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April
  The bits of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and Outrageous Fortune.
 
     
 

1) M&M join their hippy mates in the lobby of the Melbourne Recital Centre 2) The room fills up with balding pates
John Mayall's performance at the Melbourne Recital Centre
8.4.15 - I've seen John Mayall a couple of times before, once in 2000 at Slim's in San Francisco, (where I got to shake his hand), and again two or three years ago at the Byron Bay Blues Festival, so I should've known what to expect. I thought it just possible he might've taken advantage of the splendid acoustics at the Melbourne Recital Centre and done something a little more intimate, but he wasn't about to stray from his comfort zone, I suspect on this or any other night. At 82 it's amazing he's still doing it really and he's still the godfather of British Blues and a major inspiration to me personally, but the show was pretty uninspired and low on wit and imagination.
The positively annoying thing about the sound was that the snare drum was way out of balance all night. Maria and I agreed that the two songs the drummer picked up the brushes for were the stand-out songs of the night, namely Jimmy Rogers' That's Alright and T-Bone Walker's Stormy Monday. To be fair, after two or three songs John intervened on his and the audience's behalf and demanded the sound guy keep the level down as it was getting too loud, but despite this plea and an immediate lowering of the overall level his vocals had almost completely disppeared from the mix by the end of the night.
A leaden version of Freddy King's Hideaway was the sole encore and we left the Centre a shade over 90 minutes from when the band walked onto the stage, for which I was actually quite grateful. The show would've been better suited in a pub, but I have the feeling that very few of his constiuent senior audience would've made the effort to see him in those surrounds, preferring the warmth and comfort of this very special concert room, even if its chief assets were spurned.
 
     
     
 
 
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