Wyman’s jazz fits the Bill by Jack Massarik at Roadhouse
Wyman still brings the rhythmThus Bill Wyman’s touring fun band last night landed
at the Roadhouse – trendy Covent Garden
bistro whose door price of £19.50 seemed almost reasonable, when you consider
that Bill, in appropriately plutocratic style, had ordered two of everything.
Keyboarder-singers Georgie Fame and Mike Sanchez flanked raunchy sax players Frank
Minns and Nick Taylor, soul singers Beverley Skeete and Janice Hoyte and lead
guitarists Martin Taylor and Albert Lee.
Fame (Hit the Road, Jack), Skeete (Put a Spell on You) and Hoyte (This Girl’s
Rockin’) all hit hard, but young Sanchez, showering his keyboard with perspiration
and strutting his stuff around the stage, was undoubtedly the star of the show.
Hardworking drum-mer Graham Broad might have passed his sticks to Charlie Watts,
but that guest had to dash away to Ronnie Scott’s and a fortnight with his jazz
dectet. Another case of fantasy fulfilment.
Wyman, smiling wanly behind his black specs and headless bass, looked the superstar
only near the end of a marathon 105-minute set (climaxed by a guitar battle won
by Lee over Taylor by a country-pickin’ mile) when he lit a gasper and casually
let it dangle. Let’s give him credit for discernment, though, and a taste for
the good things in life that are over 16 years of age.
