ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW & THE LOW RIDERS

Nell's Jazz & Blues
Kensington, London
Saturday 25th March 2017

Although we were about 10th in the queue to get into this "unreserved admission" gig, we were a little disappointed, once we got inside, to see about half of the seats in the venue as "reserved"!!!
Nonetheless, we managed to bag a table near the bar with a half decent view of the stage. It was clear that the majority of the audience found this "reserved" seating a tad frustrating and before long, began to take chairs stacked up at the side of the stage and put them out on the dance floor area in front of the stage.
One "reserved" table with a great review of the stage remained maddeningly empty for the first half of the show... apparently reserved for Jools Holand who didn't bother turning up! By the second half, another frustrated member of the audience commandeered it!

But on to the show.....

Andy Fairweather Low, a member of 60's band Amen Corner and a chart success as a solo artist with "Wide Eyed & Legless" gave us a great show. In between songs, we realised that he is a very witty man and does not take himself too seriously. His banter made us all laugh out loud.

Backed by the Low Riders playing  keyboards, drums, bass, 2 saxophones and a trumpet, it was a full band set. The brass really gave that bluesy/big band feel and sounded great.


Andy himself was on fine form both vocally and with plugging his CDs. We were quite pleased that the gig was not a "Best Of" and he kept the Amen Corner songs he is more associated with until towards the end of the gig, and focused more on his more recent work.

You don't get someone with Andy's wealth of experience put on anything less than a great performance. The lovely thing about this show was the wide range of styles the band played. We had everything from blues, jazz, skiffle, soul, and of course pop. All played brilliantly.

Definitely a band we'll go back to see in the future.