Reviews

philip roebuck

Ed introduced himself as 'the calm before the storm'. I'd heard a lot of people speak highly of Philip Roebuck so I awaited his set with extreme interest. In the meantime Ed Donovan played some relaxed folky acoustic songs for us which had a real charm about them.

 A middle-aged (I hope!) bearded man he came across as extremely modest and a genuinly nice guy. His first song was all about a dream as he sang "I had a dream last night, you came back to life but there was no light behind your eyes....three seconds it takes to dream, but I spend the rest of my life working out what exactly did you mean." Great lyrics which continued into the second song 'The Show Goes On' and throughout. "You may think you know the meaning of life, you've got yours and I've got mine". A soothing song was third all about love slipping through ones fingers followed by the song 'Wandering Moles' which has something to do with souls and working at night! A kind of song to oneself was next, a kind of p! ositive pep talk stating "you can do whatever you choose". The song 'House On Fire' about child abuse was played followed by a song about ones own doubts. His penultimate song was a mystery as he said "I'll tell you what its called after I've played it" but I never did catch the name. The audience really enjoyed his set and called him back for an encore. A chilled out start to the evening.

Ok I'll begin by saying that when I first arrived there was a guy with a short blonde haircut and side parting walking around wearing a leather waistcoat laying out some merchandise and I made the asumption that this was Philip Roebuck. Of course I turned out to be completely wrong. Philip turned out to be the unassuming guy with short slightly shaggy hair stood at the bar with cigarette in mouth waering a black blazer.

He casually took to the stage and as soon as he strapped on his drum kit on his back and picked up his banjo I knew we were in for the real deal. A genuine no nonsense one man band and this guy was absolutely amazing. He played classic dirty blues songs with such energy, technical ability and speed complete with the raw vocal that I was completely blown away.

I know its a travesty comparing classic dirty blues to Led Zeppellin but imagin Jimmy Page with a banjo and drumkit and your very close. This guy was that impressive. My feet were moving throughout and a! ll I wanted to do was get up and groove. I should also mention that he is actually from the states and this was his first time in Bath. He went down like a house on fire! "Come on Little Bo Peep, you have worn me down." he sang on the first tune complete with rapid tempo changes and improvisation. He played slide banjo on the second song as he shouted "we have to build a ship we can sail!!"

The concentration it must take to play the banjo like that at the same time as controlling the drums with your legs and singing must be amazing but he was completely flawless throughout. Especially impressive as he was "drunk as hell" in his own words! He had a couple of fans in the audience who had seen him at the All Tomorrows Parties festival and The Green Man festival. They howled and cheered with the rest of us. He played a couple of ballads with some great banjo picking. One was from his last record and one was from his new record. "Some men got money, some men got charm, but I ain! 't got nuthin without you on my arm....baby can I keep you?"

His final song contained an amazing outro again making use of rapid tempo changes. Obviously the crowd cheered like hell and he came back onstage to play some old traditional blues tunes which he described as "never getting old to me" I tell you what though I don't envy him with the time it takes to get setup with the one man band kit! He finished with another fantastic instrumental. Another great unexpected gem of a performance at Porter! Definetly go and see this guy because you really will be blown away!!

Ed Hutchinson