Al Green at the Royal Albert Hall - June 28th 2007
- Posted on July 2, 2007 11:34 PM
- 0 comments
So i didnt really know what to expect... loads of us have Al Greens records and love his music, he has of course made his name with his sweet soul ballads and tunes strictly for the bedroom..
so i wondered if we were in for a night of him standing at the mic, crooning a bit and a bit of a general love in (which was fine by the way...)...... - how wrong i was....
The night started well, Cazza and myself kicked the night off with a meal at Whole foods on South Ken High street (if u dont know get to know!) and trundled into the RAH about 15 mins after the shows advertised start...
We missed half of support act Candi Staton which was fine cos we caught the hits..... she was on good form and a great entertainer even though she used up her support act privaledge by introducing ALL of her nine piece band and letting them all have a solo noodle off to the crowd (dont think I've EVER seen a support act do that - but there u go....)...
After a lengthy interval where i spotted a few heads from Joss Stone to Verb T - it was time for the Al so everyone stuck their £7 AL Green programmes under their arms and shuffled back to their seats..
This was Al's 40th anniversary in showbiz so by my maths he must be 60 +.......but his performance was that of a man of many less years....
He burst on stage and just went for it.... - he brought on a sports holdall (think an 80s head bag) full of red rose for the ladeezz in the crowd and proceeded to spray them into the audience as he kicked off the set with the Willie Mitchell produced banger "I cant stop".... he then dropped a performance on the crowd that was just incredible...
His energy is amazing, his stage presence, voice and general stage demeanor is that of a true legend... this man was truly on his game... - We loved it!!!
He dropped all the hits - "Lets stay together", "Tired if being alone" + "Love and Happiness" etc but instead of slowing it all down he rocked up tempo versions of them all - the crowd were on their feet and lapping it up.....
He didnt bother doing much of his new stuff (which is really good...) and kept the set condensed... - a nice soul revue where he gave his respect to the godz - cooke, picket and reading was nice and got everyone shufflin......
The set went every quickly and just over an hour that was that - I was happy and wanted more which is allways the best way to be after a gig.... his musicians (who were all top notch) then continued to noodle for another ten minutes which was painful because the crowd were made to feel Al would be encoring. Al wasnt going to be encoring.....
Overall - top night - check out Al Green - next time hes in a top venue like the RAH - good times guaranteed!
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