I have read the other reviews on the webpage and they all seem to start with some perverse kind of travelog or itinerary. So in the best traditions of journalistic integrity here goes. The last time I went to The Junction in Cambridge was maybe five years ago to see Mr McNabb on his 93 solo tour, I remembered that we had been supplied with a guide dog to get us there. Unfortunately years of neglect and alcohol abuse had damaged my memory cells and not only could I not remember where I had put the guide dog but moreover I had no recollection of where The Junction was. Thus we set off allowing 2 hours to get there and find the place. Luckily this meant that we were installed in the bar at 8pm soaking in the atmosphere.
McNabb appeared on stage alone at 8.45 and encouraged the somewhat reticent audience to come down the front and get a little intimate. He told us he was going to plug his new album and told us all he loved us. Well it seemed a reasonable proposition at the time. He kicked off with "Loveless Age" a powerful opener in the mode of much of his recent work. This was followed by "Sex With Someone You Love," this brought to mind the journey Ian, you, me and the rest of us had been on. Looking around the auditorium everyone was a little greyer, a little bigger round the middle some of us a little thinner on top. Ian himself looked a little older and wiser. Many of us are married with kids, although we still like to think we could change the world with a guitar and protest song, the reality is we've settled for the mortgage slave routine. This song embodied that journey a comfortable song pulling up the duvet and having sex with someone you love. This was followed by "A Guy Like Me" and then onto "Liverpool Girl" with her silver jeans and crisp eating habits. Again Ian stopped to milk the laugh. Not since "Tin Can" have we heard rhyming couplets such as zealous, jealous, as well as... musicians and beauticians. Roy Corkill joined him onstage for 'The Man Who Can Make a Woman Laugh" and then made a stunning contribution on a song Ian introduced as "a blues song I wrote in January " - "Little Princess"? The crowd were warming up nicely and were not disappointed when they heard the intro to "WIACD," they were jumping and in good voice by the time "Hollow Horse" resounded around the room. Ian seemed to be enjoying himself taking time out off mike to pose for photographs. All the old favourites were belted out "GDOH," "I'm Game," "Wonderful Colour," culminating in a brilliant "Fire Inside My Soul" segueyed into Jim Morrison's "Light My Fire." This closed the first half and was exactly what I'd come to see, I may not be as young as I used to be but I've got one hell of a blaze in my soul.
Ten minutes and a few beers later he was back joined now by Roy and Mokka. I was having too much fun to keep the setlist but "Jane" was in there somewhere, "Camaraderie," "Evangeline," "Child Inside A Father." A rare outing for "Motorcycle Rider" and the announcement that it was Ian's Birthday this was obviously followed by an inpromptu chorus of "Happy Bithday."
One of the highlights for me was a powerful rendition of "Bloom," a haunting, melodic track. Ian needed a lyric sheet to help him through this as he did with "Be Prepared to Dream." He again proved his versatility with the human jukebox trick, playing Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic," Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and others too numerous to mention and all too soon it was time to go.
I met Richard Moorsom by the T shirt stall and he filled me in on a few tape deals and flogged me a lyric book which Ian then signed for my wife Polly in his now customary "Thank" the fans post gig event. He said he loved us and I'm sure he did!
It was a great night and I can't wait for the next one... roll on Derby.
5 November 1998.
This review Copyright © 1998, Gerard Armstrong. All
rights reserved. Reproduced with permission.
The right of Gerard Jones to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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