Robin Trower (guitars) / Jim Dewar (bass, vocals) / Bill Lordan (drums)
Robin Trower was one of the biggest hits of the weekend. The music press were united in their praise of his performance so it must be true. I simply can’t remember, and part of the reason for that is that I just am not keen on his kind of wah-wah, squealing, twisting guitar playing. I like melody; I like tunes; I like songs that I can listen to and follow a rhythm or beat, not endless bars for stoners. I might as well add here that I don’t like Hendrix’s stuff either, so that all adds to the mix since Trower had clearly modelled his style on JH. Sacrilege, I know, but there it is. And so, with the air now cleared, I’ll tell you what some of the music rags said.
Alan Francis, writing for Record Mirror, was clearly impressed by the ex-Soft Machine guitarist’s set as he wrote: “The biggest score of the festival was made by “Jimi” Trower, whose guitar work on numbers like ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ earned him two encores. It’s easy to say he’s just a cheap imitation of Hendrix, but it’s to be remembered that most of the Reading crowd had not seen the majesty and might of the original. Trower acts as a good historian.”
Likewise, Karl Dallas of Melody Maker wrote: “Don’t believe the chat that’s going round that Robin Trower no longer sounds like a Jimi Hendrix soundalike because he still does. Not an imitator, you’ll note, but if you close your eyes and listen to the chops, feel the chord sequences in your gut, move to the bass-guitar-drums interplay, it might well be James Marshall Hendrix reincarnated. But if you had never heard Hendrix, and you knew only the other great heavy metal pioneer trio, Cream, you would be forced to agree that Trower proved that the format had far from run out of steam. I would not have believed it possible for such a limited instrumentation to keep one’s interest alive for 90 minutes, but Trower did it, and of course, they loved him for it, calling him back for not one but two encores – which he had thoughtfully allowed time for in his set, indicating how well he knows his audience.”
Writing for New Musical Express, one of either Tony Tyler or Chris Salewicz, I really don’t know which, said “This Sunday afternoon is the fourth time that I have studied Robin Trower on stage. As ever his curiously compact on-stage movements – the fringed boots and formfit tan pants and scarlet shirt somehow conspire to cluster him together – suggest Robin Trower to be heavily constipated. Bassist James Dewar still resembles a giant panda in negative. Bill Jordan is exactly how a top West Coast drummer should look – just long blonde hair and unending smile up behind the kit. On Saturday night Robert Tripp (a guitarist’s guitarist) … presents me with an exposition on the ability and Hendrix spirit which he maintains Trower’s music displays. I am almost determined to enjoy Robin Trower. It is impossible. Trower goes down absurdly well. There has not been a more genuinely spontaneous shuddering of pleasure through the audience since the Feelgoods’ set some forty-seven hours previously. The arena dances and jumps and tosses bundles of rain-soaked litter in the air. I am close to panic, for Chrissakes! The guitarist’s music is doing nothing more for me than it has on the last three in concert visits to my ears. In other words, I find it stark, cold and utterly devoid of the emotion with which his music is said to So positively drip. Indeed, Dewar’s vocals sound like his mouth is stuffed with cotton wool, and the actual guitar-playing is as aesthetically pleasing as a Brillo pad wrenching grease off a gunged-up stove. Lordan, admittedly, is more than a quick tempo change artist. But it’s not enough. I AM BEGINNING TO HATE ROBIN TROWER’S MUSIC!!! But you can’t knock success. “
Radio 1 and festival disc-jockey John Peel simply wrote in his post-event musings in Sounds that “Robin Trower will return next year” so I presume that meant that he enjoyed his performance, although with the ever sardonic and sarcastic Peel you just never really knew.
So as you can tell, I am not entirely in a minority, but nevertheless I stand by my guns. And I still don’t like his stuff. Hey-ho…
And you might note that every photograph ever taken of Trower on-stage looks identical – mouth wide open, almost grimacing; perhaps Tony Tyler/Chris Salewicz was actually onto something with the reference to his being constipated…
Setlist: Day of the Eagle; Bridge of Sighs; Gonna Be More Suspicious; Fine Day; Lady Love; Daydream; Too Rolling Stoned; I Can’t Wait Much Longer; Alethea; Little Bit of Sympathy; The Fool and Me; Rock Me Baby
Here’s what the official newspaper programme said about him…
And here is Ian Ellis’s account of being Trower’s guest for the day.
Gigs'n'Stuff 