18/11/2008 Chuck Berry @ The Jazz Cafe

Subject	Chuck Berry @ The Jazz Cafe
PostedDate	11/18/2008
	This is a gig I'm not expecting too much from, but am very excited about all the same. As far as I'm concerned Chuck Berry invented rock 'n' roll guitar. If you listen to music from the Rolling Stones to the Sex Pistols you can clearly hear Chuck Berry's influence in there. It's pretty safe to say that if it wasn't for Chuck and all the many bands, and artists like Dave Edmunds that he's directly influenced, then I would never have picked up a guitar myself. Yes, it's all his fault! Until now I have never seen Chuck Berry live, and it was looking like I never would. Although he is a legend, and has so many classic rock 'n' roll songs in his repertoire, I had heard very mixed reports about his live performances and many people seem to have been left disappointed by his shows. With this in mind, I wasn't that sorry that I had never seen him play. Also, I always thought he was only likely to play large venues of the sort that I don't like on his rare visits to the UK - and the tickets would be ridiculously expensive. So I was resigned to the fact that I would never see my real guitar hero perform. Until earlier this year. It was announced that he would be playing the 100 Club! I thought it would be amazing to see an artist of his legendary stature in a tiny venue like that, but there were only a very few tickets available to the public - and they were ridiculously expensive at £125! I consoled myself with the fact that he probably wouldn't be very good anyway as he's 81 years old. So that was that. Or so I thought. I thought that was probably be the last time Chuck Berry was likely to play in the UK. And then a few months later it's announced that he's playing two nights at the Jazz Cafe - and the tickets are less than half the price of the 100 Club show! I still wasn't sure he'd be very good at 81 years of age, but I was determined not to miss this (almost certainly last) chance! Although I often walk past it, I'd never actually been in Camden's Jazz Cafe. Although I knew it was a small venue, I doubted I would like the place at all. However, when I saw there were 'standing' tickets available I thought that was an encouraging sign - so I got a ticket. It cost over £60 including the usual booking rip-off fees - considerably more money than I've ever paid to see any one artist. And I knew he'd probably only play for an hour. So I arrive at the Jazz Cafe - and find the venue is actually nothing like as bad as I feared! The seated part is upstairs so didn't matter to me as it was out of the way. Although it's a small venue (think Purple Turtle or Islington Bar Academy but wide instead of long) it's fairly spacious - and it has 3 bars! Needless to say, the place was packed though. I was expecting the crowd to be mainly middle aged and older, but they were actually a lot of younger people there too. Just after nine o'clock Chuck Berry and his band arrive on stage. Due to the wide layout of the room, even if you are at the back you are not far from the stage - so if you are tall you can get a decent view. I didn't arrive early enough to get to the front, but I could see OK so I was happy enough in spite of it being so packed. I didn't bring my usual camera as I thought photography would be frowned on in this 'serious' venue with such a big star. As it turned out I'd probably have got away with it as no one seemed bothered and I didn't see any 'No photography' signs. However, as it was so full there wasn't really room to wield a camera, so I only bothered with one feeble attempt on my phone. I wasn't really expecting much of a performance from an 81 year old man who certainly can't need the money. Things got off to a quiet start with a slow blues in 'Wee Wee Hours' - and I was wondering if this was going to set the pace for the whole show? I'm glad to say this was the only song of it's type in the set and after that it was rock 'n' roll all the way for nearly an hour!  He played pretty much all the hits you would expect - apart from his novelty song 'My Ding-a-ling' - which I've never liked anyway. There were even one or two songs I didn't know - although I expect they were at least 40 years old! Obviously at his age Chuck Berry isn't going to play with the fire he once had, and there is the odd mistake. But you'd certainly not think he was 81 years old from the way he performed! Anyway, I suspect there have always been mistakes in his performances as he mostly played with 'pick-up' bands from whatever town he was playing in and they never got to rehearse (or even sound check) with him beforehand - and he always used to change things and play different intros and solos from the records - as well as often playing in a different key as well! There was a point in this show where his guitar went out of tune and it took a while for him to sort it out - he didn't appear to have a stage tuner, or even a spare guitar! His playing was certainly better than I expected, although not as good as the records or some older live performances I've seen on TV - but I loved it! His guitar sound and tone was classic - better than on many of his records! He was using a Gibson ES-335 as usual, with not one, but two Fender Dual Showman amps with huge speaker cabinets. Chuck Berry seems to have a proper touring band these days - including one of his sons on rhythm guitar. Needless to say they are all top musicians. Chuck gives the impression that there is no setlist and he's just making it all up as he goes along, but I suspect it's much the same set every night. His guitar playing ability may have declined over the years, but one thing he still has plenty of is charisma. He's funny and entertaining with real stage presence. Some old stars of the past are so obviously just 'going through the motions', but that very much isn't the case here. Chuck Berry still has real 'star' quality, and he also looks like he is genuinely enjoying what he is doing - he certainly can't be doing this because he needs the money! At one point the man goes over to the side of the stage mid song during a solo - as if maybe he's going to do his trademark 'duck walk'? He sees everybody looking at him expectantly and he shakes his head to say 'No way - I'm too old for all that!'. Oh well - we are lucky he is even still able to be out playing as his age at all. Towards the end of the set he says "I've already played 'Johnny B Goode' haven't I?". The crowd loudly replies "NO!" - as no doubt happens every night. So Chuck launches into the most famous guitar intro of all time and we get the song we all knew he was going to play all along - and when he gets to the solo he duck-walks across the stage! I think everybody in the place thought it was worth the ticket price just for that moment!  For the last song Chuck invites three girls from each side of the room to get up on stage and dance - and ends up with more girls than he bargained for, but you can see he loves it as much as they do! The tickets are expensive and the show only lasts an hour as I expected, but I really enjoy every minute of the performance and I think it was well worth it!  It really was a thrill for me to see such a legend as Chuck Berry at close range in a small club - something I never thought I'd get the chance to do. After our guitar hero leaves the stage and the band are packing up their gear, his son thanks everyone for coming, and says he hopes to see us again next time - so maybe this won't be the last time Chuck Berry plays in a small London club? If he comes back next year I'll be buying another ticket!