Edwyn Collins played
To say this guy is an inspiration would be an understatement. On the long road back from his strokes in 2005, he is now on his third full album since that time. The band has guitarist James Walborne (Peter Bruntnell, The Pretenders) within their ranks who acts a great foil to Edwyn and becomes the centre of attention on a number of electric guitar solos, which in turn must give Edwyn a break from the spotlight.
As you would expect, Edwyn’s speech is slow but deliberate and not lacking in humour. The fact that he can belt out all the songs sitting on top of an amp for a 90 minute set is nothing short of miraculous.
Towards the end he stands for songs including ‘Rip it Up’ (Walborne gets the sax spot, to huge cheers) and Girl like You, leaning on his cane.
Songs back to the early Orange Juice singles through to the new solo record is the span of the set. His son William, joins the band to provide backing vocals for ‘Too Bad (That’s Sad)’, and provides guitar and vocals for ‘See It In Your Eyes’. Sometimes introducing your offspring onto the stage can be difficult but in William’s case it seems perfectly natural. Very much, ‘like father, like son’.
Acoustic encores of ‘Home Again’ and then ‘Blue Boy’ followed’ Don’t Shilly Shally’ Edwyn Collins’ status as a first class singer/songwriter is assured.
Pete
