Love Revisited @ Norwich Arts Centre
I wasn’t ever able to get over the fact that Arthur wasn’t there.
The career rebirth of Love frontman Arthur Lee after his release from prison in 2001 was an unexpected development and a massive positive to those of us who hold the Forever Changes album close to our hearts. Backed by the L.A. band Baby Lemonade, Arthur Lee & Love, as they were billed, toured for the following five years until Lee’s untimely death in 2006. They visited Norwich twice and their Waterfront show in 2004 remains my favourite at that venue. This tour is being undertaken to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Lee’s passing, with the band featuring Johnny Echols from the original 60s group, who also featured on the final tour of 2005.
First up though were Candi’s Dog, an acoustic trio from Newcastle. Their sound was pleasant country meets folk, with genuinely impressive harmonies. They were assured and confident, reminded me of Del Amitri, and threw in a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover – they were not really my bag, but no reason why they wouldn’t go down well in the back room of a boozer in the Toon, or a stage at the Cambridge folk fest.
I have a no covers band rule. Why go and watch covers when there are so many original artists seeking our attention? My fear was Love Revisited were going to be little more than a glorified covers band, but alongside me a reasonable turnout proved there were enough of us prepared to give the band a chance. A House Is Not A Motel was a great choice of opener but its impact was negated by the sound mix being a bit off, depriving us of the killer acid rock guitar leads that pepper that song. Guitarist Rusty Squeezebox handled the bulk of the vocal duties competently, especially on the up tempo numbers where he could pitch his voice in the mid range. It was less successful on the slower, more gentle songs though, and those were the moments when Arthur’s absence was felt the most. Fifth song was Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark & Hilldale , my favourite Love song, and the first time where I was able to close my eyes and be swept away by such a brilliant piece of music. The band continued to play Love songs played competently to an audience who were enjoying themselves but in no danger of really losing their minds. There were three songs towards the end of the main set where things sagged really badly, there was no atmosphere and at that moment I genuinely felt like I was just standing watching a covers band. Then they cheered me up again by playing Live And Let Live, another classic.
The encore did improve considerably – playing August off the little known Four Sail album was an inspired selection, and Johhny Echols really stepped up during Revelation/Signed DC providing what for me was the only moment of true magic all evening.
The guys in this band can all play really well, and on balance there is no doubt it was fun to hear some of these songs live again. If you never got to see the band play with Arthur then I can understand why this would have been an enjoyable evening, but ultimately I wasn’t really able to get over the elephant in the room – the lack of a focal point, a leader, a genuine star. Let’s be honest, I wasn’t ever able to get over the fact that Arthur wasn’t there.
