Wilko johnson tour dates 2016 full#
Wilko johnson tour dates 2016 series#

The enduring quality of ‘Going Back Home’ (where we did get some proper rolling rock riffage) and later, the scintillating ‘Back In The Night’ were the gig’s copper bottomed hallmarks. And they seem to love performing so much. The musicianship rarely falls below the highest standards. This was merely a momentary and entirely forgivable incident. It still has a taut construction built around descending chords that launch those trademark shards of biting guitar, but the impact was lost as Watt-Roy embarked on a flight of fancy that had him painfully out of sync with Dylan Howe behind the kit. Mind you, ‘Sneakin’ Suspicion’ (a personal favourite) was a bit of a mess. ‘Everybody’s Carrying a Gun’ featured layered guitar passages, wide-eyed crowd staring and a bit of Telecaster machine-gunning, together with top drawer drum and bass solos. The tracks where the three-piece stretches out have become the best part of the modern Wilko show.

He and Wilko engaged in a stunning jazz-blues lick trading fiesta in ‘Cairo Blues’ that made the hairs on the back of the neck stand up and earlier, Watt-Roy conjured up an intriguing Hawaiian lilt for a few bars of ‘Dr Dupree’. Norman Watt-Roy’s wizardry with the four-string fiddle stick exerts quite an influence over the set. ‘Roxette’, for instance, remains a brilliant piece of sharp, angular r ‘n’ b, but there is more jazz in the bassline now than ever conceived back in 1975. Many of his songs have evolved different moods and characters at the hands of his unique rhythm/lead guitar style. There is less manic aggression and proto-punk in the arrangement and delivery of the tunes these days. This performance was typical of Wilko’s latter day outings.

However, by the time ‘The More I Give’ arrived, the band were hitting their stride. The rarely played ‘All Right’ from 1980’s ‘Ice on the Motorway’ was followed up quickly with ‘If You Want Me, You’ve Got Me’, another less well known cut. Things were initially a little slow to ignite. He does all his communicating with his Telecaster. Two years on from the cancer battle that looked like the final curtain, Wilko ambled on to the stage before the houselights had gone down and barely uttered a word to the crowd during the 90 minute set. Unlike the inimitable Wilko Johnson, who does everything in his own (borrowed) time. Joanne Shaw Taylor gives every impression of a woman going big places in a hurry.

Wilko johnson tour dates 2016 series#

‘The Dirty Truth’, the track that brought the set to a close, was just such a moment: a southern-inspired riff that built a platform for another series of uplifting lead guitar breaks. All you want is for her to get to the instrumental so you can wallow in the spirals, twists and shimmies the ringing emotion dripping off her fretboard. That said, Shaw Taylor is such a compelling guitarist that sometimes the tunes just don’t stand up to the playing.

Wilko johnson tour dates 2016 full#

‘Outlaw Angel’ and ‘Watch ‘em Burn’ were both chock full of delicious boogie and swagger.

It was the raunchier, low-down riff-driven beasts that connected best with the crowd. The band’s set up gave plenty of room for the emerging Queen of British Blues to claim the centre stage during her explosive solos and fluid licks. That meant no keyboard colour on some of the slower tracks like ‘Tried, Tested and True’, and the more jangly ‘Wrecking Ball’ but the stripped back, raw-boned delivery did them no harm at all. JST was berthed out wide to deliver her gravelly, blues-soaked lyrics, with bass guitarist Tom Godlington out right and brick outhouse drummer Oliver Perry looming large in the centre. Nor that she plundered her four albums-worth of material for well over 50 minutes, giving the night a substantial double header feel. As such, it was no surprise that the Forum was pretty rammed for her set. Support came from the prodigiously talented Joanne Shaw Taylor, who commands a sufficient following of her own to headline decent sized venues. Share the post 'Gig review: WILKO JOHNSON – The Forum, London, 23 April 2016'