The latest 60’s night at Arden Hall was truly one for the musical purists, with a show that included No 1 recording artists the Dakotas and John Walker of the Walker Brothers.
Chris Beebee opened the show with a storming version of the Faces “ooh la la” backed by Father & Son musicians James & Jamie, before introducing to the stage the brilliant Dakotas.
The band kicked off with the chart hit “I’ll Keep You Satisfied” a song that reached the British top ten in 1963. Impressive workings of other great pop songs were also performed, including “Pretty Flamingo, and “Let’s Work Together” the latter delivered in classic Canned Heat style. Other hits included from the Billy. J. Kramer era were “Little Children” and the excellent Lennon & McCartney penned song “Bad to me”.
Dakotas front man and mean bassist, Paul Rafferty
The Dakotas remained on stage to provide top notch backing to American legend John Walker who entered the stage to rapturous applause with his wife and backing vocalist Cynthia. The New Yorker (real name John Maus), opened his set with the memorable “Take it easy on yourself” before displaying his prowess on electric guitar with “Let the good times roll”. Although John was not the original lead singer of the Walker Brothers, he performed their classic hits with all the passion of lead vocalist Scott Walker to the delight of the Arden Hall faithful
Displaying great versatility, he ran through a seamless set that included Pop, Rock and Country styles, highlights being great renditions of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll be your baby tonight” and the Ray Charles favourite “Unchain my Heart”.
During a short break for the tall American, the Dakotas continued to entertain the enthusiastic crowd with a string of great numbers and produced a moment of sheer brilliance as singer Paul Rafferty and guitarist Alan Clare combined in a stunning rendition of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World”.
John Walker re-entered with a selection of covers including Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman” as well as treating the audience to some of his own work. Walker brought the show to a close with “no regrets” and “The sun ain’t gonna shine any more” lifted from the Walker Brothers back- catalogue before returning to the stage for an encore.
The calibre of shows currently being enjoyed at Arden Hall, ranks with those of any “Big City” venue, making Castle Bromwich the place to be for lovers of great pop music. Long may it continue.
John Ellis
Ooh la la! It's Chris Beebee
2 comments:
i was there; i loved it; i'll come back whenever the opportunity arise.
zoran from croatia
Hi Zoran
Fantastic to hear from you. I heard Chris announce your presence along with other music fans from far away. Good to hear you enjoyed the gig as much as we did. It was an excellent evening of entertainment.
Pete
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