Last Friday saw a trip to the Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, affectionately known as the Armadillo by locals. Rather late in the day this concert was discovered which meant that the only tickets left were up in the gallery. That was no gallery it was the roof space! We were higher than the ventilation ducts, the stage was miles away and those on it looked like ants, even though there was a projection on the back wall of the stage we couldn’t really see it because of a lighting gantry!
Okay that is the moan over now on to the really good stuff.
The Musicians
5 saxophones, 4 trombones, 3 trumpets, 2 guitars – this is beginning to sound like a Christmas song – 1 drummer, 1 percussionist, 1 keyboard player, 3 guest singers and of course the incredibly talented Jools Holland.
Just over two hours of ska, blues, boogie woogie, soul, R&B, and Jazz, even a couple of old Squeeze tracks were squeezed in! Ruby Turner came on and wowed us with her voice, smooth and powerful climbing the heights and delving into the depths. The musicians all took their turn at taking centre stage and thrilled us with their solo performances; the drum solo took me back years, to the Doune Castle – a pub in the south-side of Glasgow which I used to frequent many years ago down in the dark sticky floored basement there was always one of a stream of bands, looking for their big break and stardom, the night wasn’t complete until the drummer did his solo! The backing singer – whose name I can’t remember – was allowed on to do his own number, Jools’ fingers flew over the keys and made me wish I had listen to my piano teacher when I was 10! Jools is a fantastic musician and very generous with it, he knows he is good but rather than lording it, he encourages others into their place in the spot light too.
Then on came the star guest Lulu! Now I have never really been a great fan of Lulu up until that point, but hearing her live is an experience. Boy can she sing, and she jumps around the stage as if she is only a third of her 58 years. The crowd which were already jumping exploded as she started to sing and when she did ‘Shout’ there was a danger that we might no longer be in the roof space but in the open air as the roof blew off!
It was annoying that we couldn’t see the stage properly and if the concert had been mediocre then the bad seats would have made the whole might a disaster, but as it was the music saved the night big time. That being said, I have no plans to ever climb the 1001 stairs up to that part of the Armadillo again, in future tickets must just be bought sooner!