Prompted by Rigid Digit’s thread about oldies, I thought I would share my gig experience this week and pose a question. Back in the time of The Beast From The East, I was due to go and see Chris Barber’s Big Band, but the snow trapped him in Holland. He was quick to reschedule and the replacement gig was on Tuesday.
His current line up is a ten piece ensemble with plenty of brass and woodwind. This allows him to deliver not only the ‘trad’ repertoire that many of us will know him for, but also a range of ‘Big Band’ numbers from the likes of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, etc. We got a lively two hours of excellent playing, with the band splitting and reconfiguring to deliver in a range of styles. A packed house loved it all.
Chris was on stage for almost every moment of the concert and took his share of solos, which served to prove that he’s still got it. I last saw him in the 1990’s when Pat Halcox – with whom he played for 54 years – was still at the heart of the band and, nearly thirty years on it was every bit as good.
So, my question is this: Chris Barber is 88, who is the oldest artist you have seen live?
I don`t know who the oldest performer I`ve seen live, none in their 80`s I don`t think. I suppose His Bobness, Van & Shakey are the oldest but mere spring chickens compared to Chris Barber. That guy must love playing which is what probably keeps him going, his music ain`t my cup of coffee but I reckon I`d really enjoy the show. Live Music – ya can`t beat it!
Petula Clark last year at Cropredy
85 (if I’ve done the maths correctly)
Dave Brubeck when he was 83
I think I saw him in 2009, so he would have been 88 then!
BB King at 85, I think. He was still good, albeit sitting down.
I thought the answer was going to be Odetta, but I see she was actually a sprightly 75 when I saw her being helped onstage at the Queens Hall.
Marshall Allen, who is now in charge of The Sun Ra Arkestra. He’s 93 (94th birthday in a couple of weeks) and still playing alto sax, flute and Electronic Valve Instrument (a variety of wind synth with a mouthpiece like that on a trumpet).
The Arkestra are booked for 16th August at London’s Union Chapel.
I’d forgotten about the Arkestra. saw them a couple of years ago when he was a youngster of barely over 90.
Shook his hand after an Arkestra gig in August 2013 (Cafe Oto). He was 89 then, and a smoker. Don’t know how he could blow a horn at that age and still light up immediately after the gig.
Uncle Len was more active in his 80’s than he was in his 50’s seemingly realising he had unfinished business
His manager ripped him off
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/magazine-feature/7580545/leonard-cohen-embezzlement-career-comeback
He was 74 the last time I saw him in Liverpool.
..and having had to come back from what was intended to be his retirement, he realised that he was really enjoying himself.
Just remembered Mickey Rooney 85 at the time.
Also saw Uncle Len too.
Leslie Phillips aged 75 at the Edinburgh Fringe in “On the Whole Life’s Been Jolly Good”. Memorable night – we were sat front row, barely 10 feet from the “stage”, which was just a line on the floor where the set started. Solo performance that lasted over an hour and he only needed to check the script (laying out of sight on a table) once.
Nicholas Parsons presenting Just a Minute.
Well into his eighties when I last saw him. Now 94
You should have that tattooed on your forehead… backwards.
Bzzzzzzzt – hesitation after forehead.
Arf!
As reported in these very pages, one of the finest night’s of entertainment and wonder that I’ve ever been privileged to enjoy, was spent in thrall to Shirley Collins, a woman at the magnificent top of her magical, musical game at 81 years of age.
Remarkably, I didn’t like Shirley Collins’ voice much at all on her old recordings of the ’50s, ’60s & ’70s. Could never listen to more than a couple of tracks at a time. On this one “Lodestar” it seems to have changed markedly for the better (to my ears and preference). Now who’d’ve thunk that would happen?
Shirley Collins, twice this year, at 82 (according to Wiki)
Pete Seeger, in 2005, age 86
And a private interview/performance from Nuguyen Vinh Bao at 95 in Saigon in 2013 (he is, as best I can gather, still going at 100!)
Oh and…
Burt Bacharach age 87 and Yoko Ono aged 81 (who knew?) at Glastonburys 2015 and 2014 respectively.
I’m off to see Shame in November . I’m expecting to feel very old indeed.
Saw Shame last year at a tiny venue in Manchester. Did feel a bit old as the kids down the front were properly going bonkers and there was lager flying about…although I was in my usual spot by the mixing desk so that’s ok. They’re good, they can whip up a good post punk racket and give off a bit of genuine menace…you wouldn’t want to get into a fight with ’em that’s for sure.
@dr-volume
Ooh eck! Thought it might be like that. I’m off down to London to see them…my mate reckons everyone will think we’re the Drug Squad.
They were on Later this week channeling Eddie and the Hot Rods.
Suspect repeat 6Music rotation and a stint on Jools will have broadened their demographic by now
I saw George Melly in a very posh London members club a few months before he died, aged 80. He was wearing a red gown for the performance and, during a mid show signing session, asked my mum if he could fuck her. Bloody great, it was.
I think you win. It’s not how old you are, it’s how close to death that counts. Plus, Melly was more full of life when you saw him than half the teenagers I know.
Well, on that. I saw Rowland Howard ex of Birthday Party and Crime and the City Solution who was waiting for a liver transplant. Did a show for his last album.
Died a week later.
Respect!
I saw Stephane Grappelli when he was around 80/81 but can’t remember exactly which year. At my first Prom concert I saw/heard Adrian Boult conduct Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. He was 87.
Arthur Big Boy Crudup was 73 when I saw him supporting Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.
Croaked the year after
I first saw Doc Watson when I went to my first Merlefest in April 2005 when he was 82. He was a phenomenal guitar player, by any standards let alone a blind octogenarian. I went back another 5 times, and for the most of it he was still a force to be reckoned with. Up to about 2011 he was still playing a separate set on each of the 4 Festival days, at the age of 88. He did bluegrass with Sam Bush and his pals, Blues with his grandson, a “Docabilly” set with a piano player and his band, and he played a Gospel set on the Sunday. I saw the Docabilly set in 2011 and he was clearly struggling with his timing and was having trouble remembering the lyric. His longtime bassist T. Michael Coleman followed Doc’s timing and the rest of the band followed the bassist. I didn’t see him at all on my final visit in 2012 but I don’t think he played much other than the Gospel set. He died a few weeks later. I wish I’d seen him and his son Merle together. They performed for about 12 years in the 70s-80s. Merle died in a tractor accident in 1985 and the festival that eventually became known as Merlefest was established in his honour
On my second visit in 2006 I saw a set called Ribbon of Highway featuring several artists playing Woody Guthrie Songs. Pete Seeger was amongst them, a few days short of his 87th birthday. I though he was dreadful. If I’d had the opportunity I’d have taken an axe to his microphone cable 😉
ha ha
Folk is a low impact sport so you’d expect a bit more longevity.
Ravi Shankar would have been 85 when I last saw him too.
Probably Johnnie Johnson – pianist from Chuck Berry’s band and most of the Chicago blues greats.
Saw him in a small club venue here in Singapore in 2000, which would make him 76 at the time.
I saw Wayne Shorter live when he was 82-ish. He could still cut it, definitely.
And talking of members of that great Miles Davis Quintet, I see that bassist Ron Carter will be playing at Fasching in Stockholm in the autumn. He’ll be 81 then.
Humphrey Lyttelton would have been in his mid eighties when I saw him host ISIHAC at Ipswich Regent Theatre, there’s only one Chairman Humph!
I saw Humph with his jazz band support Radiohead in Oxford in 2001. He would have been 80.
As the water tank of doom fills around the panicky rock star of destiny….
I saw Jimmie MacGregor a couple of weeks back. He’s 88 and is, by far, the senior member of the Scottish Folk Singers club. Skiffle and MacColl in the 50s, BBC TV in the 60s, national institution since then. Looks at least 15 years younger than he is.
Danny Thompson.
79 years old and still thrumming away on his double bass.
I haven’t ever had the pleasure, but Charlie Harper of the U.K. Subs is 88 and still playing.
Jet Black no longer plays live for the Stranglers, having retired his drum stool when he hit the big 90.
You’re unusually prescient given he is now only 79 (1938 year of birth)
If you believe the inter web, you’ll believe anything…….
Tom Paley at 88, playing a set at Sidmouth with his son Ben in 2016. He died the following year.
Sidmouth – the only place where the folk festival comes to town and lowers the average age.
Arf!
There have been a few, but Burt Bacharach a couple of years ago when he was 88 is probably the oldest. He mainly relied on some very good singers to take the vocals but when he applied his frail voice to ‘Alfie’ it was deeply moving. He was sharp as a pin, and hilarious as he took down The Brexit vote, and Donald Trump, and told self- deprecating anecdotes like the one about poor Cilla’s twenty plus takes of Alfie at Bacharach’s insistence (”George Martin told me we had the best take at number 3′.)
And, Christ what a catalogue of songs….