June 14th, 2007 | No Comments
The Night I Got To See James Brown
I’ve just found a file on my PC with a write-up of the James Brown gig I went to almost 2 years ago. For some reason, I never posted it on the site, and as I never commented about his death at Christmas, I thought I’d post it to serve as my send off to the Godfather of Soul…
James Brown was nicknamed “the hardest working man in showbusiness” for a reason.
At 73, The Godfather of Soul is still touring, and last Thursday night (17th June 2005, I think) I was lucky enough to find myself watching his show from just 10 feet away. Despite his apparent popularity, I had learnt that ticket sales had been slow (indeed, the show came close to being pulled) - thinking they would sell out fast, I had got tickets on the night of release - luckily for us that meant a front row seat, within sweating distance of the man himself (indeed, within sweat-towel catching distance, as it turned out).
In all honesty, I was more there for James Brown the name than for the prospect of a good show. I couldn’t count the number of times that I’d drunkenly danced to his records (or records inspired by him) in that same venue - and the thought of being able to say that I’d seen him perform there meant more to me than seeing a good show. Christ, the man is in his 70s, he’s been in jail twice, most recently a three-year stretch on a series of assault and drugs charges at the tail end of the 1980s, and has certainly seen his fair share of “the good life” - how good would he be playing to a half-full concert hall in glamorous Wolverhampton?
I shouldn’t have worried though. So the number of spins has reduced, and the splits are understandably now absent from his show (how he managed them in the past with the trousers he used to wear is anyone’s guess), but he’s still relatively agile and likes to give his dancers a run for their money (one suspects that’s not all he’d like to give them).
He’s also still a master band-leader. James Brown has been known to work his band as hard as he works himself - he supposedly used to issue fines for bum notes or not being turned out properly, and judging by the concentration on the faces of almost all of his 17-piece band the other night, he is still The Boss where this is concerned.
As for the music, well, most of his favourites were there (although some of the really funky stuff, such as Funky Drummer, is generally left out these days) - during the slower songs some of the audience would sneak off to the bar / toilet (I was guilty of this) - but I was particularly impressed that despite his age his voice seems to be in pretty good shape. A lot of his funkier songs do not require much of a singing voice (some may say that James Brown invented rap with this style of singing), but the slower numbers, such as Please, Please, Please and Try Me show off his gospel roots.
A couple of slight disappointments on the night: a lack of “Living In America” - not the funkiest of songs but one of his most famous. Also a lack of any encores - I do generally get tired of bands dragging out gigs by leaving the stage only to, lo-and-behold, return to do their biggest song; but in this case I was ready for more.
Before the gig I would have said that it would probably only be worth diehard James Brown fans forking out for a ticket, and they should see him quick before he quits (in hindsight, that should have been dies) - but after the show he and his band put on, I can see him going on for a few years yet, and continuing to impress audiences.
Pictures courtesy of Joe’s cameraphone.
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