- Record Mirror - April 6th, 1974 Courtesy of Linda
Crafar
The Cat's Back
By Chris Poole
It has been two years since
Mr. Stevens last graced an English stage, so imagine the rapturous reception he got on his
return to London at the Drury Lane Theatre last week.
He surprised the audience by
walking onto the darkened stage and going straight into Wild World from the Tea For The
Tillerman album, good it was too. The band consisted of Jean Roussell on keyboards, Alun
Davies on acoustic guitar, Gerry Conway on drums, Bruce Lynch bass and Larry Steele on
congas and electric guitar.
They looked quite well too
through lots of oldies including Lady D'Arbanville. After about forty minutes Linda Lewis
walked on stage and there was a change around in the band with Max
Middleton on piano, Bruce Lynch on bass and Linda’s old man Jim Cregan on lead
guitar.
Linda was great, but I do
find her habit of switching through her entire range in the course of one song a little
irritating. If she settled down a bit and decided on the mood of the song she was singing
and stuck to it she would be great. She has a lovely warmth, which was entirely lost on
the audience, more’s the pity.
Back came Mr. Stevens to
rapturous applause and more oldies tempered with numbers from The Foreigner and Buddha and
The Chocolate Box Including his new single Oh Very Young.
As the second encore
Sad Lisa drew to an end I couldn’t help wondering if he would have done so well had
he played more new material?
|
