeding up to Chipmunk style. (Just why is that?)
A quick nod to Roy to wind it all up and all that was left to do was to thank us all for our continued support and....and .... 'Come the revolution, well, f**k 'em all!'
And that's all folks!
Performance-wise it was as sound as ever. The mood of the crowd was a little disappointing and unexpected, given Christmas was just around the corner and it was his home town. Damn those chairs and tables!- but I think we made up for it in the end!
All in all, glad I gave in to temptation.
HAPPY XMAS & NEW YEAR, TO ALL MY FELLOW McNABB HEADS!
Trina
Trinaheath@yahoo.com
Received 17 December 1999. Posted 31
December. HTML corrections/additions on 17 January 2000.
This interview Copyright © 1999, Trina Heath. All rights
reserved. Reproduced with permission. The right of Trina Heath to
be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.