Will Wilde: Portsmouth Gig Review

The thing about Live music is you never know what you’re going to get. Some nights the PA blows up, some nights it’s pure magic. 

The weather did not help set an optimistic tone, a misty, wet, fog that needed care to navigate but finally, I arrived at The Lens. The smaller of the venues at Portsmouth Guildhall on England’s “historic” South Coast.  A full house for the second date on the tour to launch Will Wilde’s latest album.

The size of the venue was important as it was intimate and the music could be heard both from the stage and through the PA. When drummer Steve Rushton (Imelda May, Jeff Beck) did his nod toward Buddy Rich by playing the nut on the cymbal I both heard and saw it. 

You could hear the banter between the band. It helped an already invested crowd become even more engaged.

The support was The Cold Heart Revue ( Dave Robinson) whose light acoustic take on the blues has already taken him ( The Revue is just him) to a Royal Variety Performance. His acoustic songs bear a more in depth listening as they are originals with the styling of more ancient American blues. 

His quick set contained many shortish songs that I’d not heard before but were familiar such as “Tattoo Girl” and “I Can’t Get Started”. He even tried a new song, one that was so new you saw him change the chord progression as he played it to us.

Then on to the main attraction. Will Wilde and his band. The previously mentioned and always good Steve Rushton on drums, Bobby Harrison on guitar, Ben Maxwell on keys, and finally Russ Carr on bass.

Straight off they tear into “Wild Man” from the new album. The searing sound from the overdriven harmonica is captured on the album but comes alive in a live setting.  Dynamic, powerful, and tight with a swagger that will only grow with the tour.

Next up, before the crowd even draws breath let alone ponders how Will gets the power in his playing and singing, local favourite Chloe Josephine, last seen here as part of Brave Rival, actually jumps onto the stage. Chloe then reprises her album role on “Stole My Love”. In keeping with most of the other songs in the set this is also from the Blues is Still Alive album. The stage presence between the two of them lifts the song and if anything Will becomes even more animated which Chloe responds to by performing the song more than just singing it. Pure entertainment.

She comes back later in the set to “Girl’s Got Soul” and helps with “Blues is Still Alive” both giving a different dynamic to the performance and changing the songs just enough to feel like a boost, more like hitting overcharge.

The set fairly rattles through with Will taking time to explain his harmonica bandolier band. This is apparently the Chewbacca style and cannot hold enough harps for all the tuning used in the set, whether an X Man looking arrangement would look so cool.

Highlights are difficult as all are excellent but the band gets a chance to demonstrate its chops in a cover of “ On The Road Again” where Russ’ bass break reminded me where I’d seen him last with The Blockheads.

Then the crowd was shouting for an encore which was a brilliant version of Gary Moore’s “Parisienne Walkways”. Gary was always an inspiration for Will and this was a huge Youtube “hit”. It also demonstrates Will’s mastery of his instrument (s) and the use of his two microphones, one for vocals and acoustic harp and the other for the overdriven sound and another harp. At one point tender and soulful, then searing and brash. A tribute to Gary and a fitting place to close.

What a great gig.