Starry Eyed And Laughing

Honest Andy finds what he’s looking for

Andy Fairweather

Lowe, GT Moore,

Starry Eyed

ROUNDHOUSE

As Sundays go, this promised a real party. Wake up for Charlie Gillett’s "Honky Tonk” on BBC Radio London and then down to the Roundhouse for a touch of class. A little of the ol' backbeat from G. T. Moore and the Reggae Guitars, some West Coast country picking from Starry Eyed and Laughing and then, to lay you out cold, a selection of the best session musicians this side of Cardiff, topped up with Mr. Andy Fairweather Lowe, the possessor of one of the most distinctive voices ever to appear on English vinyl.

Rarely, nowadays. do they put together bills as interesting as this, and perhaps it was just too much to expect that the evening's entertainment could actually be as good as it looked on paper. In fact it was, but only just.

Starry Eyed And Laughing

kicked off with a set that was breathtakingly tight. These guys never stop. Their vocal poser alone is enough to command respect, but tonight they played with real fire and energy. And that perhaps is their only drawback for they rarely relax. Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom", the song they took their name from, rolls along like tumbleweed, and lain Whitmore’s fine vocals on the self-penned "Fool’s Gold" add delicacy to a beautifully fragile song. But the band was still too nervous and tense.

Starry Eyed And Laughing are off to the States next week, and on their showing at the Roundhouse, some hard gigging and a little California you-know-what should mellow out a nice band into a world class country rock outfit.

There's no one alive could compete with G. T. Moore and the reggae guitars. Can white men play the rhythm of the Rasta? G. T. Moore can and he turned the second half of this concert into a carnival. Paul Kossoff's drummer Tony Branagle dropped in for a blow and The Reggae Guitars threatened to show everybody the way home. Diana Ross' "I'm Still Waiting" and Dylan's

"Knocking on Heaven's Door" showed what a fine rhythm machine Martin Hayward on guitar, Tom Whyte on bass and Steve Holly on drums have come to be. A couple of years in the pubs have paid dividends, cos there's really no way that they can fail to be right up there with some of the more illustrious purveyors of J. A. funk.

Which leaves us with Andy Fairweather Lowe, the guy everybody came to see, the guy you want to read about. Following G. T. Moore was hard, especially with a backing band of session men, hastily tied together for a few gigs. But with musicians of the calibre of Dave Mattacks pounding on the tubs, B. J. Cole and his pedal steel, the illustrious Rabbit on assorted keyboards and David John rounding things off on bass. . . who could fail?

Andy Fairweather Lowe is highly talented and the songs he played tonight were almost entirely taken from his two excellent solo albums "Spider Jiving" and "La Booga Rooga", yet it took him almost half an hour to find what he was looking for at the Roundhouse. But once they'd dropped into their

groove with Hank Williams' "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It," and the thoughtful "Wide Eyed And Legless" the band could be forgiven the mistakes and the occasional lacklustre playing that haunted "Natural Sinner" and the instrumental "Roadstop".

Fairweather Lowe's music is straight-forward and honest. . . while it may not be earth-shattering. And once everything had come together he gave us Entertainment, pure and simple. Hearing "Gin House" again after all these years was giant fun, while the good-time feel generated on "Inner City Highwayman" and "Keep on Rocking" gave some idea of the heights this combination of English rock aristocracy could scale if only they played together constantly. Starry eyed And Laughing and G. T. Moore are on the way up but Andy Fairweather ain't going much further until he works hard on what he's got already, filling in the gaps and plastering over the cracks. Then we'll really have to watch out.

Chas de Whalley