Terry Reid Live Review @ Backstage at the Green Hotel (Kinross) - 04 Sep 2011

Photos: Simon Godley

Live Review

Every single article or review about Terry Reid mentions, without fail, the fact that he famously turned down Jimmy Page's offer to fill the then lead vocalist vacancy in the group that was to eventually become Led Zeppelin. In many respects his life story appears to have been defined by this decision. This, however, fails to take account of his having produced one of the 70's seminal moments through the album "River", an auditory experience which seems to somehow foretell his subsequent career path. From the searing heat of the vinyl copy's first side to the more plaintive reflections of its second, the record traces a journey from what could have been to what now is. Also burnt deep into its grooves is one of the greatest rock voices of all time.

And now almost forty years on that voice can be heard in all of its ragged glory in the back room of a hotel in Kinross, a quaint little Scots town trapped betwixt the M90 motorway and the tranquil waters of Loch Leven. Sadly, only twenty five people are here to bear witness to it. And for those who weren't, well they miss an absolute treat. Like "River", the evening's show is split evenly into two distinct parts. The first half is given over primarily to Terry Reid's interpretation of the songs of others. Gerry Marsden's "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" is mesmerising. Simon & Garfunkel's "America", which dovetails into their "Old Friends, is uplifting. And Marty Robbins' "The Bend in the River", stripped of the previous Sunday's full band line-up, is nothing short of compelling.

After the interval, Reid concentrates entirely on his own material. There are new songs; "There's A Song within Your Heart" and "There Was a Town". There are old songs; "Hand of Dimes" and "Silver White Light". And each and every one of them not only showcases Reid's skill as an interpreter of other's material as well as the continuing strength of his own song writing, but also the power and fragility of his voice. It is, in turn, a majestic, full throated roar and a cracked, burnished whisper, still something to behold after all of these years and what you can only imagine for Terry Reid has been a road less travelled yet one, in speaking to him afterwards, upon which he is quietly content.

Simon Godley