Alan Price at The Bulls Head in Barnes
Zoot Money was the famous leader of The Big Roll Band who were kings of the 1960’s British ‘Beat Boom’ & ‘The Rhythm & Blues Scene’. Sadly, Zoot died a week ago. A regular performer at The Bulls Head, Alan Price paid tribute to him this very night. Opening the show he recalled how, when in The Animals in early 1963, he’d left Soho’s Scene Club in Ham Yard under the recommendation that he check out a Cellar Club in Soho’s Wardour Street called The Flamingo. Here he saw Zoot Money on stage for the first time, steaming away on his Hammond Organ, along with a young Andy Summers on guitar (later of The Police). The pair became lifelong friends thereafter. Both alternating gigs at The Bulls Head well into 2024.
Personally I’ve literally waited a lifetime to hear Alan Price live. His gigs always sell-out fast. To hear his O’ Lucky Man tales, recounting times spent with actor Malcolm McDowell and film director Lindsay Anderson, recalling stories I’d never heard, was truly captivating. This was followed by four Price songs in a row from the soundtrack: O’ Lucky Man, Poor People, Sell Sell Sell, and Changes with an added two verses on religious hypocrisy, being the icing on the cake. Politically resonant in 1973 these pertinent lyrics resonate even more so 51 years later. Price then reprised the song Changes to epic proportions at the end of The Jarrow Song, closing the night.
What a set list: I Put A Spell On You, Hi Lili Hi Lo, Simon Smith & His Amazing Dancing Bear, Don’t Stop The Carnival, and closing the set of the first half with a to die for wall-of-sound version of Jackson Browne’s Say It Isn’t True, which, although my friend wasn’t keen, was the highlight of the first half for me. And I’m no major Jackson Browne fan. He turned it into a rocking, rousing, funk-soul epic. Later he continued this trend by fusing bits of Little Richard’s Lucille, The Box Tops’ The Letter, and Barrett Strong’s Money into a grand tale of a woman who “wrote boring letters”. Hilarious, while also being a stunningly well fused rendition of three songs. Yet not a medley.
An odd choice was to have The Cars song Drive open the second set. Yet, it’s politically resonant for our times, which is why he sang it. A totally reinvented rearranged trio of Animals songs saw Please Don’t Let Be Misunderstood as a roaring, guitar driven, hi-octane engine, gathering momentum as it rolled. The same with We’ve Gotta Get Outta This Place, while a rearranged House of The Rising Sun saw shades of almost Curtis Mayfield’s vocalising with aspects of a Lou Rawls monologue-styled delivery.
What a bright, witty, brilliant man Alan Price is, was, and always will be.
Here’s to more gigs in Barnes, coming soon. Long may he continue with this line-up. The Grant Brothers on bass and guitar, respectively. Mainstays of 30 years. Along with Price’s new king of rhythm, Procol Harum’s former funk drummer of 22 years standing (2007-2019) namely, Geoff Dunn, who played his sixth dynamic set with Alan Price this particular night.
What a phenomenal show at the legendary The Bulls Head witnessing a true ‘living legend’ on top form.
[Image Credits: David Stark]
