HW: Huw Rejoins

[iain ferguson]

Hi Jon,

I was well positioned at the RFH and thought Huw played a blinder... I was
sutble when needed, and rocked out when needed, his interplay with Ali was
great. and the nucleus of "2 stone, Ali and Huw " is awesome.

I'm so glad that I get to eat my words of old on the subject <G>

Regards
iain

Jon Jarrett wrote:

> On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, iain ferguson wrote:
>
> > last couple of times I've seen Huw he's been awful. The albums where
> > he was under control "live 79, levitation and Sonic attack" are 20
> > years old now..After those albums he tuned the band into some kind of
> > heavy metal parody
> >
> > Can he still play in tune ?  has anyone seen any of his solo concerts
> > or with his band ? what did it sound like ?
> >
> > Based on what I heard at Brixton and Croydon ( on video ) he has not
> > left me with any confidence that he can play like he used to. Looking
> > forward to good reports from the Canterbury gig so that these words
> > will return to haunt me for eternity, And that what i've heard so far
> > has just been a blip.
>
>         I saw him as acoustic support at the Astoria gig and with the band
> at Canterbury, and of course just now at the RFH. Before that I saw him at
> the Blackheath gig in 1997, and then I'd have agreed with every word you
> said. I couldn't see the point of his LLB set, nothing there bar a nice
> tune or two and an insistence on playing `Hurry on Sundown' twice because
> the crowd and actually made some noise about that. e was good with the
> Hawks themselves for the encore but then it was the first time Ron had
> played bass with them live and Jerry was also settling into it as a
> regular, so utter chaos was what we got, one of those fantastic gigs where
> the Hawks somehow pull it all together and you come out on a massive high
> from the sheer spontaneity of it. So he was OK, but not the legend, as it
> were. And I thought nothing of his acoustic performance.
>
>         So, for the Hawkestra gig I missed his solo acoustic performance
> because I thought it would be less fun than another pint would. This may
> have been a mistake. Although given his performance with the main band
> I'm not too sure about that. But at the Astoria he was spell-binding. I'm
> still not sure how he did it. One man with a semi-acoustic guitar and an
> almost unintelligible patter started with a hall of randoms chatting to
> each other and inside twenty minutes had the whole audience sitting
> completely still in awe. He was *fantastic*. Wandering in and out of
> things I knew and into his own songs, fantastic technique and marvellously
> sensitive playing; not perfect but completely at ease with its defects,
> you know what I mean. And at Canterbury I was forced to acclaim him space
> guitarist of the new millennium because of the eerie noises he was linking
> his really pretty good solos with. So I'd say he can play all right still.
>
>         I wish I could use the RFH gig as evidence in favour too, but I
> could only hear him at times and even during some of those he appeared to
> have given up trying, presumably because of not being audible. What I
> heard was mostly OK with one flash of brilliance. He's not quite reliable,
> I think, mood affects him more than it does the others, but when on form
> he;s still got it all right. IMO. Yours,
>                                          Jon
>
> ObCD: Gong - _02I_
> --
>            Jon Jarrett                     "Two men say they're Jesus,
>           (01223 514989)                   One of 'em must be wrong..."
>    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk              (Mark Knopfler)