Long Post - The Eleanor Rigby Experience (Phil Bates' Latest Project)
Serena Torz
Took a drive down to Gravesend tonight to see Phil's latest project, The
Eleanor Rigby Experience. This is a 5 piece band featuring Phil, vocalist
Tina McBain (Raconteurs), guitarist, bazouki-ist (and various other
6-stringed instrumentalist!) Andy Bole (also from the Raconteurs), bassist
and keyboard player Maartin Allcock (ex-Fairport Convention), and drummer
Clive Bunker (ex-Jethro Tull). As their name suggests, they played and sang
the music of Lennon & McCartney (with a tiny smattering of George Harrison
in the shape of Why My Guitar Gently Weeps).
Despite their varied musical backgrounds, these 5 gelled really well,
sparking jokes off one another. The venue was small, and not enough tickets
were sold to merit the staff putting in rows of seats, so we all sat round
tables, which made for an interesting evening.
Tina did the lion's share of the lead vocals, and what a gorgeous voice this
lady has - she really deserves to be far more famous than she is -
particularly when she had the entire stage to herself, and just sang one
song all alone, completely unaccompanied (Can't Buy Me Love) - beautiful,
and probably took a lot of courage. Just her and Phil kicked the night off,
singing, appropriately enough, Eleanor Rigby - Tina on lead vocals, Phil on
acoustic guitar.
They did very radical arrangements of many songs - Hard Day's Night became a
soft ballad sung by Tina; Help! went almost reggae. One of the highlights of
the evening was Why My Guitar Gently Weeps: lead vocal by Tina, absolutely
blistering guitar solo by Phil - amazing! Also of note was Tomorrow Never
Knows, featuring Andy Bole on bazouki and then lead guitar (another
blistering solo!), going 'trippy', as Tina put it!
Maartin Allcock and Andy Bole were a bit of a double act. A right couple of
loons they were at times: heads together, grinning away like idiots for my
camera! Not always easy to see Clive Bunker, as he is very thin, and sits
very low behind his kit. Very often, all that could be seen of him was his
baseball cap!
Phil took over on lead vocal a couple of times, to give us She's A Woman
(those that have his Agony & Ecstasy CD will already have heard his
interpretation of this), and It's Only Love, where he duetted with Tina.
These two blend really well together.
Phil seemed really happy. I managed to get a short interview with Phil after
the show (this will be in Issue 5 of PART II UNLIMITED). Amongst the things
he said, was that he is branching out into musical education - not as a
trained teacher, as he isn't, but just helping any way he can. He also said
that this was just what he was doing at the moment - he is not into 'being
in a band' any more
This band are only 6 dates into their 25 date UK Tour - if you can get to
see them, and you like the Beatles, and are interested in hearing new takes
of their music - you won't be disappointed.
--
Serena Torz
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