Venue:

Hammersmith Apollo

Date: 17/02/2020

Firstly, this was a Clapton-curated event so was based exclusively around Ginger’s output between ‘66 and ‘69. For fans of the Graham Bond / Airforce / Baker Gurvitz Army / Fela Kuti versions of the man should move on because there’s nothing for them to see here.

There was quite a ‘special event vibe’ percolating around the crowd outside, then inside the venue. I’ve not been to many standing gigs at Hammersmith (Stray Cats last year, Portishead in 2008), so the chance to join a chilly queue underneath the A4 flyover was a welcome one. An unscientific and probably wholly unrepresentative survey of the accents and Storm-Dennis-travel-horror stories amongst those who had arrived the obligatory three-or-four hours in advance of doors indicates that a lot of transatlantic and European fans had made the pilgrimage and smelled something epic and historic in the air.

The whole event was geared towards raising money for the Leonard Cheshire charity, so some videos about the work it does were run while we waited. We then got a five minute rough cut of Ginger banging on his toms and banging on about his attitude towards drumming, seemingly culled from » Continue Reading.