I was only 18, the first gig I ever went to was Albert King, I was living in Newcastle, (Australia) it still had a lot of places with live music and bands, I don’t know what its like now but I guess that time has passed.
I heard Albert King was playing so I got some tickets for me and the drummer in my band. I made sure I was there early and waited outside probably about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, I was one of the first people in when they opened the doors, and I remember walking past Albert, he was standing there talking to someone, smoking his pipe, it was the closest I’ve ever been to someone famous, it was cool I was ready for the blues, we went straight to the stage and waited, there were a few others but we made sure we were at the front.
It was a great position, we could see the band setting up by looking under the gap in the curtain, they left it right to the last minute to setup, first the guitar player came out and plonked a white 60’s right handed Fender Strat on the stand, I was disappointed, as I play left handed for some reason I was expecting a left handed guitarist with Albert. Don’t know why I thought that but was hoping to see another left handed guy, oh well.
He left the stage, that was it he was ready, then I watched the drummer walk over and sit on his kit, he had a Roadie and he was gesticulating to him to raise up the symbols I looked at my friend the drummer in my band we both laughed, I think we said to each other how cool it would be to have Roadies or something like that.
The curtain opened the band walked on, the guitar player picks up the guitar puts it on the wrong way and starts playing it left-handed, my jaw hit the ground I was so happy. Man could he play the thing, wow I was suitably impressed I’d never heard a real blues band play, only on records and it was the real deal this was Albert Kings band!
They did the warm up thing and jammed for a couple of songs, it was great, they did the big build up and then the big intro for Albert. Out he walked picked up the flying V, he was into it, it seemed like he didn’t really give a stuff or perhaps that is cool for a real bluesman, anyway for the first few songs he had someone playing with his amp trying to get the right tone, I think his main amp didn’t work so they got a backup out, he just kind of stood there smoking his pipe and let the band carry him along.
He finally got it working the way he wanted and man could he play, those guys play guitar upside down and really give the strings a hard time he had massive hands and it looked like the strings would snap everytime time he bent a note.
Stevie Ray Vaughan loved him and listening to him play live it was easy to see why, I could hear those tones, Stevie copied a lot of his style and it was because of Stevie that I knew about Albert King. I never got to see Stevie, but this was it this was the original.
I don’t remember all the songs they played that night, but I remember that band playing I want to get funky, one of my favourite songs from Albert, the band was rocking, they did the blues shuffle that side to side little dance they do, and they were all wearing matching suits and grooving together, it was so cool.
Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die, wow when they did that song it was crazy, Albert was into his groove at this point and the tones coming from that amp were incredible, I can’t explain it but it was magical, it sounded like his guitar was behind the drums and off to the left, he hit the strings that hard it just did magical things, I could see his amp on stage and was aware of where the sound was coming from I could see it, but his tone and sound just filled up the whole room it was great, and sounded like it was coming for some place else in the room.
I felt great the music was amazing, I felt so good to be there and experience the blues for real for the first time, not just hearing it on a recording.
They played a slow blues, Albert stopped and gave a monologue during it explaining the blues, with the band grooving in the background. It was fantastic he was really funny, everyone looked at each other laughing, I learned about the blues that night.
In Australia blues bands are very sterile and lack soul, basically everyone copies from old records, so its hard to find guys that can actually play blues. They try to play it like the records but often miss the point.
The old recordings technically capture the sound, but they could not capture the soul of the live situation, I can’t explain it with words but at least I experienced it first hand, something modern music will never have.
I am so glad I got to see a real blues man, for people living in America it was easy to see these guys, but we had to wait for them to fly over to Australia, so it was a rare event when one of them came out, thankfully they were still touring back then, so I did get to see a few of them.
He’s gone now but I’ll never forget a great time in music history that I got to experience.
