Location: St. Veit a.d. Glan / Austria
Concert date: 06.09.2008
Attendance: 450
Ticket price: 42.00€
Day two of my pilgrimage through the city of culture, St. Veit, whose rich arts and culture scene serves up a varied harvest of fun and joy every year for fans of practically every form of mental recreation, was spent in the warbling domain of Roger Chapman’s Shortlist. Roger who? Well, let’s remind ourselves that Roger Chapman is a musician of exceptional quality, and that unmistakable voice of his has earned him a reputation as one of the best vocalists in the business. The older generation will surely remember him from the late sixties, when Chappo was scaring the world as the frontman of prog-rock rampagers Family. Chapman’s status kept growing steadily through the seventies, and in terms of commercial success and recognition Roger exploded in the early eighties with a cover of the Stones’ Let’s Spend The Nigh Together and his vocal contribution to Mike Oldfield’s big hit Shadow On The Wall.
On top of all that, Roger is also an outstanding performer and, when needed, entertainer who loves to blurt out the odd especially juicy remark, and the list of musicians keeping him company on Saturday night was no less impressive. You could find ex-The Kinks warrior Ian Gibbons, Kim Wilde’s would-be lover Gary Twigg, and parked right behind them, holding court for ages now, former Roger Waters and Company Of Snakes comrade John Lingwood. Too bad Micky Moody (Juicy Lucy/Snafu/Whitesnake) couldn’t make it for some unknown reason. His slide wizardry, paired with a chipper Helen Hardy, would surely have added a certain dose of sex appeal to the evening.
Roger Chapman went into the battle for our hearts and souls with the loosely improvised X-Town, which right from the start offered plenty of room to maneuver for an inspired back-and-forth between keys and guitar, treating the crowd to a heap of impressive melodic acrobatics! The relaxed feeling that surrounded us as the opening theme faded out, sadly, wasn’t up for any longer adventure. Mango Crazy already posed a challenge of a special kind, but mostly for four hundred of our yodeling friends, among whom a keener ear could now and then catch a Slovenian word too. Roger’s vocals, still recognizable in most respects, at times recalled a burlesque that only the genius of Tom Waits could dream up in all its glory. The comedy of the moment was rescued this time by carefully placed backing vocal lines, dominated by the lovely voice of the indestructible Helen Hardy. The girl had clearly studied her part, so her vocal filler always came full of expression, and above all the Shortlist set profited enormously from the sensibility of a female voice when it came to general palatability for the Austrian audience.
Moving on to Prisoner marked a return to a more “rootsy” sound. With a teasing run through that song, Roger could be caught for the first time that evening discovering the charms of the blues. Chapman stoked the passion even further with Son Of Red Moon, which, besides a grandiose chorus, hid fleeting dips into These Boots Are Made For Walking and Waters’ Rollin’ and Tumblin’. The song’s dynamics, probably out of sheer meanness, didn’t give us a moment to catch our breath, and after its predecessor’s “fruit-picking comedy” it ruthlessly shifted up a gear. It was as if Roger, eager to prove himself, suddenly squeezed out the very last atoms of strength he had probably been saving for the “get-acquainted fiesta” with the radio-and-TV kamikazes that usually follows occasions like this. Every cog of the Shortlist machine gave off an impression of bloodthirsty tightness that, with the resolve of an enraged and probably long-unsatisfied rhinoceros, blew away every cloud of doubt in an instant. Here Chapman headlong tangled himself, in a sharp charge, into a duel between vocals and slide guitar, which got off without major casualties thanks to some at times humorous pelting.
Even when covering other musicians’ material, like the reincarnation of Dylan’s Blind Willie McTell, Chapman’s undeniable talent and the consistency of his interpretation quickly turn into a killer tandem. Blind Willie was the undisputed favorite of the night. With an emotionally charged performance, helped out unreservedly by the boorish growl of Roger’s voice, it could compete without a problem even with the grandeur of Shadow On The Wall. As for the impact of the latter, there’s no need to waste words. Oldfield’s classic took about ten minutes of stretching for itself, and in the middle of the big hit Chapman allowed himself to toss the hungry crowd some bait a few more times in the form of the Shadow chorus. While we’re on well-received numbers, we can’t skip Sweet Bird, a track from Chapman’s latest album One More Time For Peace, the more reserved (in that respect) Oh Brother, and of course Let’s Spend The Night Together, which, as a textbook demonstration of both confident and innovative arranging of famous tunes, could have passed for Chapman’s own child long ago.
Backed by a superbly well-oiled machine of great musicians, Roger Chapman proved that age doesn’t give him gray hairs (probably also because he doesn’t have any left)! Although decades of intensive vocal-cord workouts have understandably left their mark, mostly on his voice, on Saturday night the gentleman won us over with an extremely professional show and proof that he’s far from having lost all his charms.
Words: Daniel Pavlica
Photos: Mojca Perdih
Setlist
1.X-Town
2.Mango Crazy
3.Prisoner
4.Son Of Red Moon
5.Blind Willie McTell
6.Sweet Bird
7.Oh Brother
8.Who Pulled The Nite Down
9.Shank (Shadow On The Wall)
10.Unknown Soldier
11.Let’s Spend The Night Together
12.S.L.
13.Jesus & The Devil
14.He Was, She Was
Photo gallery
