Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Pordenone / Parco San Valentino / Italy
Concert date: 06.07.2018
Attendance: 2000
Ticket price: €20.00
The 27th edition of Pordenone Blues Festival literally snuck up on us. July is packed with gig adventures, and this trip to Pordenone wasn’t even planned. We made the call at the last minute. The festival normally runs for a week, but we picked the one day with three seriously interesting acts on the bill. In order of appearance: Dr. Feelgood, Eric Gales with his backing band, and the eternally mighty »Voice of rock«, His Eminence Glenn Hughes. The latter had promised a set tailor-made for Deep Purple purists, saying he’d play nothing but Deep Purple classics at the show, mostly from the band’s MK IV and MK V lineups.
The organizers had thought of plenty of little touches. The venue was generously stocked with food and drink, the sprawling green lawn of the park where the festival takes place every year was perfect for hanging out, and the stage was solid and spacious. First up on it were the legendary British boogie blues rock’n’roll troublemakers Dr. Feelgood. A band that, over a long career, has pretty much seen and done it all, they’re now a proper »rock dinosaur«. Formed in 1971 in Essex, England, they now operate without any of the original or founding members. The longest-serving member of the current lineup is drummer Kevin Morris, who joined in the first half of the eighties. The rest of the quartet is vocalist Robert Kane, guitarist Steve Walwyn and bassist Phil Mitchell. Yep. Rock ‘n’ roll runs in these guys’ blood, and they don’t even need to shout about it. Everything’s in its place, and the band is incredibly assured. Sound-wise and performance-wise. Hard and manly. Rough and uncompromising. Unbending and untamed. For their age, the quartet holds up remarkably well. Frontman Robert Kane’s excellent banter, which also came with plenty of jokes and mocking digs, was the guarantee for the cheerful, hugely positive mood that reigned throughout the set, while the band ripped through a heap of their own classics, led by Back in the Night, Roxette, Shotgun, She Does It Right, Going Back Home, Down at the Doctors, and, near the end, a cover of the classic Give Me One More Shot.
A long break followed. Then the Eric Gales Band took the stage. Eric Gales is a guitar ace and a true virtuoso. He’s got 15 studio albums in his pocket and countless guest appearances on other artists’ records. He came out with his backing band, which features the rock-solid, outstanding rhythm section of Orlando Thompson on bass and Nick Hayes on drums, while the extra programming, sampling, percussion and backing vocals were handled by none other than Eric’s life partner LaDonna Gales. In his own unique way, Eric has managed to create a musical hybrid all his own, built on exceptionally elegant blues rhetoric that flirts with all kinds of genres with incredible skill. What makes Gales special is that, despite being right-handed, he plays the guitar flipped over to the other side (like Hendrix did), and also strung so that the high E string sits at the bottom, so his chord shapes work as a mirror image of the standard way of fretting chords. That’s how his brother taught him to play, and his brother is actually a lefty. The player most famous for this technique is Albert King, and among well-known blues virtuosos, Coco Montoya plays this way too.
This crew also plays on Gales’s latest album, »Middle of the Road«, which Eric of course used for a concise showcase, playing Boogie Man and Swamp from it. Sometime in the second half of the show, Thompson and Hayes also got extended solo spots, showing off their incredible chops and leaving the crowd stunned. There was no shortage of mischief during the show, either. The motormouth Gales kept feeding the crowd heartwarming stories and jokes, and above all juicy jabs at himself. He gave Blue Oyster Cult’s classic Don’t Fear the Reaper a particularly sly makeover, and toward the end he enchanted all the Hendrix fans with his version of the classic Voodoo Chile. It hardly needs saying that the Eric Gales Band generates incredible rhythmic momentum and a bouncy groove. That funky drive and the potent, warm-blooded vibration of the low end are seasoned and tightly interwoven with the juicy, full guitar sound of Eric’s fiery playing. The effect was tantalizing and unbelievably addictive the whole way through. A show that completely cast a spell and swept us away. All the more so because Gales is incredibly hard to catch in these parts of Europe. Hand on heart, to be honest, I didn’t even know what kind of show I was walking into before the gig. It turned out I’d have made a mistake had I not shown up in Pordenone that day.
And last to take the stage was the famous Glenn Hughes. The man played Ljubljana twice in the previous decade of the new millennium. Glenn recently revived and stepped up his solo activities, and so we caught him in the last two years at two shows in Austria. After the new album from the famed Black Country Communion, sadly with no shows from that super rock outfit again, Glenn decided to put together a series of concerts around the globe this season, playing only Deep Purple material from his days with the band. He completely shook up the lineup that backed him last year. Alongside Hughes, the crew now includes returnee J.J. Marsh on guitar, keyboardist Jesper Bo »Jay Boe« Hansen, who »did business« on stage with a Hammond XK-5 and a proper Leslie amp, while the lesser-known Fernando Escobedo sat behind the drums. Even though the official promo text advertises Soren Andersen as the guitarist of this new Hughes project, the one who stepped into his shoes for the Pordenone show was an old Hughes acquaintance, J.J Marsh, who has worked with Hughes on quite a few of his solo albums, as well as on the HTP (Hughes Turner Project) project.
Hughes has let his hair grow out again, so he looks a lot like the Glenn of the seventies. The whole crew tried to chase the magic of the Deep Purple Mk IV and MK V lineups. Hansen worked solo bits on the Hammond organ similar to the ones the great Jon Lord used to play, and Escobedo imitated Ian Paice’s “soloisms” as best he could in a short solo spot. The toughest job once again fell to J.J. Marsh, who had to hold up the playing of the guitar geniuses Richie Blackmore and Tommy Bolin. The band “tripped over itself” a few times during the show. Honestly, it was sloppy in a few transitions. Less decisive and less precise. Otherwise, it was what you’d expect from Hughes and company. Glenn was killing it vocally once again, the way only he can, though he trimmed his solo vocal escapades a bit during Mistreated, where he usually goes all-out and blows the roof off. It was a real joy to listen to the mighty You Fool No One. But that one also gave the band the most headaches, especially keeping the rhythm and nailing the transitions. It’s a shame Hughes didn’t swap the two Deep Purple Mk III classics for a song or two from the albums »Stormbringer«, »Burn« and/or »Come Taste the Band«. That would have set the place completely on fire. But hey, we were happy to take yet another version of Smoke on the Water and Highway Star. For the finale, Glenn handed his bass to a roadie and turned into a pure vocalist. The tech stood at the edge of the drum kit, where J.J. Marsh and Fernando Escobedo “whispered” the notes to him.
Glenn remains a vocal powerhouse. Remarkably well preserved. Vocally, above all. He also still comes across as playful, lively, engaged, bursting with energy, and shows the hunger and desire to deliver the best he knows and can. He enjoys himself on stage. And that’s the heart of it, what keeps him up, upright and driving him forward. A phenomenal preacher, really. One of the greatest rock singers of all time.
Setlist
GLENN HUGHES:
1. Stormbringer
2. Might Just Take Your Life
3. Sail Away
4. You Fool No One
5. You Keep on Moving
6. Mistreated
7. Smoke on the Water
8. Georgia on My Mind
9. Highway Star
—encore—
10. Burn
Photo gallery
