Location: Ljubljana / Križanke / Slovenia
Date: 20.09.2012
Even a year ago, anyone who has to travel abroad to catch their favorite bands would have shot a sarcastic smirk at whoever dared predict that a concert by two legendary British rock acts, Nazareth and Wishbone Ash, in the middle of Ljubljana’s Križanke would draw a great turnout. Luckily, things in our dear little ‘chicken coop’ are changing for the better, albeit very slowly, when it comes to Slovenes’ attitude toward quality rock music and the growing numbers turning up to shows featuring music legends, the two bands mentioned above among them. The sight of a jam-packed Križanke was pure satisfaction, proof that we Slovenes (with the usual hefty ‘help’ from visitors from neighboring countries) can still muster enough classic rock fans to avoid, for once, embarrassing ourselves. Full credit to the organizer for the serious guts here, because this was a truly big and risky gamble. Let’s hope the strong turnout from all corners of Slovenia and beyond proves a good sign for the organization of more concerts from them down the line.
GHB:
Warming us up before the two legends arrived was a homegrown act, Grega Habič Band, introduced on stage by none other than RockLine editor-in-chief and dear brother Aleš Podbrežnik. The up-and-coming guitar virtuoso, whose style was genre-wise a poor fit for either of the evening’s main attractions, played his own unique take on instrumentally spiced ‘guitar rock’, with influences from all sorts of genres hiding inside, and got a decent response from the crowd. That was really nice to see, and it should serve Mr. Habič as a fine send-off for future exploits.
WISHBONE ASH:
The British art-rock heavyweights were introduced on stage by a fellow Rockline journalist, the legendary Jernej Vene, who also announced the names of all the band members. Still in phenomenal live form after the release of their current studio album “Elegant Stealth” (2011), Wishbone Ash were the outright winners of the night and stole the title of main attraction from Nazareth at this one-of-a-kind event. The band, watched over as usual by the last original Wishbone Ash member, guitar virtuoso and singer Andy Powell, with his cult flying-V electric guitar, is incredibly tight, especially when it comes to the epic multi-guitar harmonies, their trademark that has thrilled whole generations of hard rock, prog rock and heavy metal acts. With their complex stylistic approach, Wishbone Ash cultivate not just prog and hard rock but also elements of blues, folk and jazz, so even today it’s easiest to label them art rock, and those in the crowd, especially the younger concertgoers, who for once weren’t in short supply (many of them were seeing the band for the first time), were thoroughly convinced of it.
Bands with such a prominent ‘art’ side unfortunately find their way to our parts about as often as rain falls on a desert, so it was a pleasure to watch the crowd go wild when Wishbone Ash opened their set with the unforgettable “Argus” (1972) evergreen “The King Will Come”, soon followed by the immortal proto-metal epic “Warrior”, where the guitar harmonies between Powell and Muddy Manninen really blossomed. From “Argus”, which celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year and remains by far their most popular album, and for most fans the best one too, they played two more classics, the melancholic masterpiece “Sometime World” and the energetic rocker “Blowin’ Free”. The latter was played in the encore, along with the “Wishbone Four” (1973) surprise “Ballad of the Beacon”.
Wishbone Ash had excellent sound throughout the whole show, and the credit for that goes mainly to the PA crew from Festival Novo Mesto. The art rock legends, in great spirits, also put a few gems on the setlist that they don’t exactly play every night, like the “Twin Barrels Burning” (1982) classic “Engine Overheat” and the “Number The Brave” (1981) standard “Open Road”, proving to any skeptics that they made a fair number of fine works in the eighties too. With good renditions of “Can’t Go It Alone” and “Warm Tears”, they didn’t forget the current album “Elegant Stealth” either. Powell and Manninen, who harmonized their guitar lines like their lives depended on it and eagerly traded off the lead solo duties, had a mighty rhythm backbone behind them the whole time in the form of the cheerful bass player Bob Skeat and drummer Joseph Crabtree, who in the five years since joining Wishbone Ash has already managed to shake off the ‘rookie’ label.
Of course, and quite understandably, the classics from the ‘golden’ seventies dominated, among them the moving ballad “Lady Jay” and the complex hard-rocking wrecking ball “Jailbat”, which always fires up the crowd nicely. The main part of the set ended, as you’d expect, with the legendary, more than 10-minute “Wishbone Ash” (1970) epic “Phoenix”, which they once again stretched out considerably with plenty of admirable improvisation. After the encore, “Wishbone Ash” left the stage to thunderous applause, like the big winners of the night, and handed it over to the legendary Scottish rock veterans Nazareth.
NAZARETH:
The champions of Scottish classic rock Nazareth, whose heavy rock sound carries a breath of the Scottish Highlands, last played in the land on the sunny side of the Alps in the mid-nineties, in the Primorska region, so their return to our parts took more than a decade and a half! If guitarist Jimmy Murrison was still a brand-new member at that long-ago show in Dornberk, today he is a solid fixture and reliable support for the core of the band, made up of Dan McCafferty on vocals and Pete Agnew on bass. A decade ago the trio was joined behind the drum kit by Pete’s son Lee Agnew, and this lineup has released two studio albums so far, “The Newz” (2008) and “Big Dogz” (2011), while constant touring in recent years has kept the wheels turning, and that touring has now finally brought the Scots to us too, as mentioned.
Nazareth were introduced on stage by none other than their contemporary Dragan Bulič, and after the standard intro of traditional Scottish bagpipes, the quartet kicked off the get-together with the song Silver Dollar Forger. Next came the high-revving hit Telegram, whose distorted guitar sound heralded quite a sonic shift compared to the band that had played before them. If Wishbone Ash presented themselves as a band with a strong artistic bent, no strangers to improvisational detours away from the original songs, Nazareth on the other hand belong in the pure-bred heavy rock league. Their hits, delivered really punchily this time, worked straight off the bat, but all the more superficially for it.
Dan Mccafferty remains the real mascot and leader of the band! The likable gray-haired fellow, who instantly won the crowd over with his strong Scottish accent, put the recognizable stamp of every Nazareth creation on the songs with his rasping vocals, barely running on his last “hundred-horsepower” reserves. His performance was more reserved than usual, probably down to the unusually cold September evening, which bassist Agnew on the right side of the stage also pointed to by constantly rubbing his hands. On the better-known tunes, like the eternally evergreen ballad Love Hurts, which predictably got the most euphoric response of the whole night, or the feel-good Broken Down Angel, McCafferty urged the full Križanke auditorium to sing along. His voice started showing signs of fatigue toward the end of the set, but especially considering he’s already 65 years old, he did his job with total confidence, so much so that he boldly threw down the gauntlet to everyone who had written him off too soon with their gossipy chatter.
On their return to the stage, the musicians from Dunfermline spun time back to 1973 with the songs Night Woman and Razamanazz, and wrapped up the evening with the optimistic message of the power ballad single Dream On. Nazareth put on a satisfying show at Križanke that convinced the gathered fans of old-school rock, but for an even higher grade the Scots would have needed to step on the gas with more intense contact with the audience, since the quartet came across as far too sleepy at moments, and the same goes for the actual length of the set.
author: Peter Podbrežnik (intro, GHB, Wishbone Ash)
author: Urban Bolta (Nazareth)
photos: Helena Vertačnik & Aleš Podbrežnik
video: Bojan Horvat
Wishbone Ash
1. The King Will Come
2. Warrior
3. Can’t Go It Alone
4. Sometime World
5. Open Road
6. Warm Tears
7. Lady Jay
8. Jailbait
9. Engine Overheat
10. Phoenix
—encore—
11. Ballad Of The Beacon
12. Blowin Free
Nazareth
1. Silver Dollar Forger
2. Telegram
3. This Month’s Messiah
4. Sunshine
5. Turn On Your Reciever
6. Cocaine
7. Radio
8. Love Hurts
9. This Flight Tonight
10. Broken Down Angel
11. Hair Of The Dog
—encore—
12. Night Woman
13. Razamanazz
14. Dream On
