Wishbone Ash - The Jam House, Edinburgh, 9 November 2019

There’s only one Wishbone Ash.  Well, actually that might be a rather contentious statement in some quarters.  What I mean to say is that there’s only one Wishbone Ash sound.  There may be a distant resemblance to Yes here and there, in the vocal harmonies, busy bass playing, and occasional pastoral mood, but that’s it – they really do stand apart with their twin guitar prog sound.

Mark Abrahams and Andy Powell get all wistful and elegiac

Which is clear as soon as they kick off tonight’s show with ‘Real Guitars Have Wings’, an instrumental that may be brief but still has room to show off those rippling guitar harmonies.  And having warmed everyone up with that, they then make a statement of intent by knocking out three humdingers in a row from Argus.  Mark Abrahams takes the lead with a wah-wah intro that builds into the classic riff of ‘The King Will Come’, while Andy Powell contents himself with laying down rhythm textures, and those vocal harmonies produce the icing on the cake.  They follow that with the Tudor-sounding opening theme that announces ‘Throw Down The Sword’, on which it’s evident that Powell, all salt-and-pepper and twinkling eye, still has a decent set of pipes, though it’s bassist Bob Skeat that adds the vocal fairy dust with his high harmonies – though verses and choruses are, as is often the case, the lesser part of the song, as Powell takes the lead guitar chair this time with a piercing, elegiac solo.  By which time the thought occurs that Robin Trower may sometimes be identified as a master of tone, but there can’t be many pairings out there to match Powell and Abrahams for crystal clarity. 

The third element of the Argus triptych is ‘Sometime World’, which opens in lyrical mode before revving up and building to its distinctive dah-dah-dee-dah vocal harmony section, before Powell produces an excellent solo underpinned by great bass runs from Skeat and ringing chords from Abrahams.

They make room for a new song, ‘We Stand As One’, which stands up well beside the older

material.  Written by Mark Abrahams, his prickling guitar lines are counterpointed by a jagged, rumbling riff.  But the final highlight of this first set is ‘Way Of The World’, a dynamic epic with a mountainous riff, and a blazing Powell solo over more big chords, and undulating bass from the beaming Skeat.  It then hits a fresh peak with a guitar harmony segment of byzantine complexity, followed by a screaming solo from Abrahams before they drop it down to create space for a crackling exchange of guitar fire between them.

They ratchet up the momentum again quickly in their second set, with Powell on a Telecaster for the boogie of ‘Blind Eye’, before the chunky, chugging shuffle of ‘Deep Blues’, which underlines that Joe Crabtree’s drumming is unfussy in the midst of everything going on around him, but exactly where it needs to be.

Andy Powell and Bob Skeat - old guns havin' some fun

‘The Pilgrim’ takes things back into epic territory in convincing fashion, its patient opening leading to a hypnotic rolling guitar groove.  But while ‘Tales Of The Wise’ features a very WA stately intro, and a faster middle section with expertly combined lead and rhythm guitar, for me it demonstrates that you can have too much of a good thing, as it goes on long enough to begin to pall.

But of course with their back catalogue they’ve got too many get out of jail cards to really lose their way, and they promptly rip out the gutsy riff to ‘Living Proof’ to get back on track, before trumping that with the catchy guitar figure of the swinging ‘Jailbait’, with Powell prompting an arm waving, testifyin’ singalong.

They encore with ‘Blowin’ Free’, of course, a classic which is really beyond commentary, and brings a cheerful conclusion to an effortlessly strong 2 hour performance, accompanied by some appealingly old-fashioned visuals in the form of a slide/animation/kaleidoscope show.

Wishbone Ash aren’t anybody’s star vehicle.  Powell may be the main man, but he’s happy to give his axe sidekick Abrahams plenty of space to shine, and it’s very much an ensemble performance.  Fifty years gone, and a new album coming next year, Powell tells us.  I dare say we’ll meet again.

Wishbone Ash/Steve Hill - The Jam House, Edinburgh, 10 November 2017

Out in the shed I have a box of cassette tapes.  Remember them?  And among them is a C60 of a BBC broadcast of Wishbone Ash playing at the Hammersmith Odeon sometime around 1980, I guess.  That tape got played a lot, back in the day.  Yet somehow – don’t ask me why - I’ve never got round to seeing Wishbone Ash live until now.

Which is a pity, because they’re a band with a classy repertoire built on a unique mix of ingredients, and they absolutely have the skill set to do it justice.  They’ve been a revolving door over the decades of course, but led by Andy Powell on guitar and vocals the latest incarnation are still the real deal.

The signature

Heads down, no nonsense, mindless Renaissance folky prog rock

clean guitar harmonies are there from the opening instrumental, along with some of the folky elements that contribute to their distinctive sound.  They can also power out a good, gutsy riff though, getting the crowd going.  It doesn’t take them long to turn to one of their classics, ‘The King Will Come’, and when they do there’s immediate lift-off, with new guitarist Mark Abrahams contributing a stirring wah-wah solo.

It’s evident on ‘Warrior’ Andy Powell is still in fine fettle vocally, which can’t be said for some of his contemporaries, and his harmonies with bassist Bob Skeat are spot on.  Powell also manages to exude an affable elder statesman charm – without feeling the need to say very much he still makes an obvious connection with the audience.

They turn to acoustic guitars for ‘Throw Down The Sword’, and some more of those distinctive elements come to the fore in the almost courtly, Renaissance feel of some passages – yet they still swing.  They’re proggy, to be sure, but after their own particular fashion.  The following ‘Wings Of Desire’ is a bit more lightweight, but still features some tasteful interleaving of the two guitars.

‘F.U.B.B.’ is a whole other animal, built on a stonking bass groove, with passages of discordant guitar, precise guitar harmonies and a revved up, duelling ending – it’s an iconic instrumental.

They get down to some hard riffing with ‘Standing In The Rain’, with Powell and Skeat getting down in a neatly choreographed fashion.  It’s a good warm-up for them showing their blues roots with ‘Jail Bait’, a second cousin to ‘Roadhouse Blues’ if ever there was one.

Which just leaves time – well, quite a lot of time really – for them to get the crowd into hands aloft mode with the trademark epic ‘Phoenix’, before encoring with a brisk read through of ‘Blowin’ Free’ to end a set that clearly went down a storm with the aficionados.  Now, I wonder what state that C60 cassette is in?

Steve Hill - trapped in the middle of a drum kit

But first a word about support act Steve Hill, who has been doing the rounds with Wishbone Ash throughout this tour.  The Canadian is singular for his efforts in delivering hard-hitting blues rock as a one-man band, managing to play kick drum, hi-hat, cymbal and god knows what else in addition to guitar and vocals.  Now that runs the risk of being seen as a novelty act - except that he somehow packs enough punch to blow away a hell of a lot bands you’ll come across.

‘Damned’ is a Zeppelin-like stomp, and on the following ‘How Can I Go On?’ it’s clear that he relishes the rhythm he manages to build up.  For some light and shade ‘Change Your Mind’ features a howling solo and a neo-classical outro – on album he also demonstrates that he’s a dab hand with intricate acoustic guitar.

‘Rhythm All Over’ absolutely lives up to its title, with a great, ringing, Bad Company style riff, and the following ‘Dangerous’ is yet more rollicking rock’n’roll, and by now a good old chunk of the audience are definitely paying attention.

Hill closes with ‘Something That You Said’, on which he doubles up the tempo and takes an excursion into ZZ Top territory.  What he’s doing with the percussion must be a feat of concentration, unless it’s simply second nature to him after doing it for years, but he still manages to invest it with bags of energy.  He overdoes the outro for me – he could have got another song out there in the time he goes round the block – but the punters lap it up.  And shit, I think he deserves to do what he likes anyway with the effort he puts in.

Steve Hill may not sound anything like Motorhead, but I think Lemmy would applaud his rock’n’roll spirit.