Original co-headliner, Finnish guitarist Erja Lyytinen, was unable to travel due to Covid restrictions. Fortunately, Chantel McGregor could call upon an old friend, Aynsley Lister, to join her for three nights of her tour, the last of which was at The Stables in Milton Keynes.

First on stage this evening, McGregor made her name as a guitarist that embraced a more traditional blues sound, but by the time of her second album, 2015’s Lose Control a love of heavier and more progressive rock was well and truly established.

Tonight’s set leans heavily on that album, with the driving rhythms and hypnotic riffs of opening pair, ‘Take The Power’ and ‘Killing Time’, providing a cracking start. The pace and volume drop briefly for ‘Eternal Dream’, McGregor’s haunting ode to Jeff Buckley before picking up again with ‘Your Fever’ and ‘Lose Control’. Throughout these early numbers, the lead guitar work is stunning, at times spine-tinglingly good.

The blues roots are not forgotten, though, on tracks like ‘I’m No Good For You’ and Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Help Me’, both from her first album, 2011’s Like No Other. Introduced as “the Proggy one”, the instrumental, ‘April’ allows McGregor and her band, Thom Gardiner (drums) and Colin Sutton (bass) to really stretch out before powering on to the end of the show with ‘Freefalling’, ‘Burn Your Anger’ and the closing, brooding, epic, ‘Walk On Land’. This was a great opening set.

Regarded by many as the UK’s leading contemporary blues guitarist, Aynsley Lister has been treading the boards since the age of thirteen. Nevertheless, despite album sales north of 100,000 Lister has tongue firmly in his cheek in describing tonight’s set as a ‘greatest hits’ collection.

‘All Of Your Love’ lays down the marker for the night, with a clean yet punchy guitar tone and Lister’s soulful voice complimenting each other seamlessly, Boneto Dryden (drums) and Jono Martin (bass) finding their grove from the off.

This is music to make you smile and even the usually restrained Stables audience are soon moving in their comfy seats. As we progress there are frequent reminders of Lister’s Blues roots, with nods to such luminaries as Albert King, Peter Green and John Mayer.

Although the set focuses on the last two albums, 2016’s Eyes Wide Open and 2013’s Home it is good to hear a genuine oldie in the shape of ‘Soundman’, originally released in 1998 and, a personal favourite, ‘Soul’, the most commercial sounding track on offer all night, from 2009’s Equilibrium.

More importantly, we are treated to three brand new tracks – ‘Bide My Time’, ‘Made Up My Mind’ and ‘Amazing’ (the latter a tale of Aynsley’s love/hate relationship with social media). All will appear on the forthcoming album, Along For The Ride, due out in the spring.

Final song of the main set sees Lister welcoming back McGregor to the stage to join him on a stunning cover of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ before finishing off the evening in great style with ‘Handful Of Doubt’.

Overall, this was a terrific night from two tremendous talents. Should you get the opportunity to see Chantel or Aynsley there will be no disappointment, and better still you’ll be doing your ‘bit’ to support the embattled live music scene. Both guitarists are ‘working musicians’ who have found the last two years incredibly difficult. Like so many others, their bread and butter is the open road, the club circuit and a loyal fan base.

At various points in their sets both make impassioned pleas to what was, in fairness, a decent sized audience, to keep on supporting the live music scene, to buy those tickets and bring along a mate.

Despite tonight’s good turnout there is clearly still a great deal of understandable uncertainty among many of the former gig going public, but this outstanding show will hopefully have eased the worries of those making tentative steps back into theatres and clubs.

Review by Neil Pudney

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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

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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 1 December 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)