A Magic Hour Of White Blues

A Magic Hour Of White Blues

"Hamburg Blues Band" with Chris Farlowe and Arthur Brown in the Music Club

Hirsch - December 9th

Nurembourg: It doesn´t happen very often that you experience three living Blues legends on one single concert stage. In the “Hirsch” club, you got that very chance, because the “Hamburg Blues Band” did the honours with illustrious special guests – the singers Chris Farlowe and Arthur Brown as well as the guitarist Clem Clempson. It´s the one‐time (sic) “Colosseum” and “Humble Pie string‐bender (string sorcerer rather) Clempson who acts as the connecting glue and engine room in the Bluesrock concept of the Hamburg Blues Band – group founder Gert Lange (voc, guitar), Adrian Askew (key), Hans Wallbaum (dr) und Michael „Bexi“ Becker (bs). His truly elevated solos reminded us of the Art Rock fusions of the 1960s and the early 1970s, an era when the stylistic boundaries seemed to have been abandoned, and musically (almost) everything and anything was possible. The guest vocalists on the current German tour are also extremely lively relics of that particular Rock and Blues period. Chris Farlowe represents “White Blues” from the British Isles, the style he put his own stamp on with his inimitable voice and strong stage presence.

While Farlowe continues to stand for traditional Bluesrock, Arthur Brown personifies and lives his one‐of‐a‐kind “bird of paradise” image with more dedication than ever before. For his introduction, he presents himself in a mystical shaman´s costume – and even undisguised, he reminds us of an adventurous mixture of Merlin and Catweazle, of magician and juggler. A mental blood brother of Peter Gabriel, who couldn´t care less of styles and sections and puts classic numbers of Rock, Pop and Blues history through his special kind of “interpreter´s mill”. That way, the old Santa Esmeralda hit “Don´t Let Me Be Misunderstood” gets virtually  pulverized, and neither can Brown´s own chart smash “Fire” escape this radical treatment and evolves into a fascinating inferno of outrageously fast guitar runs (Clempson), exalted singing including strangled cries and mercilessly magnificent grooves. The fact that Arthur Brown would have cut an imposing figure on the opera stage with his giant´s voice only enhances the feeling that one was witness to a truly magic hour. Out of this world!

Uli Twelker

Translated from German - read German version

Phil Hart, 17/12/11 14:46