Paul Simon

The second Smithwick’s Source Festival which last year saw Bob Dylan headline, this year presented yet another bona fide American legend on what was the last date of his current European tour. In many ways, Paul Simon is the perfect festival headliner – he has the songs, the cross-generational appeal and tonight he had a superb 12-piece band (featuring the legendary drummer Steve Gadd) to help him deliver the goods, which he did in spades.

In spectacularly good form and in great voice, an animated Simon spent much of the show leaping about the stage egging on the crowd, who in truth needed little encouragement. Opening with a radical reworking of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ (the version he performed on the Sept 11 Tribute} he dived straight into the title track from the groundbreaking Graceland. From the same album he gave us equally brilliant versions of ‘Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes’, The Boy In The Bubble’ and his huge hit ‘You Can Call Me Al’. The clipped rhythms and punctuating brass on an earlier hit ‘Late In the Evening’ made it a perfect dance tune and the entire stadium seemed to be swaying in unison.

Donning an acoustic guitar for a string of classics from the S&G years including ‘Homeward Bound’, ‘The Sound Of Silence’, ‘The Boxer’ and ‘I Am A Rock’ memories come flooding back for many. His 1970s period was well represented too, with ‘50 Ways To Lose Your Lover’, ‘Loves Me Like A Rock’ ‘Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard’. Several encores later and after almost two and a half hours on stage he came back for a rousing ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’, a near-perfect song if ever there was one and a fitting end to one of the great live shows this year.