Last concert of 2012 last night when we went to see Duke Special at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
Throwing caution to the wind we elected to drive up and park at the Westfield shopping centre which is just five minutes walk from the venue. Of course, this being just five days from Christmas that was a risky thing to do and the first 35 miles took about half an hour and the last couple of miles another 45 minutes! However, we did manage to park up and it was easy to get to the venue.
We first saw Duke Special when he was supporting Crowded House a few years ago and absolutely loved him. Last night was just short of two hours of great music touching just about everything from his back catalogue. For those that don’t know Duke Special he is a bit hard to pigeon hole partly as the music spans a number of genres but the videos below give an example of what he’s all about. It’s all good fun and thoughtful stuff including songs written about photographs taken by Alfred Stieglitz and his relationship with Georgia O’Keeffe but don’t let that put you off!
There was also a glittering array of duets performed including with Beth Rowley (previously heard, by me at any rate, on Crowded House’s Transit Lounge) and Boo Hewerdine (last heard, by me at any rate, on The Bible’s Graceland) who also sang Patience of Angels, a beautiful song made famous by Eddie Reader but written by Boo. What with all that and Ben Castle in residence too it was a great night.
This year has seen a marked increase in the number of gigs that we have been to and, when I get round to it, I will update the gigs page with details of them all. And this is what we have already got to look forward to in 2013:
- Paul Carrack
- Justin Currie
- State of the Union
- Elvis Costello
- Simple Minds
- Steve Hackett
It’s going to be a great year!