Classic blues guitar

IT was a good experience to see Peter Green, who has been through so many bad times, vindicate his absence by playing some of the best and most subtle blues guitar work this critic has heard in years.

Nostalgists were in attendance, presumably to hear some old (and classic) Fleetwood Mac songs. They did not go home disappointed. Black Magic Woman, Albatross, The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown) were the songs selected, each of them played in an ever so slightly heavy handed way, but show casing Green's undeniable strengths as an exceptional blues guitarist, with a hoarse voice suited to the material.

The early Mac songs were bolstered by a series of other tunes, old and new. The worst were those written by The Splinter Group's guitarist, Nigel Watson, plodding pub rock blues to a note. The best were a slew of well placed covers. Jimi Hendrix's Can You See Me?, Robert Johnson's From Four Till Late and Elmore James's Look On Yonder Wall were but three which benefited from Green's quite perfectly pitched and sympathetic readings.