2023 saw Martin Turner revisit the 50th anniversary of Wishbone Ash’s seminal live album Live Dates. This year though, he and his band are fast forwarding seven years to do a similar retrospective with ‘Live Dates Volume II’. (as, incidentally, are the current Andy Powell led Wishbone line-up this year!)

Just as with its predecessor, it was the final curtain call for an era of the band, in this case the ‘Mark 2’ line up, where Laurie Wisefield really put his stamp on the band with a very different but equally brilliant playing style to predecessor Ted Turner, and the musical direction of this once most English of bands reflected the trends of the second half of the seventies and their Stateside relocation.

It’s an album I even prefer to its more heralded predecessor, with a clearer production and definitive versions of many Mark 2 songs that outshine their studio counterparts. So I was doubly pleased that an early date in the extensive 2024 tour was at my local haunt, the Eel Pie Club, where his band have appeared regularly in recent years.

Surprisingly the show opened with a song outside that album in ‘Blind Eye’, though it was a handy song for the harmony twin guitars of Danny Willson and Misha Nikolic to get their eye in, as it were.

The rest of the album (well, nearly all, as we will discover later) was delivered in a fashion faithful to the original, beginning with the now familiar story of the recovering drug addict that led the young Turner up the garden path and inspired ‘Doctor’. It was an excellent example not just of those twin guitars but the way Martin’s bass lines dance among them almost like a third lead instrument.

However the order of songs was altered to suit the flow of a live set, so it was followed by the rarely heard ‘Helpless’, very commercial and almost the little brother of ‘Living Proof’, before the lengthy instrumental ‘F.U.B.B’ in which not a note was wasted. The dreamy, languid melodies of ‘Lorelei’ and ‘Persephone’ that characterise that era of Wishbone saw Martin in excellent voice and the guitarists excelling, Danny in particular.

Partner in crime Misha Nikolic, whose role seems to have gradually grown to encompass some backing vocals and a greater role in the inter-band banter came into his own with a harder rocking solo on ‘Runaway’ and the majority of them on ‘Way Of the World’, another epic getting a relatively rare airing, and where Martin and Danny sang in harmony on the second of its two sections.

The second half of the gig began with the sole cut on the album from ‘Argus’, after a fashion as just on the record ‘Time Was’ was stripped of its lengthy gentle intro and went straight into the full blown rock out with some outstanding soloing from Danny. After some rather un-PC remarks from Martin about the man the Japanese call ‘lollie’, there was a rare chance to hear ‘Goodbye Baby Hello Friend’, their blatant (if unsuccessful) push for a hit single. It never sounded particularly Wishbone-ish and hasn’t aged as well as their other material. Danny couldn’t quite replicate the Wisefield vocals either but more than made up for it when playing ‘Ted Turner’, both singing and with some breathtaking slide guitar in borrowing ‘Rock and Roll Widow’ from the first Live Dates album.

Martin then likened the laid back melodies of ‘In All Of My Dreams You Rescue Me’ to sitting in a warm bath, but again those twin guitars excelled, this time in a different musical fashion. Another surprise addition from the Mark 2 period was a beautiful ‘Lady Jay’, and the way in which the closing section was quietened then brought to a neat crescendo was a good illustration of the precision and subtlety relatively new drummer Sonny Flint brought to the table.

In true Wishbone fashion, some of the more straight ahead rockers were saved for the latter part of the set, beginning with ‘No Easy Road’ with the type of boogie feel that went down well in seventies America, making it easy to understand Martin’s boast that it had been a big hit in New Orleans. After telling the story of the Swedish girlfriend inspiration with his raconteur’s gift, the more familiar ‘Blowing Free’ ended the set, with more excellent slide work from Danny in the closing solo.

Prior to that point it had, for obvious reasons, been quite an ‘Argus’-light set but the more casual audience has to be satisfied, so at the start of the encores, an exquisite as usual ‘Warrior’ segued into ‘Throw Down the Sword’ and that brilliant twin guitar climax, even if Martin’s voice which had held up really well was starting to sound a little more strained at the end of a marathon set.

Unfortunately it was a set that was running up against curfew with time for only one last song, and usual closer ‘Jailbait’ won the day- complete with audience participation, thanks and band intros and a new joke for Martin. Though, refusing to quit while he was ahead, despite goading from band mates and fans alike he still insisted on dropping in two more of his old chestnuts.

All this meant, unforgivably, that they ended up omitting ‘Living Proof’, the best known song and crowning glory from the Mark 2 period, that this gig otherwise showcased so memorably.

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)