Chris Spedding is a rare creature: both semi-legendary and utterly anonymous. One of the most prolific session musicians of all time, this virtuoso guitarist’s 50-year CV includes stints with John Cale, Elton John, Tom Waits, Paul McCartney and Roxy Music – and, less auspiciously, as a secret Bay City Roller and a fully-costumed Womble.
Now 70, the lugubrious Spedding is a rock Zelig figure, oddly reminiscent of Steve Coogan’s Saxondale. His exhaustive connections mean that his imminent 13th solo album, Joyland, features cameos from Bryan Ferry, Johnny Marr, Arthur Brown and plummy-voiced actor Ian McShane. Sadly, none of them make an appearance tonight.
Instead, fronting a blues trio that includes the nimble bassist Malcolm Bruce, son of Cream’s Jack Bruce – with whom he played in the 1960s – Spedding ladles out a set of the kind of old-school bar-room R&B that is his stock in trade. Yet his riffs manifest an innate throbbing menace that explains why his extraordinary resumé also includes producing the Sex Pistols’ first demos.
His meticulous covers of Summertime Blues and Shakin’ All Over betray his vintage. Yet this perennial rock sideman was once a one-hit wonder in his own right, tonight revisiting the bubblegum rock’n’roll of his 1975 Top 20 hit Motor Bikin’ that saw him awkwardly sneering in leathers on Top of the Pops like a cut-price Eddie Cochran.
The impassive Spedding unleashes perfect five-second, six-string impersonations of Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, casually picks the bones out of Wild Thing, and then ambles off stage with the demeanour of a man who has seen it all. This is probably because he really, really has.
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