Terry Reid at Cluny 2, Newcastle

Last night I made what has become in recent years, something of an annual outing, to see the legend that is Terry Reid. The venue was the intimate Cluny 2 on the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The audience were enthusiastic and Terry seemed genuinely pleased and even visibly moved to be back, supported as always in these parts by some of his County Durham family members.

In my view, the thing about Terry Reid has always been his incredible voice but I have to confess that in the past two years, I have witnessed a deterioration in his vocal range which somewhat limited my own personal enjoyment of this year's event. Nevertheless he is never anything but entertaining as in between songs, he regales us with stories of his many and varied experiences since embarking on the journey as a rock musician when he was a mere 15 years old.

I referred in a previous post of his tendency to name-drop yet to Terry himself it is no such thing. The names he drops into his stories are (or in some cases were) genuine friends. So among those who got a mention last night were Robert Plant, Graham Nash, Richie Havens, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Jack Nicholson and even Tommy Cooper. All of his tales appear to be ad-libbed and are delivered in the eccentric way that only Terry Reid can. The guy certainly has a way of connecting with his audience and consequently those around me lapped it up. I noticed also that there were a fair number of shall I say younger people scattered among the crowd possibly a consequence of Reid's recent collaborations with Rumer, Michael Grimm and DJ Shadow. Bringing the back catalogue of Terry Reid's work to a younger audience surely cannot be a bad thing.

Perhaps there has been a shift in the raison d'etre for seeing Terry Reid live these days and people are attending as much for the storytelling anecdotes as they are for the music. If so, maybe I need to make that adjustment if I intend to see him live again next year. 

Regarding the music, Reid played a mixture of covers by Brian Wilson, Marty Robbins, The Louvin Brothers, interspersed with his own 'To Be Treated Rite', 'Without Expression',  'Brave Awakwening', 'Seed Of Memory' and a rare outing for 'Rogue Waves'.

Something that should appeal to those who relish hearing his tales of life in the rock'n'roll fast lane, was the news that a documentary on his career is currently being filmed. I must confess that I will be looking forward to that being broadcast.

So in my view last night was a bit of a mixed bag, which you could say sums up the life and career of Mr Reid. Nevertheless I have since found myself humming strains of 'Seed of Memory'. And there's nothing wrong with that!