Caught Live: The Trembling Wilburys @ Birmingham 24/07/15

Rockin' The Roadhouse: The Trembling Wilburys ...

#947: Hello ... Hello ... my old friends ... It's great to see you once again! Despite the inclement weather and somewhat awful traffic, a trip to The Roadhouse, Birmingham on the night of Friday 24th July was not to be missed as ELO Beatles Forever [ELOBF] recommended septet The Trembling Wilburys made a welcome return visit to the hometown of ELO & Jeff Lynne.

This was my first opportunity to actually meet, see and hear a band often featured here at ELOBF and my expectations were more than fulfilled with an inspired, energetic and accurate performance not only of The Traveling Wilburys songbook but also a fair selection of the works of Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty.

The London based group - founded by drummer Dave Stark - not only managed to effortlessly squeeze on the Roadhouse stage with much ease, they thrilled a healthy audience with their musicianship and unerring vocal accuracy. For me, the mark of a great tribute band is primarily their ability to reproduce live the music of their intended subject[s] to the degree that those in attendance can start to experience what the real deal would sound like in that setting. And The Trembling Wilburys did that with ease!

In Dreams: Yours Truly KJS with Roy Orbison and George Harrison ...

Add to that the uncanny physical and vocal resemblance of Dave Collison to 'The Big O' from the first notes of "Only The Lonely" and Glen Knowler to 'The Quiet One' as "If I Needed Someone" began and it was easy to completely buy into the band and their amazing sound. Andy McNish also impressed with his fantastic renditions of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty classics not to mention his astounding treatment "Tweeter And The Monkey Man". Add to that the phenomenal guitar craft of Dzal Martin, particularly with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", the suave bass work of Marko Laver, the intricate keys of Howard Robin and the seemingly effortless percussion of Dave Stark and you had an awesome musical spectacle to drink in and enjoy.

Of the twenty nine [29] songs on show, The Trembling Wilburys treated us their live interpretation of a dozen Traveling Wilburys classics drawn, of course from "Volume 1" and "Volume 3", with an extended encore performance of "Runaway" adding Del Shannon to the Wilburys equation. I loved the way that the night was split into distinct solo and Wilburys segments as it provided a wonderful momentum to the proceedings as many folks set about singing back and dancing to the seven on stage. Picking a fave is almost impossible from a night such as this but "Tweeter And The Monkey Man", "Wilbury Twist", "End Of The Line" and , of course, "Handle With Care" were bloody fantastic! Go see 'em folks!

The Trembling Wilburys are: Glen Knowler [as George Harrison]; Dave Collison [as Roy

Orbison]; Dzal Martin [Lead guitar]; Dave Stark [Founder/percussion]; Marko Laver [Bass]; Andy McNish [Rhythm guitar/harmonica] and Howard Robin [Keyboards]

Looking On: The Traveling Wool Dollies ...

The Trembling Wilburys set list [29 songs]: "Only The Lonely" ~ "Claudette" ~ "Crying" ~ "Working For The Man" ~ "Running Scared" ~ "In Dreams" ~ "Pretty Woman" ~ "If I Needed Someone" ~ "Here Comes The Sun" ~ "Something" ~ "If Not For You" ~ "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" ~ "Hold On Tight" ~ "I Won't Back Down" ~ "You Got It" ~ "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" ~ "She's My Baby" ~ "Dirty World" ~ "Heading For The Light" ~ "Inside Out" ~ "Rattled" ~ "Last Night" ~ "Not Alone Anymore" ~ "Wilbury Twist" ~ "Tweeter And The Monkey Man" ~ "[All I Can Do Is] Dream You" ~ "End Of The Line" ~ "Handle With Care" ~ "Runaway"

You can find out more about The Trembling Wilburys and what they are up to via their official web site, their Facebook and Twitter pages as well as their YouTube channel thus:

tremblingwilburys.co.uk
www.facebook.com/TremblingWilburys
twitter.com/TremblingWilbur
www.youtube.com/user/TremblingWilburysUK

ELO Beatles Forever [ELOBF] recommends The Trembling Wilburys to those enlightened folks who enjoy the music of The Traveling Wilburys, ELO & Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood, The Move, The Idle Race, 'Brum Beat', The Beatles and related artistes.

Until next "Time" in the ELO [and related] Universe ... KJS ... 26-July-2015