Arthur Lee And Love

Quite possibly the coolest looking dude on the rock and roll planet Arthur Lee (the only credible survivor of the psychedelic era), strode out onstage to a roaring welcome that even he seemed surprised at. Looking impossibly fit and lean, a gringo hat and wraparound shades added a faint air of menace to his trippy persona.

Backed by a brilliant band he began with a quick trawl through Love’s harder-rocking back catalogue including gems such as ‘My Little Red Book’, ‘Orange Skies’ and ‘7 & 7’. But this was mere aural foreplay for what was to come. As the string and horn sections arrived out, a collective moan of anticipation could be heard throughout the venue. The opening chords of ‘Alone Again Or’ heralded the beginning of the Forever Changes album in its entirety and from then on it was hair-on- the-back-of-the-neck time. Highlights were impossible to pick out; the euphoric rush of strings and brass on ‘Between Clarke And Hilldale’, the garage folk/rock of ‘Bummer In The Summer’; the wistful whimsy of ‘Andmoreagain’ and the melodic gorgeousness of ‘The Good Humour Man He Sees Everything Like This’.

He could’ve left the stage but he continued with a tribute to John Lennon, ‘Everybody’s Gotta Live’, featuring snatches of ‘Instant Karma’ and the rarely heard ‘Always See Your Face’ (familiar to some from the High Fidelity soundtrack). He took time out to berate a local journalist for allegedly misquoting him: “whoever wrote that shit should have died in his daddy’s dick,” he chided. But that and some unnecessary soul-revue stuff at the end did nothing to mar this exquisite evening.