For the last few years founder member Martin Turner has delighted his Wishbone Ash fans with a series of tours that have featured one of their classic albums in their entirety. As that particular list has progressed to the lower part of the batting order, this new tour kept the concept alive but with a fresh twist, based around the set of 1973’s ‘Live Dates’, which was a farewell live album for the Mark 1 line-up, showcasing their four albums up to then.

The opening night saw a healthy sell out at the Boom Boom’ Club in Sutton, run by GRTR!’s own Pete Feenstra and a place where Martin played his first show after returning to Wishbone music some 18 years ago, and has returned to regularly.

The set opened just as side one of the original album did, with a trio of classics from ‘Argus’. Danny Willson was superb on ‘The King Will Come’ not only with his wah-wah solo but as a vocal complement to Martin, a talent he was to show repeatedly throughout the night. With Martin explaining how the songs were written as a counterbalancing pair, he and guitar twin Misha Nikolic then shone on the wonderful ‘Warrior’ and ‘Throw Down the Sword’, with a memorable closing passage as they played individual solos then both together.

Last year’s touring activity gave ‘Wishbone Four’ the full treatment but a reprise of two of the album’s standout tracks were more than welcome, Danny and Martin sharing vocals on the folky ‘Ballad of the Beacon’, then ‘Rock and Roll Widow’ with Danny ‘playing Ted Turner’, both singing lead and delivering some outstanding slide guitar.

Talking of which the one relative oddity on the album that would otherwise rarely find its way into a live set was the bluesy cover of the old standard ‘Baby What You Want Me To Do’. Despite more fine slide work from Danny it was frankly not as good as Wishbone original material, on the subject of which the first set ended with a couple from the debut in the twin guitar overload of ‘Blind Eye’ and a surprisingly fiery ‘Phoenix’, though at 11 minutes it fell short of the extended jams that the current Wishbone Ash lineup go in for.

After the break, ‘Lady Whiskey’ and ‘The Pilgrim’ saw Misha really come into his own with some rapid and unexpectedly heavy soloing, while the latter also saw new(ish) drummer Sonny Flint, who made a solid impression, tapping the cymbals with impressive precision and subtlety on the quiet intro.

There was then a brief departure from the strict ‘Live Dates’ theme with some numbers from the Mark 2 lineup, starting with the instrumental ‘FUBB’, a prime example not only of those interlocking guitars but how Martin’s creative bass lines are almost a third lead instrument.

‘You See Red’ saw more fine solos from both guitarists and the way Danny replicated Laurie Wisefield’s contributions, both vocally on that song and in the solo on ‘Living Proof’ demonstrated what a fine feel he has for Wishbone’s music. These shorter and more up tempo songs also served to up the pace and make the atmosphere more lively, culminating in the evergreen ‘Blowin Free’.

Though Martin’s vocal range is naturally a tad more limited than in those early days and you can witness him straining manfully to hit some of the notes, the 75 year old was on better form vocally than I have seen in a while. However there was one jarring note with his digs at erstwhile bandmate Andy Powell. They were played for laughs but I sensed the crowd response encouraged him to go further with some personal and far from complimentary jibes.

Not having been on the wrong side of a lawsuit as he has, maybe I am not best placed to judge, but I did think they struck the wrong tone on an evening that should primarily have been a celebration of the music that the two of them created with Ted Turner and Steve Upton in those halcyon early seventies days.

The man remains a marvellous character and raconteur. My favourite quip among many was when introducing a splendidly aggressive first encore ‘Doctor’ with his usual story of how a society beauty was sent for rehabilitation in his childhood town of Torquay, he said of the latter, ‘Queen of the English Riviera – that’s the nickname of the town, not me!’

The set closed as usual with the bluesy shuffle of ‘Jailbait’, Danny and Misha moving together to pull poses during those twin guitar passages, though Martin’s usual sign-off joke was missing. The decision to go for a live album theme meant in effect this was a ‘best of’ set, making this an even more enjoyable night than usual. Indeed how about a ‘Live Dates Volume Two’ reprise for the next tour?

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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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)