Jools Holland
and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
30th July 2000

Jools Holland played after David Gray and before Van Morrison so the place was pretty packed. He played Panic Attack to open with honky tonk piano before introducing his nine piece brass band, the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.

He also had a female vocalist, a drummer, two guitarists and his brother, Christopher, also on keyboards.

Jools is always at pains to credit all his musicians and he mentioned their names after each soloish piece which I found a bit tiresome after a while. The vocalist was Sam Brown, whos voice had a powerful bluesy sound which came over so well to Aint Nobodies Business If I Do.

The set was mainly instrumental though with a lot of brass and Jools tinkling the ivories and only occasionally singing. The assembled crowd seemed slow to respond to the music and were not into clapping and dancing along, perhaps this was because it was generally an older age group, many of whom were day trippers here to see Van Morrison above all else.

They cheered and clapped after each piece though and were impressed by the clever breathing technique used by the clarinet player who held a note continually for several minutes. Following this Jools did manage to get some crowd participation by getting us down in a crouched position before we jumped in the air to 'unleash the boogie'. A good performance on a very pleasant evening.