Review by Northings
Guitars 3
Strathpeffer Spa Pavilion, 25 February 2006
Martin Taylor.
MARTIN TAYLOR is very at home in Strathpeffer. When he says: ‘Hello everyone. Nice to be back. How are you?’, the audience, quite happily and as one, replies: ‘Hello Martin. We’re fine. Good to have you back.’
Strathpeffer Spa Pavilion was sold out on Saturday evening when Guitars 3 – Martin Taylor, Martin Simpson and Neil Stacey – entertained. They have just completed a mini-tour of the North.
Neil Stacey is new to me, though he has been working steadily in the acoustic guitar world, and won praise from the great Pat Metheny. Neil’s got one of those mischievous faces that make you want to smile as soon as you see him.
With his hair tinted purple and his plum-coloured shirt, you can see he’s a guy who wants to be on stage, and he is very easy on the eye. When he starts playing he looks like a puppy with a new toy, as if he can barely contain his excitement about the music being created.
The Martins could not help but smile and nod indulgently at sharing the stage with this talented bloke, even through a couple of tiny – but quickly recovered, and with embellishment – bum notes.
The Martins – Taylor and Simpson – are both, of course, guitar luminaries, and many of the audience have seen them perform many times before. It was always going to be an evening of quality music, but bringing three guitarists together ensured a fully-rounded event in surroundings that justified the quality of performance.
Martin Taylor delighted as usual with the shared secrets of the ‘African’ number, which always gets toes a-tapping and hips a-jiggling, but as he broke down bass, rhythm and melody lines, he did not tell the usual tale of the Ghanaian band which inspired the piece. On this occasion, he told how he always plays the piece when watching television and jamming along to TV theme tunes.
The last time he did this, he says, he was sitting in a hotel room watching Oprah Winfrey. The punch-line hits as he brings the five individual sections of the piece together to produce a dizzying achievement of guitar playing and he tells how he allowed himself a smile as Oprah said: ‘Men! We all know they can only do one thing at a time!’
The point was well made and the audience laughed. Loudly. (The secret feminist in me, however, did quietly respond with: ‘Yeah, but you’re still just playing guitar…’ Uh oh! Controversial!).
Martin Simpson’s famed slide guitar-playing added to the whole, as did his vocals on ‘Mississippi Flood 1927’ and ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’, dedicated to his father, was rich and moving.
Before the end of the concert, Martin Taylor played a piece for his son Stewart, who sadly died at the end of last year. It was a sunny song of beaches and surfing and the enjoyment of life – the way everyone should live and be remembered.
Finally, the much demanded encore was truly great, bonkers jazz. Brilliant!
© Andrea Muir, 2006
