CONCERT REVIEW

WEYMOUTH PAVILION

The Story of Guitar Heroes

The unbridled excess of the rock solo seems strangely conservative in the context of a theatre. I’ve never been keen on them, apart from the odd Jimmy Page workout, so two hours of guitar heroics was something of an endurance test.

Guitarists Phil Walker and Toby James are seasoned musicians and Phil is particularly impressive. He certainly knows his way round the fretboard. But after a while the solos sound pretty much the same, stripped of their original fervour. Tonight’s audience however are very appreciative of their skills and a large section are either friends or relatives of the performers as they are local lads.

The guys have stitched together a musical history of the guitar as a bunch of covers of rock classics designed to show off their six-stringed skills. It’s a slick well-crafted show with back-projected video footage to put their performance into a historical context.

It begins with the birth of the electric guitar in the 50s and the timeless songs of rock n’ rollers like Eddie Cochran and Hank Marvin. ‘Apache’ in particular was excellent, note perfect.

Then they moved onto on to an ear-splitting Hendrix medley including ‘Purple Haze’; Clapton, ‘Layla’ naturally; George Harrison (was he a guitar hero?); Mark Knopfler, ‘Sultans of Swing’; Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, though Dave Gilmour, wasn’t namechecked; my hero Jimmy Page, ‘Whole Lotta Love’; Slash with ‘Sweet Child of Mine’; Brian May of Queen; and Brian Setzer of Stray Cats, though I’ve no idea why he was included.

Highlight for me was Angus Young from AC/DC and the boys’ rendition of ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ which was a whole lotta fun.

Often the vocals fail to match the excellence of their guitar playing except on Hotel California which was sung by the drummer. But we were left clueless as to who the guitar heroes were on that memorable duelling solo.

Credit to Phil for pretty much carrying the show with skill and precision who builds a good rapport with the audience. Their finale was an extended tribute to Steve Vai and Joe Satriana, modern guitar heroes who have taken the guitar playing to new levels of technical virtuosity. Impressive stuff but not for my CD collection.

GRAHAM JAMES