Marti Pellow Alone Tour
Billed as
‘Marti Pellow Alone, except for his best friend Chris Difford’, this tour
actually involved a group of accomplished musicians, accompanying Marti.
The shows
began with Marti introducing Chris Difford, to the delight of the crowd!
For a
half-hour set, Chris played acoustic guitar, backed by the beautiful vocals of
Dorie Jackson and Melvin Duffy on pedal steel guitar.
Chris sang
several well-known songs from his time in the band ‘Squeeze’, including
‘Tempted’, ‘This Summer’ and ‘Cool for Cats’ and was obviously very pleased with
the audience participation! Information about Chris and Squeeze can be found at
www.chrisdifford.com
Chris
chatted humorously between songs and told of his latest album and DVD ‘South
East Side Story’.
However,
at two of the shows, Chris was unable to appear and was replaced in the Isle Of
Man by a duo,
Steve Parry and Mike Reaney, under the name of ‘Chris & Difford’ and at Belfast by Brian
Houston.
http://www.brianhouston.com/index2.htm
After an
interval, the excitement level rose as Marti’s musicians came on stage:
Mark Taylor-organ/piano/ piano
accordion
Mark has
played alongside Marti for all his solo tours. For this ‘Alone’ tour, Mark was
also the musical director.
Melvin Duffy-pedal steel guitar
Melvin
plays a wide range of guitar types and has accompanied numerous and varied
artists including Joe Cocker, Ian McNabb and Uriah Heep.
Graeme
Duffin-acoustic guitar
Graeme is
best known as the unofficial member or 5th member of Wet Wet Wet,
having played on all their albums and live appearances. He is able to play a
variety of guitars. He is also involved in many worthwhile causes and has
recently opened The Foundry Music Lab in Motherwell to help up and coming
musicians to work with a full range of studio equipment.
Jim
Watson-piano
Jim also
plays organ and keyboards. He trained as a classical pianist and has won several
awards:
1998 BT jazz award- Rising Star
1996 Europ Jazz contest (Jazz Hoeilaart) - Best Soloist
1997 Winner- Worshipful Company of Musicians award
He has a BA Honours Degree in Jazz and
Contemporary music and a Postgraduate Certificate in Jazz and Studio music.
Jim has his own trio, The Jim Watson
Trio and has also accompanied numerous artists, including Katie Melua and Zero
7.
The
Set
Marti
spoke to the audience after the 3rd song and thereafter, explained
some of his choice of songs and told stories about the origins of some of them.
At several venues, he told a story relating to the town in which he was
performing- a meeting with Joe Cocker, in Sheffield and about his childhood
holidays in Blackpool.
I
Don’t Know Why
Taken from
‘Moonlight Over Memphis’.
Marti
opened his set with a sensual and moody version of this song, whilst sitting on
a stool.
The
Missing Sound
Taken from
‘Smile’.
The tempo
increased with Marti’s rendition of this song-a slight re-arrangement of the
original. The pedal steel guitar gave it an uplifting sound to compliment the
lyrics.
Sweet Little Mystery
From The
Memphis Sessions and Popped In Souled Out.
The intro
to this kept the crowd guessing, only recognising it once the lyrics came in.
Marti cleverly re-arranged it into a beautiful, bluesy down tempo version
with an acoustic guitar solo from Graeme.
Line
‘Em Up
A James
Taylor song. Marti told of how he first came across this song whilst in New
York. Marti is a great admirer of James Taylor’s work. James Taylor’s official
website is at
http://www.jamestaylor.com/
New
York Vibe
From
‘Smile’
Another
slight re-arrangement from the original song. The use of pedal steel guitar gave
this version a claustrophobic feel-the effect which Marti said he wanted to
create.
With
A Little Help From My Friends
The
Beatles song which Wet Wet Wet took to No1 in the UK charts. It helped to raise
funds for the charity ‘Childline’.
For this
version, Mark Taylor played piano accordion. Marti explained that he got the
inspiration for this arrangement from the film The Last Waltz, featuring Robbie
Robertson and The Band-a 1970’s band who in addition to performing and recording
in their own right, spent some time as Bob Dylan’s backing band.
Still Standing
From
Moonlight Over Memphis.
This is
the opening track on the album and was the first song to be written for it. The
powerful lyrics have personal relevance for Marti. It was written by Willie
Mitchell for Al Green, but Willie gave it to Marti after Marti felt he really
MUST record it. Fans had been keenly waiting to hear the recording before the
release of the album & Marti’s live performance of it. It didn’t disappoint!
Can’t Stop Loving You
From
Moonlight Over Memphis.
A very
romantic song. Marti performed this for almost half the tour and then replaced
it with:
Love
Me The Way That I Love You
A down
tempo song with very moving lyrics. Marti explained that he and Chris Difford
wrote this song while on this tour. He said he appreciated the luxury of being
able to see the reaction of an audience before the song has been recorded. It
was very well received and Marti said he’d hang onto this one!
Members Only
An
increase in tempo again for this song, with an invitation to clap along! Marti
explained that this was originally by Bobby Bland who Marti had first been
impressed by in Tennessee many years ago. Information about Bobby Bland can be
found at
This
Moment Is OK
Another
track from Smile.
This was
inspired by Marti’s meeting, in America, with a real estate dealer named Bobby
Coffey. Marti took an instant dislike to him when he heard this guy bought land
where people were living in trailers, moved the residents on and built luxurious
apartment blocks for vast profits.
The song
tells of someone living in a trailer who has very little but, more important
than material belongings, has family around. Marti sang an extra verse, which is
not on the album version, which he has also sung in previous live performances
of the song.
Gypsy Girl
Taken from
Wet Wet Wet’s album ‘Picture This’. This up-tempo song got the crowds clapping
along again! Melvin played a banjo for this version. Marti also invited the
audience to sing along-they willingly obliged!
Let
The Sun Walk You Home
This
moving song has a spiritual feel. Marti sang it with great emotion.
Working Class Hero
A John
Lennon song. It created quite a dark atmosphere, particularly with the piano
accompaniment and haunting sound effect.
http://www.johnlennon.com/site.html
Marti then
introduced two songs that he used to sing for his Mum when they sat up late at
night chatting and sharing a drink. He sang them with just piano accompaniment
by Jim.
Where Or When
Written by
Rogers & Hart in 1937, this has been sung by many artists including Frank
Sinatra.
Marti sang
it at a very slow tempo. The audiences listened quietly to Marti’s beautifully
controlled vocals.
Glad
There Is You
Another
beautifully controlled performance of a very romantic song. This again has been
sung by numerous vocalists including Julie London. It was written by Paul
Madeira and Jimmy Dorsey.
Close To You
Taken from
Smile, this rearrangement was another which the audiences were surprised by!
Marti sang it in a jazzy style.
Goodnight Girl
Wet Wet
Wet’s self-penned No1 hit. Marti’s musicians played a beautiful accompaniment to
this favourite. Graeme sang a solo extract of ’Can’t Buy Me Love’ towards the
end of the song. Marti also encouraged Melvin to sing a little of ‘Wherever I
Lay My Hat’. Melvin seemed rather embarrassed, but entered into the spirit!
Part way
through the tour, Marti also began to add an extract from ‘I Can Let Go Now’,
written by Michael McDonald.
This was
the end of the main set, but Marti and his band returned for an encore to
perform:
Labelled With Love
Chris
Difford and Dorie Jackson joined Marti for this song. It is a well known Squeeze
hit although Marti admitted he didn’t know the lyrics! In spite of that it was
an excellent, cheerful performance, with all clearly enjoying it very much!
Chris and
Dorie then left the stage, after a hug each from Marti and Marti and his band
continued with
Temptation
In keeping
with the rest of the set, Marti sang a toned down version of this Wet Wet Wet
favourite. He still encouraged audiences to sing along in places and they were
more than happy to do so!
Love
Is All Around
With the
crowd on their feet by this time, everyone enjoyed singing along to this! Even
after the passage of time, Marti sings this with great enjoyment and it is
always very much appreciated by audiences. Marti ended it with an incredibly
long-held note!
Marti
finished by thanking his audience and, as he always does, wished everyone a safe
journey home, along with a ‘Goodnight, God bless.’