This year, BMG have decided to reissue four Gary Moore LPs: the studio albums Old New Ballads Blues (2006), Close As You Get (2007), and Bad For You Baby (2008), along with the live album, Live at Bush Hall 2007 (2014). Available on both CD and vinyl, these reissues capture Gary on fiery form and, while they have no extras of any kind, they provide a welcome opportunity for fans who missed out the first time around to pick them up at a sensible price.
Recorded in 2007 at an intimate, invitation-only show promoting Close As You Get, Live at Bush Hall 13-song set includes Chuck Berry’s 30 Days, the self-penned Trouble at Home, and Sonny Boy Williamson’s Eyesight to the Blind. It also finds Gary once again paired with Brian Downey, who performed drums on the album. This review is for the CD edition of the release. Like Close As You Get, it comes housed in a mini-gatefold sleeve, with a hype sticker on the cover. It also includes an 8-page booklet, complete with liner notes, images, and credits.
Of all of these fine reissues, Live At Bush Hall 2007 is probably the one to which I’ll return the most. Intimate yet fiery, it’s a dynamic set, beautifully recorded, that captures the gamut of Gary Moore’s undoubted talent. It opens with the explosive If The Devil Made Whiskey, Gary’s guitar crackling with raw fire as Brian Downey thunders away behind him at the drums. God, what a start. It’s easy to imagine the audience rocking back on their heels as the waves of blissful amplitude wash from the stage (in my hyperactive mind’s eye, they look startlingly similar to the nuclear blast observers you see in old movie reels), and the energy the band exude translates brilliantly to this shiny little disc. Gary follows it up with a ramshackle run through of Chuck Berry’s Thirty Days, the band clearly having fun as Gary rips through the song’s central solo.
Having well and truly established his presence on the stage, Gary brings the lights down low for a gorgeously slow burning Trouble At Home. It’s such a perfect example of the form that, when the uninitiated reference the blues, this is surely what they mean. From the lingering notes that Gary allows to hang in the air to Vic Martin’s airy keyboards, it’s a distillation of blues history into a single, six-minute piece that aches with emotion, and you can only sit back and envy the lucky 400 (competition winners all) who were present that day. In contrast, the hard rocking blues of Hard Times arrives with enough force to cause whiplash, event at the remove of listening at home some twenty years after the fact!
With the audience’s cheers ringing out, Gary calmly introduces the next song, a slinky cover of Sonny Boy Willimason II’s Eyesight To The Blind, which nods to the rough ‘n’ ready blues that Gary’s beloved John Mayall evinced on the Beano album. It’s followed by a version of I had A Dream so calm in comparison that you can hear the audience whooping in delight between the beats. A ballad that nods to Unchained Melody, it’s not a song I have ever particularly favoured but, stripped down at Bush Hall, it surely takes on a life of its own, and Gary pours his heart and soul into it.
Picking up the pace once more, Johnny “Guitar” Williams’ Too Tired has a toe tapping fifties pulse to it, segueing directly into an electrifying solo titled Gary’s Blues 1. Explosive isn’t the word and, should anyone ever tell you that a solo is nothing more than indulgence, this is your riposte – you can hear the audience cheering throughout, a roar that reaches fever pitch when they realise that the follow up is the soulful Thin Lizzy classic Don’t Believe A Word. Very much a song of two halves, it finds Gary setting the scene before an almighty riff opens up an explosive second half that bristles with energy.
Providing an emotional counterpoint to Don’t Believe A Word, the evergreen classic that is Still Got The Blues might just feature one of the most well-known leads in all of the blues. It’s certainly a classic and it finds Gary’s guitar soaring across the hushed auditorium.
Following such an emotional tour de force, a blistering take on Jimmy Rodgers’ Walking By Myself has the entire crowd singing along. Then there’s a lengthy exploration of Milton Campbell’s The Blues Is Alright which, with its slinky bassline, singalong chorus, and explosive guitar stabs, feels like one hell of a finale to a concert that managed to touch almost all of the bases the blues has to offer.
Still, Gary is not quite done and, as the sustained cheers ring out, he returns to the stage for the real finale – a seven-minute rendition of Son House’s Sundown, played solo to an audience who can barely contain themselves as he runs his slide over the strings. Once again, the quality of the recording is laid bare, with every move of his fingers caught for posterity and beautifully rendered here. It’s a remarkable conclusion to a remarkable performance, and we can only thank our lucky stars that someone thought to record this brilliant show for posterity.
Essential listening for any blues fan, Live At Bush Hall 2007 is something truly special. With Gary and his band playing their hearts out in front of 400 competition winners in an intimate environment, it feels like a gathering of friends and this recording manages to bring the raw authenticity of the performance vividly to life. Simply wonderful. 10/10
