Will/LSreviews

WILL NEWMAN Solo
28th March 2001 at
THE JOHN O'GAUNT
MARKET STREET
LANCASTER (By Tony Murphy)

Call them “Sharon” and “Tracy”? Their dilemma is huge - to hug 21 year old Will Newman or just to shag him? And when? And what about the husband/partner? Quickly the “girls” both decide, given the chance, to do both to Will in any order and several times over. And though they’re evidently not stupid, (and they do also love Robbie Williams), they apparently know none of the material, like which songs are Will’s own or borrowed ones, nor the first thing about guitar playing, but they do love Will’s voice and the way he looks.

Looking around it seems that many women in Will’s view have the unconsciously raised eyebrows of the very interested. He appears to have spotted this. Very much playing up to the audience and enjoying every second of the interactive performance he’s bouncing on the balls of his feet, laughing, doing the Buddy Guy foot-shuffle and occasionally physically kicking out his big chord endings in a tongue-in-cheek but never quite ridiculous guitar hero style. There is rapport on a big, big scale.

Laughing a lot Will kindly targets those in the audience with whom he’s familiar and makes one of them show off his, (blues-nut’s), Robert Johnson tee-shirt, later asking how much money they had put into the pot before considering then playing suggested encores including Oh Well and Paint It Black.

At one stage three people leave and Will mid-song and self-mockingly pleads with them not to. They smile and make apologetic gestures. In the second set singing along seems to have become the norm, (on Oh Well and Stone Free!, etc.), in this pub generally full of seen-it-all-before muso-types.

Will Newman - solo guitar Just before the final, final encore “Sharon” nicks Will’s set-list and hands it to me. It is a most curious mix to which Will has given an individual but often bluesy flavouring almost throughout. Much of the material is approaching ancient. I noticed that none of the hardcore blues-dudes seemed deterred by the non-blues material. Although Will’s hardly stuck to his own running order the decades are randomly mixed, (and often jump across the last century’s time zones in apparently spontaneous medleys). I recognise G-Love, The Spin Doctors, (Will opened with Off My Line preceded by an enormous attention-building fast chorded intro), Robert Johnson, Sly Stone, (“not Stallone”), Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cream, the Stones, lots of Hendrix, Arlo Guthrie’s Coming Into Los Angles, some Stevie Wonder, Gil Scott Heron, Al Green, etc., and all on a basically effects-free 6-string acoustic guitar.

Perhaps the songs I didn’t know were Will’s own. Listening to “Sharon” and “Tracy” I can well believe Will’s assertion that when his band, Little Sister, play to student audiences in Leeds they believe him when he wickedly claims almost all the songs as his band’s original material.

We were lucky to be there tonight. From the almost overwhelming handshaking and goodwill feeling at the end of the 2 hr. long performance, and performance is the right word, many of us will be very much looking forward to Will’s early return to Lancaster with or without Little Sister.

Tony Murphy, (and Sharon and Tracy).

WILL NEWMAN & LITTLE SISTER
Friday 2nd February 2001 at
Royal Park Hotel, Headingley, Leeds

From Will....

"Brilliant but a bit aggressive, I didn't realise Alistair and Owen thought the moshers moshing and giving us the finger at the same time was a sign of disrespect, but it was just the opposite - they loved us and we made four times more than the minimum we'd been promised."

WILL NEWMAN & LITTLE SISTER
28th January 2001 at
THE JOHN O'GAUNT
MARKET STREET
LANCASTER

Acoustic:- Higher Ground; Highway Chile; Coming Into Los Angeles; The Pusher Man; Pride & Joy; Stone Free/Sympathy for the Devil; Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag
Electric:- Mama Said; The Ride; Lady Day & John Coltrane: Castles Made of Sand: Lila; Stop Breaking Down Blues; Crosstown Traffic; Voodoo Chile; Bleeding Heart; I Need More Time; Get Off My Funk; Strange Brew; Stray Cat Blues; Stepping Stones; Highway Chile; Encore - Politician

Stop - just look again at that setlist. I haven't seen a guitarist (or therefore a band) like this for years. If ever. Will Newman is organic! (And disgracefully handsome!). Whether it's an original tune or a forgotten vintage cover he seems to tackle each song from deep inside establishing ownership throughout. His acoustic (warm-up) set was astonishing in its competence, (except for perhaps Fixin' to Die sacked off early in his likely impatience to get on to the electric material). Stone Free/Sympathy was amazing, probably 10mins long with some major improvisation flowing through flamenco-ish chording and all sorts oflistenable oddness. On this foggy night with his much travelled and voodoo-vibed Eko acoustic guitar the sound Will created was just as fat and warm as a 12-string's on a favourite summer's afternoon. Guitarists in the audience, (of whom there seemed to be many in this jamfull 100 capacity most excellent pub) gawped and moved steadily forward seeming for long whiles to forget their drinks.

The electric set was dynamite. Will obviously appreciates his ability to bounce off, (or lean on), the rhythm section of Alistair Stobbart, drums and Owen Griffiths' 5-string bass. Surely Mama Said was more powerful than Stevie Ray and Nile Rodgers had ever dreamt it. The Ride with its curiosity- building drums-only intro did become a little overpowering in the bass dept., (shame if it makes you miss the fabulously smutty lyrics). Of the original material Get Off My Funk was the only title name I caught. The whole evening was a driving performance by a driven man soon sweating like the rock star he should be, un-fazed by flashlights, no jazzy fudge and dither between songs but instead original brief musical and verbal interludes, (like "anti-drugs and pro-peace Gil Scott-Heron now serving time for heroin possession and beating up his girlfriend".

Changing to a Telecaster Will hit one of the huge highpoints with Love and Happiness finishing with a big kiss to his former headgirl (so he said) who had to leave early.

Never have I seen Voodoo Chile Telecasted before but Will's more than total involvement was almost eerie to observe, a volcanic, demonic, organic blast of entertainment. Apparently the last three times it's been recorded live the equipment has gone faulty but only on Voodoo Chile - spooky or just plain spooky? In fact I do seriously doubt that anyone since September 1970 has heard Hendrix' material performed this well live - it was beyond criticism. Some Hendrix interpretators I can cope with but I do hate Jimi-imitators. From G-Love to Robert Johnson all in one night and yet nothing retro about any of it. Little Sister's funked-dance version of Strange Brew should be released as a single immediately. If guitar-driven pop/rock/blues music fails to re-establish itself it won't be because Will Newman and Little Sister weren't trying hard enough.

Johnny Trellizard

And from Will.....

"It was an audience of musos mainly. In Leeds they'd've been up and dancing right from the start".

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