John Fiddler is an indefatigable old trouper – despite some health challenges over the last year, he was back at the Eel Pie Club for the second time in 12 months with his revamped Medicine Head line up. Initially slow to fill up, by show time there was another healthy attendance.
He began the show with Medicine Head’s very first hit ‘Pictures In The Sky’ from 1971, tentatively encouraging the crowd to join in its wordless hum, while I thought the backbeat was very similar to T. Rex who would have been tearing up the charts and maybe sharing a Top of the Pops dressing room at that very same period.
Yet it was also a slightly misleading opener as the majority of the set was taken from their last two albums ‘Warriors of Love’ and ‘Heartwork’. ‘Everybody Has The Blues Sometimes’, ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ and, later, ‘Dancing In The Rain’ were all beguiling songs that started gently but wormed their way into your head.
He was accompanied by most of the usual skilled band he has assembled in recent times, including guitarist Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell, backing singer Belinda Campbell, sadly rather tucked away with the piano taking up much of the front of the stage, and bassist Andre Shapps, sporting a wing commander style handlebar moustache. There was also a late stand- in in Glenn Matlock drummer Chris Musto, whose facial grimaces made for entertaining watching.
What helped make the set a diverse listen was John’s versatility in switching at various points between electric and acoustic guitar, some slide and piano, plus some harmonica playing, giving each song a different feel. ‘Get Your Hands InTthe Air’ was a case in point and ‘Livin In A Bubble’ saw the band laying down a reggaefied groove. There was a very relaxed atmosphere as people fed off John’s gentle and jovial spirit, although his laconic between song intros and a series of technical gremlins meant the pace was sometimes a little slow.
While this was emphatically not a blues set as such, ‘Making Up For Lost Love’, with John at piano, reminded me of the British blues boom of the likes of Chicken Shack and early Fleetwood Mac. ‘All About The Love’ saw a solo of great delicacy and restraint from ‘Bucket’- usually more associated with bluesy hard rock, on this occasion his style called to mind the late Stax great Steve Cropper.
‘Slip And Slide’ was a rare Medicine Head oldie with a false ending and John adding harmonica, while he namechecked one-time drummer Clive Edwards who was in the crowd during ‘Only The Roses’, which I remember from the numerous shows I saw John play in this part of the world in the nineties, either solo or under the Medicine Head banner.
The newer material continued with John largely at the piano for ‘Warriors of Love’, ‘Alcohol And Cheap Perfume’, and ‘Alibi’ where he got a singalong going to the ‘ooh sha la la’ refrain. Indeed from that point onwards there was an enthusiastic outbreak of dancing, led by people who I surmised were family members.
I’m too young to remember Medicine Head from the seventies so my first exposure to the Fiddler name was when he fronted Box of Frogs: the Yardbirds have a lot of local connections to this area, so it was fitting he dedicated ‘Back Where I Started’ to the memory of them and Jeff Beck in particular. It also showed has voice has weathered well even on rockier numbers such as this, closer in spirit to Bucket’s more usual work with Bad Company and Humble Pie.
The set then seemed to end rather prematurely but fear not, he was back for Medicine Head’s two biggest singles in ‘One and One is One’, with some nifty slide playing, and ‘Rising Sun’, by which time the atmosphere had become even more joyful.
The pool of people still active from music’s most creative golden age still alive, let alone touring, diminishes with the march of father time. We should doubly cherish those that are still out there doing the business, and I would recommend catching John Fiddler and his latest version of Medicine Head while you still can.
Review and Photos by Andy Nathan
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