Ronnie just yesterday played the Shepherd’s Bush Empire
He’s on tour in the UK with Ben Waters on piano and the Mad Lads in honor of Chuck Berry. From the comments in the social media, that gig must have been a great joy for most of the lucky ones who got tickets.
For Ian Gittins from theguardian.com, however, that show was Ronnie’s ‘mediocre homage‘ to Chuck, mostly so because of his lack of vocal brilliance. That’s a standpoint to be considered hitting a truth here, but, IMHO, just (slightly?) misses the point, when it comes down to plain, bare-bone Rock ‘N’ Roll. This music just doesn’t needs nice, classical vocals, although it helps sometimes, hehehe. So Ian writes:
While his love for Berry is palpable, his flat vocal on Little Queenie is valiant rather than virtuoso. On Don’t You Lie to Me, he is near inaudible, buried beneath the gnarly 12-bar riffs.
Well, listen to Exile, and you’ll have plenty of vocals buried deep in riffs, hehehe…
And here’s another review by Christiana Ferrauti from theupcoming.co.uk with a slightly other bend: Ronnie Wood offers Chuck Berry an energetic tribute at Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Ok, on with the show. Here’s 4 pics by by Ollie Millington which Ronnie tweeted and some more from the social media:
What a sweet, rock ‘n’ roll night! Thank you @imeldaofficial, @lulushouts, @JackBMusician, @o2sbe & everyone who came to the show! 😎🎸❤️#MadLad #WildFive #ChuckBerry
Photos by @OllieMillington 📸 pic.twitter.com/LThrEZ3l7Z— Ronnie Wood (@ronniewood) November 21, 2019
And some of youtube: