Gig review: BONNIE RAITT, Liverpool Empire, 22 June 2013

Bonnie Raitt, Liverpool Empire, 22 June 2013

Bonnie Raitt brought some sunshine of her own to a grey and rainy Saturday night at Liverpool’s old Empire Theatre.  Armed with her famous worn Stratocaster Bonnie played songs from her new ‘Slipstream’ album plus all the old classics and covers this scouse crowd had come to hear.

Opening with ‘Dr Feelgood’ then straight in to ‘Used To Rule The World’ and her lovely cover of Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Right Down The Line’ Bonnie could not put a foot wrong, playing songs from throughout her four-decade career.

When Bonnie took to the to the piano you could hear a pin drop when she performed ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ and the song she wrote for her mother ‘Angel From Montgomery’.

Bonnie’s slide playing tonight was note perfect and her voice too and on ‘Lets give them something to talk about’ her vocals had the crowd applauding.

After thanking the Empire audience for 45 years of loyaly Bonnie played a haunting version of  ‘Down To You’, which she had performed on the Jools Holland’s show and joked  it was the first time anyone had reconised the intro and, talking about her performance on stage with the Stones recently Bonnie told the Liverpool crowd “I never feel old when I look at those guys!”

You could not help but warm to Bonnie tonight.  It’s been over seven years since her last album, ‘Souls Alike’, and with ‘Slipstream’ garnering her a 10th Grammy award Bonnie still proves she is still up there with the best of them.

Review and photos by Steve Goudie


Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio


David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.


UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com


Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)



Popular (last 10 days)


This entry was posted in ALL POSTS, GIG REVIEWS and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply