2024 has seen Wishbone Ash founder member Martin Turner tour a set based around the Live Dates Volume Two album: perhaps less heralded than its predecessor, this 1980 release shows the ‘Mark 2’ phase of the band at their finest (and is also being toured this autumn by the current Wishbone Ash line up).
Since I caught that start of the tour at the Eel Pie Club in Twickenham, his band have enjoyed a rare Stateside tour (alongside Asia and Curved Air) but now they were back in familiar haunts of what seems to be their regular venue for London shows- though I was surprised the crowd seemed noticeably down on previous visits.
After coming on stage in low key fashion and a vaguely eastern sounding intro, they opened instead with the familiar comforts of ‘The King Will Come’ with all the Wishbone trademarks- the twin guitars of Misha Nikolic and Danny Willson, the latter taking the solo with foot on the wah-wah pedal in between backing Martin on vocal harmonies, while the man himself improvised a mid-song solo showing how his melodic bass lines further enriched their sound.
Moving on to the Live Dates 2 theme for the majority of the set without overtly plugging the fact, he was startlingly self deprecating- for the first, but not the last time- saying he always renamed ‘Helpless’ as ‘Hopeless’. This may reflect the fact it was a rare song given to the band by the label rather than written by them but to me it was a rare chance to hear with those classic twin leads and a fine solo from Danny.
Martin then paid the first of two tributes to his brother who had recently been laid to rest in their native Devon, prior to ‘Lady Jay’, based on a West Country legend and perhaps the song closest to ‘Argus’s spirit of English folk rock as well as successfully showing off drummer Sonny Flint’s ability to play with the subtlety requirement to do these songs justice.
The rest of the first half of the set was taken from that album, beginning with some great musicianship from all band members in the instrumental ‘FUBB’. Both ‘Persephone’, with lyrical solos from both guitarists and ‘Lorelei’ showed off the languid, more Americanised feel of that era of Wishbone, before ‘Runaway’ rocked things back up and there was a rare chance to hear an underappreciated epic in ‘Way Of the World’ with more sterling lead guitar work in the 2nd half of the song. Martin’s voice was full of character and nuance throughout even if on the odd song there were signs of wear and tear, entirely natural for a man serenaded during the show for his recent 77th birthday.
As usual it was a set of two halves, and ‘Time Was’ kicked things off in the ‘Live Dates 2’ version, skipping the quiet intro to go to the second phase with more outstanding soloing from Danny. In contrast, the lazy, summery feel of the twin guitars of ‘In All Of My Dreams (Your Rescue Me)’ had Martin likening them to lying in a warm bath and he warned people not to fall asleep!
Yet more self deprecation, which had earlier included raising an eyebrow at the price of the coffee table book on sale, followed as he said he still had no idea what Laurie Wisefield meant when he wrote ‘Goodbye Baby Hello Friend’. Danny did a very good interpretation of the latter’s vocals and guitar solo, though it was a reminder this vain attempt at a soft rock hit single was and remains totally un-Wishbone in style. Doing overtime, he also excelled with his singing and slide guitar playing on ‘Rock and Roll Widow’.
Also from ‘Wishbone Four’ the middle of ‘Doctor’ saw the two guitarists move in to pull poses together as they reeled off those solos in harmony, and what seemed like a very short second set ended with Martin describing how he had to fight to get ‘Blowin Free’ onto ‘Argus’, a lively rendition accompanied by a very lusty ‘1-2-3-4’ from the crowd as the bridge gave way to the solo.
There was plenty of time for encores and Martin dedicated to the people of Ukraine and the Middle East the pairing of ‘Warrior’ with Misha shining on guitar, segueing into ‘Throw Down The Sword’ with its twin guitar climax. Classics for sure, but given the theme of the tour I would have preferred ‘Living Proof’ as the most obvious stand out from ‘Live Dates 2’ and it seems the ‘Argus’ material is a comfort blanket the band and maybe their audience finds hard to let go of.
They then slipped in an unscheduled extra song in ‘Blind Eye’ where the guitar harmonies and synchronised moves were a warm up for more of the same during set closer ‘Jailbait’, the jam accompanied by band intros and a fresh and funny joke from Martin. Even if the Live Dates 2 template was not followed rigorously, it was once again a set that proved the enduring legacy Martin Turner was such a key part of, but also how he and his band can interpret it with skill and added humour to make for a heartwarming night out.
Review and Photos by Andy Nathan
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