Royal Variety Performance

Devil#20

Just watch Ed Sheeran play his new Christmas single with Elton John. They had somebody else playing the piano because Elton couldn't be arsed to turn up. Ed though played the whole song playing Emaj on a kid's guitar and nothing else. He's worth millions and my bank account is knocking the pin. Why does he need the frets beyond the 3rd. Ginger bastard 

RocknRollDave

Devil#20 said:

Just watch Ed Sheeran play his new Christmas single with Elton John. They had somebody else playing the piano because Elton couldn't be arsed to turn up. Ed though played the whole song playing Emaj on a kid's guitar and nothing else. He's worth millions and my bank account is knocking the pin. Why does he need the frets beyond the 3rd. Ginger bastard 

Not seen this performance, but if he had to mime I can’t say I blame him for not taking it seriously.
Fact is, he’s a very capable guitarist whose career has probably done a hell of a lot more towards getting people to take up guitar than any number of middle-aged Blues noodlers (as much as I’d rather listen to the latter any day of the week, for full disclosure..)

EricTheWeary

I had it on but only paid attention to Elvis Costello and Gregory Porter.
I think vocals were generally live and backing recorded? 
I've no great interest in Sheeran but my son went to see him live and Ed managed 90 minutes to 10,000 people with just himself, an acoustic guitar and a looper.

HAL9000

Loved the Gregory Porter number. I can take or leave Ed Sheeran but anyone who can fill Wembley playing solo with just a guitar and a looper has more ability and balls than most.
Elvis Costello? Liked him back in the day but really doesn’t do anything for me now.

CHRISB50

I wish I had a Lowden kids guitar. 

Moe_Zambeek

Was that the thing Rod was on? I was curled up in embarrassment at that and had to leave the room...

CaseOfAce

I can see this thread continuing for 12 pages (vis a vis. Clapton is an average guitarist...).

So to digress... I had one of those mini acoustic guitar things for all of 5 minutes and just couldn't see the point - it didn't sound particularly great and I didn't particularly get any sense of joy playing it. I just thought it was silly.
I'm pretty much the same when it comes to ukelele's.

EricTheWeary

Moe_Zambeek said:

Was that the thing Rod was on? I was curled up in embarrassment at that and had to leave the room...

My 21 year old son said this is like some horrible holiday camp entertainment when Rod came on ( although the Royal Variety Show is pretty much all like that). 

Hard to believe he once did some pretty great stuff

https://youtu.be/95zxtaKQBBc

Devil#20

CHRISB50 said:

I wish I had a Lowden kids guitar. 

I thought it might be one of those baby Martin's but didn't pay too much attention to be honest. I don't think I've ever seen Ed Sheeran playing before, or indeed know very little (ie. nothing) about what else he's done. Based on this alone he played one chord throughout. If he played for 90 mins to a crowd of 10k at Wembley then fair play but why put such a lacklustre effort into the RVP. That has a bigger audience than 10k. First impressions and all that. 

pintspiller

God, I hope nobody has bought me tickets to Rod Stewart tour next year for Xmas. I'll disown them who ever they are!

boogieman

EricTheWeary said:

Moe_Zambeek said:

Was that the thing Rod was on? I was curled up in embarrassment at that and had to leave the room...

My 21 year old son said this is like some horrible holiday camp entertainment when Rod came on ( although the Royal Variety Show is pretty much all like that). 

Hard to believe he once did some pretty great stuff

https://youtu.be/95zxtaKQBBc

And he was even better when he was with the Faces. 

https://youtu.be/JtqF0qBqzZo

EricTheWeary

boogieman said:

EricTheWeary said:

Moe_Zambeek said:

Was that the thing Rod was on? I was curled up in embarrassment at that and had to leave the room...

My 21 year old son said this is like some horrible holiday camp entertainment when Rod came on ( although the Royal Variety Show is pretty much all like that). 

Hard to believe he once did some pretty great stuff

https://youtu.be/95zxtaKQBBc

And he was even better when he was with the Faces. 

https://youtu.be/JtqF0qBqzZo

When I was a teenager I gained access to my oldest brother’s album collection. Sabbath, Grand Funk, Joni Mitchell and there were a couple by Rod. I thought bloody hell Stephen you’ve let yourself done here but it was, I think, An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down and Every Picture Tells a Story. Rod was still involved in the writing ( and The Killing of Georgie that I posted above is a superb bit of writing by Rod) on those albums and they were rootsy mixes of blues and folk. 

This almost the same line up as The Faces…

https://youtu.be/nWRcP_eWAqA

…in fairness to Rod he did okay for himself going over to disco and cheesy ballads but that early stuff ( and with The Faces and Jeff Beck) has some real hilights. 

boogieman

Aye, Every Picture is a great album. I pretty much went off him when he got into the satin blouses and eye liner era, although I still liked the odd rocker like Hot Legs. 

Philly_Q

I totally agree that Rod Stewart did some fine work in the '60s and '70s, but - matter of opinion of course - he's done an awful lot of shite since then.  Strange how he gave up on songwriting and did that boring American Songbook stuff for years and years.

As for his current material and performances, it's just embarrassing and I think that's closer to fact than opinion.

I heard him being interviewed by Nihal on 5 Live the other week and you wouldn't even have thought he was rock star Rod Stewart, he just sounded like some random old bloke you chat to at a bus stop and then can't get shot of.

Just retire, for fuck's sake Rod, you don't need the money.

boogieman

Each to their own. There’s still plenty of fans for his crooner and disco era material, so I don’t see why he needs to retire if he’s still enjoying himself and there’s punters willing to pay to see him, embarrassing or not. My bro and sis in law lap that stuff up for instance and still think he’s great. But then they have no idea of anything he did prior to say, Maggie May…. mention things like the Faces, Jeff Beck Band or Steampacket and you get blank looks. 

Philly_Q

You're right, it's up to him.  I just think it's odd that most of us can't wait to retire but in showbiz they keep on going until the lid's being nailed down on the coffin.  I guess they love what they do.  And I have the choice not to watch!

pintspiller

I remember somebody asking Lemmy why he didn't retire years ago and he said he didn't know how to do anything else

RocknRollDave

pintspiller said:

I remember somebody asking Lemmy why he didn't retire years ago and he said he didn't know how to do anything else

Lemmy is another example, alas, of someone who ought to have jacked it in when his voice started letting him down.

i suspect he couldn’t afford to stop working. I doubt they made much money from record sales in later years.

scrumhalf

Given how fantastic the Jeff Beck Group and The Faces were I can forgive him his later stuff (for which, I am sure, he is most relieved).

RobDavies

RocknRollDave said:

pintspiller said:

I remember somebody asking Lemmy why he didn't retire years ago and he said he didn't know how to do anything else

Lemmy is another example, alas, of someone who ought to have jacked it in when his voice started letting him down.

i suspect he couldn’t afford to stop working. I doubt they made much money from record sales in later years.

I was listening to the Motörhead covers album the other day, and Lem sounds awful.    I didn’t buy any of the band’s post 2000 output, purely down to the vocals sounding like an old bloke with the wrong teeth in.  

EricTheWeary

Just watching Ed Sheeran on Hootenanny. Makes quite a complex looping set up look effortless. Then the singing and the songwriting. It might not be complex guitar playing but some top drawer skills all round  there.