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Review: Paul Rodgers, Colston Hall
You can count the number of sexagenarian rock singers whose voices remain intact on the fingers of one hand. And now Ronnie James Dio is no longer with us, you need one fewer digit. Paul Rodgers is right up there with Glenn Hughes. Close your eyes and it could be 1970 again. Which is handy on this occasion, since unashamed nostalgia is the order of the day. As the title suggests, this Free Spirit tour celebrates material written and recorded by Rodgers’ oft-troubled first band, who split 44 years ago. No solo stuff, no Bad Company songs, no old blues covers (except, that is, for Free’s version of Booker T’s The Hunter, as originally recorded by Albert King).
Clearly, the latter part of the set list writes itself, but for a pleasant surprise that we’ll come to in a moment. The real pleasure for connoisseurs is delivered in the first half of the show, with plenty of rarely played songs. Even the greybeards who saw Free the first time round, of whom there are many in attendance tonight, won’t have heard Love You So from Highway performed live before because this tour marks the first time Rodgers has tackled it on stage. He tells us that the song was written 50 years ago, which serves as a reminder of just how incredibly young the band were, recording their first two albums while they were still teenagers.
It’s fair to say that Rodgers’ backing band on this occasion is not the most high-powered bunch of musicians he’s toured with. But then he has played with the likes of Jimmy Page, Brian May, Paul Kossoff, Mick Ralphs, Neal Schon, Slash, David Gilmour and Nils Lofgren. For his previous show at the Colston, he brought Heart’s Howard Leese. Tonight, he’s filched support act Deborah Bonham’s band. Fortunately, they prove up to the challenge, delivering a solid, respectful performance, with guitarist Pete Bullick clearly living the dream as he nails all those Kossoff solos.
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The songs are drawn fairly evenly from Free’s six studio albums. While it’s easy to quibble about what’s left out, there are plenty of gems here too. Come Together in the Morning and a gloriously upbeat Travellin’ in Style from Heartbreaker demonstrate that Free could still turn out great, euphoric songs at their lowest ebb. The Stealer and a barnstorming Mr. Big showcase their knack for being funky and heavy at the same time, while the likes of Be My Friend and Little Bit of Love underline the fact that even the most tightly-trousered of macho rockers can have a sensitive side. Indeed, while the merch stand is laden with eye-wateringly expensive souvenirs, all the swag goes to the Willows Animal Sanctuary and Animal Assisted Therapy Unit, of which Rodgers is a patron.
The only question about the encore is whether they’ll play Wishing Well before All Right Now or vice versa. It’s the latter that closes the show, accompanied by projected images of Free in their pomp, from still photographs to concert footage shot at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival. If anyone needs a “Just say no, kids” message about the evils of heroin, look no further than the fact that the 25-year-old Paul Kossoff in some of those snaps looks older than the remarkably well-preserved 67-year-old Paul Rodgers on stage in front of us.
Punters start to shuffle out, but the house lights remain down. Unexpectedly, Rodgers and band return to the stage after a short break to play the bluesy Walk in My Shadow from Free’s debut album, Tons of Sobs. It’s a neat, expectation-confounding coda to a hugely enjoyable show.
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