The fans that had queued up outside the Rescue Rooms in the blustering drizzle, waiting for the doors to open were all at least twice my age. So it wasnt going to be the typical pushing and shoving at this gig, in fact this gig was a pleasant affair with people being polite and considerate throughout the evening.
When Steve took to the stage he wasnt even positioned centre stage, his instrument was tucked away on towards the left handside, which kept him half covered when he sat behind it. Thankfully there were moments through the evening when he would pick up a guitar and stay centre stage for a few moments.
No one can deny that this is one multi-instrumentalist who is extremely talented and should be better known than what he is.
I wont bother with telling you which songs he played as during a set that lasted over three hours you can guess that he catered for every type of fan he had. Fans from his Spencer Davis Group era or even his fans who liked him because of his time in Traffic, or purely fans of his solo material. He made sure that there was something for everyone.
However be warned that if you expect to see him perform Valerie, you will be terribly disappointed, as he played everything but that track for some reason. If you are thinking that you have never heard the song Valerie, it was used by DJ Eric Prydz, in a song called 'Call On Me'. It spent five weeks at number 1 on the UK singles chart. Winwood heard an early version of Prydz' remix and liked it so much, he not only gave permission to use the song, he re-recorded the samples for Prydz to use.
He played some of his other popular tunes like Higher Love, and Gimme Some Loving, which were well received by the sea of greyness on the dancefloor.
Despite his wizardry on the keyboards, he hasnt been able to fend off the ageing process. Mr Winwood looks every bit of his 58 years, and it is possibly why he no longer likes having photos taken at gigs. He does have a rather uncanny resemblance to the American Actor Michael Beck though.
For those of you who are considering seeing Steve perform live because you have heard his popular songs, think very carefully as primarily he is a rhythm and blues based musician. So the set was full of long tribal sounding rhythm and blues epics, which is clearly something Steve feels passionately about. You can see it in his facial expressions and to say that this man loves his music would be the understatement of the century. He clearly lives and breathes music all day every day.
His keyboard wizardry just flows effortlessly and so flawlessly that at times you wonder if the keyboard is actually playing itself as it is such an incredible sound. This is music played from the heart with soul.
This was one of those gigs that I enjoyed immensely, and the music was as close to perfect as you will ever hear. However it is also one of those artistes that I am more than happy to have seen but will be quite happy only ever seeing Steve Winwood once. Purely because I am not a big fan of rhythm and blues and this set was heavily dominated by that style, which would have been fantastic if I actually liked his genre of music.
article by: Luke Seagrave
published: 01/04/2007 01:57
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.