A vintage act: ageing line-up’s slick mastery delivers timeless music
flying licks as Morrison kicked up a storm on Ray Charles’s
Bruce Springsteen sideman Little Steven, 65, joined Geldof for a rip through Wyman driving it along with little more than a blurred right thumb.
Mick Hucknall, a spring chicken at 56, swaggered through Slim Harpo’s
and spoke about how the Stones had provided a soundtrack to all of our lives. Sensational Irish rockabilly belter Imelda May, who now 42 would have been just a twinkle in her parents eyes when the Stones were at the height of their rocking power, absolutely tore up a version of
by The Animals. May spoke with joy about the atmosphere back stage, where musicians were sitting around telling tales. “It’s true,” said a magnificently hirsute Robert Plant. “We’ve been talking about horn parts on Ray Charles songs. That’s how progressive we are.”
Ever the orator, it was Geldof who gave the most heartfelt speech about the vital part Wyman, with his glowering visage and nimble bass ‘The stage may have been filled by bald heads and grey hair, but that dirty blues was as thrilling as ever’ lines, played in the story of a band that genuinely shook the world. Wyman left the Stones in 1993 but has continued to perform the music he loves with the Rhythm Kings, enjoying an active retirement with some of Britain’s finest old players. It was a pleasure that was evident throughout the evening. Under a mop of thick grey hair, behind huge glasses, and wearing what looked suspiciously like a cardigan, Wyman at 80 no longer comports himself with the leering menace that once made him and the Stones appear so dangerously reprehensible. The usually pokerfaced old Stone became genuinely misty-eyed every time he tried to thank the rock royalty paying tribute to his lifetime in music.
“They’re not even getting paid,” he noted, before adding (as if slightly affronted by the realisation) “But neither am I.”
A reminder of his less savoury reputation, however, was mischievously offered after Plant spoke in praise of Wyman’s distinctive upright bass playing style. Wyman, who unabashedly claims to have slept with over a thousand women during his rock star pomp, explained that he held the bass that way to cast a shadow over his eyes, all the better to communicate with women in the front row. “It’s not all art,” he joked.