We were privileged in welcoming back one of the best blues/rock bands in the south west these days, and considering they’ve not played together much recently, it was another stonking performance. With Adam Sweet on guitar and vocals, Paddy Blight on double as well as electric bass, Thomas Hughes recently added to bring that extra dimension on keyboards, and Garry Kroll on drums (he often deps in the Elles Bailey band), the two sets were a mixture of originals, mainly written by Adam from his excellent Sink Or Swim album, and some top notch covers.
Four of Adam’s self-penned, upbeat numbers opened, the band quickly into the swing of things, the capacity audience encouraging them all the way. Their first cover was Free’s ‘Fire And Water’ which went down a bomb, before a remarkable version of The Band’s ‘Ophelia’ which I had never heard them play before. This reverted into one of Adam’s most requested and singalong covers, ‘Dead Flowers’ (The Stones) and another of Adam’s inspirations in Rory Gallagher’s ‘Secret Agent’.
The second half kicked off with that old favourite, Freddie King’s ‘The Stumble’. Interspersed number with more great numbers from his latest album, we finally came when it came to what’s become the band’s signature performance: a double header offering Peter Green’s ‘Green Manalishi’, which segues into a lovely version of ‘Oh Well’ after which the audience rose to its feet in appreciation. One final cover of Canned Heat’s ‘Let’s work together’, a capacity audience not letting them go until two more encores sent them home satisfied and happy.
