On Jeff Beck’s first day recording Roger Waters’ album Amused To Death, the story goes, he showed up with a distortion pedal in his back pocket and an unplayed signature Fender ripped out of a cardboard box moments earlier. “You got an amp?” he asked. Didn’t need anything else. Just plugged in and played.
Occasionally, at the end of the day, Waters would noodle on that guitar. It was always out of tune. Beck would simply tune it while he played. The producer, Patrick Leonard, had never seen anything like it. And he’s worked with Madonna — and Michael Jackson.
Beck — like Brian May, David Gilmour, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen — is one of those rare guitarists who doesn’t just have an instantly recognisable sound, he has the ability to make the seemingly impossible look effortless. There’s no hunched-over focus, no over the top arm flailing, no twisted facial expressions. There’s just one hand that floats up and down the fretboard, while the other plucks the strings, manipulates the whammy bar, and twists the volume knob, all at once.
And so it is at Royal Albert Hall tonight. A typically low-key entrance (a wave and a look around before the sunglasses go on) is followed by a rapid succession of instrumentals in various styles and tempos (often within the same song), interspersed with an occasional soft-spoken “thank you”. He shares his appreciation of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds before sensitively reinterpreting that album’s Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder). But, for the most part, the focus is very much on the music, playfully performed with enthusiasm and the occasional ’60s rock star flair.
Beck may raise his right arm, index finger pointing upwards, at the end of a song; punctuate his more complex, high-speed flourishes with a subtle, low-impact fist pump; or put both hands on his hips after hitting a particularly beefy chord. But the clearest sign that he’s still enjoying this, just three weeks shy of his 78th birthday, are the spontaneous smiles he shares with his band.
Anchored by bass player Rhonda Smith (whose CV includes Prince and Beyoncé), it also features cellist Vanessa Freebairn-Smith (who’s worked with everyone from Paul McCartney to Jay-Z), drummer Anika Nilles (clearly as comfortable laying down jazzy rhythms as electronica-influenced beats), and keyboard player Robert Adam Stevenson. Together they support Beck through 80 minutes of frequently complex and intricate music, including originals and well-worn cover versions cherry-picked from throughout his career.
Star Cycle — alternating between power chords, the sing-song melodies Joe Satriani’s built a career on, and all-out shredding — has only grown in bombast through four decades of live performance since first appearing on There And Back. The familiar rendition of Mahavishnu Orchestra’s You Know You Know allows the musicians on stage to get a little darker — and Smith and Nilles to pull focus with individual solos.
The muscular Stratus is all groove and Beck’s impossibly fast, fiery outbursts. Nitin Sawhney’s Nadia, with its drum & bass backbone, is even more jubilant than on 2001’s You Had It Coming. Big Block sounds way more nimble than a slab of ’80s blues-based hard rock has any right to. Brush With The Blues, originally from 1999’s Who Else!, slows the pace but not the intensity, as Beck shows off his finger-tapping skills alongside some of his most fluid runs and sudden changes in tone and volume. And, even late in a set stuffed with guitar wizardry, 2010’s tender Corpus Christi Carol elicits thoughts of “how is he doing that?”.
Musically, Beck and his band never put a foot wrong. In fact, the only real misstep tonight is Johnny Depp turning up to sing and play rhythm guitar on a handful of songs, including Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and Hendrix’s Little Wing. Still awaiting the verdict of his recent court case at the time, he brings controversy, celebrity, and little else. He’s simply no match for the other musicians, with only John Lennon’s crooned Isolation and a swaggering take on Killing Joke’s The Death and Resurrection Show benefiting in any way from Depp’s contributions. Despite the warm response he receives from the audience, his presence is (at very best) distracting.
He makes one final appearance during the set closer, the Grammy-winning instrumental reimagination of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life, by which time Beck has reclaimed his place in the spotlight with one last virtuosic performance. And yet, as he lays down his guitar at the end, says a few quiet thank you’s, and waves goodbye, he’s as unassuming as that first day he arrived at Waters’ recording session.
Jeff Beck
Royal Albert Hall, London
31st May 2022
- This article originally appeared on Louder Than War.
Nils van der Linden 