SOUL. Looking back at my hastily scribbled notes
(quite frankly I was enjoying the show too much to take many) that’s the one
word that sums up both this evening and the man himself. From the gentle almost
whispered delivery of opening number Breathe through to the slow burning then
explosive Roughnecks and Roustabouts (title track of Pete’s essential new
album) and on to the moving father and son confessional of Are You Listening? there’s
a rawness and passion to much of the material and its performance that’s
like looking right into the man’s very heart and soul. Trust Me saw this heart
ripped right open tonight “Trust me to fuck it up again” sang Pete with a brutal honesty that’s all too rare in the bullshitty world of showbiz. Take First
Real Job too (one of the many standout tracks from the new album and tonight’s
gig) a movingly poetic look at life as a 15 year old working in a factory in
Oldbury. Faced with the reality of his future seemingly mapped out before him (“So
this is it then? Work. Retire. Expire.”), young Pete dreamt of better things (“Fly
like and eagle soar like a falcon, high over rooftops above the factory floor”)
before eventually ending up as part of one of 1980’s biggest bands of course,
Dexys Midnight Runners.
The rest, as they say, is history, albeit an
occasionally troubled history as Black (inspired by Pete’s days in Santa
Monica) hints at. Subsequent bands The Bureau and These Tender Virtues failed
to achieve the great things they deserved (mystifyingly so in the case of the
latter band in particular). It’s staggering to think that Pete then didn’t
release his first solo album (SEE) until 2012 but I guess that life, love and
everything in between just got in the way. Never mind all that though, if making
up for lost time was an Olympic event Williams would be a double gold medal
winner.
In SEE and Roughnecks and Roustabouts he’s produced a brace of modern
classics and as a live performer he’s the perfect combination of confidence and
humility, seemingly genuinely humbled by the response this evening as he moved
seamlessly from gentle ballads perched on a speaker to testifying rock ‘n’ soul
belters. A great vocalist deserves an equally great band of course and Williams
has picked some crackers here with Clive Miller (lurking in the shadows in
between spots) getting some particularly well deserved whoops of applause for
his harmonica solos.
After a thoroughly well deserved standing ovation
Pete returned for an emotionally charged Suddenly Shattered before ending on a
high with Cincinnati Kid, part Sinatra, part Mack The Knife, it was a truly swaggering
show stopper of a performance that spontaneously roused the entire audience as
one to their feet once more.
Williams may have been a key contributor to the most
recent incarnation of Dexys responsible for the critically acclaimed One Day I’m
Going To Soar album but as a solo artist, well, clearly that day’s already here.
PS: You can buy both albums right here, right now. Roughnecks is coming out on vinyl too! Vinyl, trust me, it's the future...
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