Jamie Marshall and Friends live at The Half Moon – 12 Feb 2011

Deep joy, here at last, this trip had been organised so far in advance, I’m sure it was even before Will knew Kate or the world had discovered Gareth Bale (THFC) back in October. In reality it all started long before that with a chance meeting at a mutual friends Fulham restaurant launch 15 or so years ago, where the usual polite conversations were carrying on.

“What do you do then?”
“I’m a musician”
“Have I heard of you?”
“Probably not, I tour a lot in Europe”
“What sort of music”
“Blues / rock, here’s a copy of my CD”
“Thanks ….now where has that bottle of champagne gone?”
later
“Who was that darling?”
“Don’t know, some musician that Hywel knows, he gave me his CD, top up dear?”
Well it shows how little I knew about this guy and how much I would enjoy and still do enjoy that CD many years later. His music is a breath of fresh air, a rasping voice that is somewhere between Joe Cocker and Bruce Springsteen, lyrics that make the girls cry and tunes that have a wonderful rhythm and don’t tire. I have listened to this album so many times, I always make sure it is in the car on long journeys and now ensure it is loaded onto my current music player. If you have a copy of that album, Jamie Marshall – In Our Lifetime*, you will know what I mean.
But it was not until my discovery of the blue nowhere and a whole new world that is FaceBook that I was able to track down this wonderful musician again. Having a second wind with my music addiction and realising that I missed a lot of live music has refreshed my love of it over recent years, so it was only fitting that I put the name Jamie Marshall into the little search box at the top of the FB page to discover he was still there, still performing, still writing and still totally approachable, albeit through a Czech Pilsner haze in Prague.

Soon after our virtual affair started a note went up from Jamie – 12 Feb 2011, The Half Moon, Putney, Jamie Marshall and Friends. Brilliant! An excuse to get old pals together after many years apart, a chance to visit one of London’s most celebrated music venues and above all, at long last hear this guy live and in person. Planning and booking of flights went off straight away, quickly followed by notes to a number of pals to meet up for what proved to be one of the best weekends in a very long time, but that’s another book. Saturday evening arrived far too quickly and our little gang trotted off to The Half Moon in various cabs, arriving at a packed pub with concert ‘SOLD OUT’ signs all over the place. The man himself, my FaceBook friend, was wandering around pre-concert and immediately greeted me as a physical friend with no introduction, which is surprising for those of you that have seen my various profile picture incarnations on the interweb. With a lot of expectation this large number of old and new friends of Jamie entered the back room and without doubt must have made the man himself check if he’d brought a change of pants, even if they were totally unnecessary. He came on stage and put together a show with such confidence, total professionalism and a swagger that Mick Jagger would be proud to own. The set started after a bit of banter with Jamie on his own and included the brilliant track The Judas Tree and a wonderful, if slightly altered, cover of my other favourite musician David Byrne Psychokiller. Soon to join in was Radek Hlavka on electric guitar creating the point that the girls all went wobbly kneed as Jamie presented us with a wonderful new and unrecorded song Yes I Do, co-written with Clive Gregson. The evening built up with the rest of the band, 6 in total, finally joining in for the bulk of the concert and the place rocked, there was not one person who did not enjoy this concert. Jamie supplied what was superb music with a brilliant backing band, you would not have believed that they had only one day prior to the concert to rehearse. The set included 6 of the songs from that original album from all those years ago that had started this night off for me. A night I would have missed had it not been for a chance meeting over a glass of champagne in the back streets of Fulham, something I have to thank my dear friend Hywel for. It was a truly joyous evening, I know that makes it sound religious but it was far from that, it was just special. Music put together by a professional (and still unpublished) musician along with a band of Friends that proved music is still about having  fun and performing in front of an audience, that even if they weren’t friends before the concert had all become friends by the end. This included the young and hilarious James Lewis, who was only staying for an hour at lunchtime with a quick drink in the Lamb & Flag (Becks at £3.80 Covent Garden!) but was strangely still with us for the concert and was the last to leave the Half Moon, well done James. One final note regarding the post concert dj, who had sussed out his audience by supplying us with a rockabilly selection, which was in the main from the late 50´s and 60´s - perfect. Well done The Half Moon, long may you shine.
The idea of bringing Jamie to perform in Mallorca has popped up and has not been discounted as yet; it’s just a bit of a logistics problem, one maybe Eddie Stobart or a decent sponsor can solve for us in the near future.

JamieMarshall & Friends - Band members
Chris Belshaw - Bass Guitar
Simon Callow - Piano and Organ
Radek Hlavka - Electric Guitar
Steve Simpson - Slide Guitar, Mandolin
Paul White - Drums, percussion, backing vocals
Jamie Marshall - Acoustic Guitar, Vocal

Set List
Solo
Hungry For You
The Judas Tree
Psychokiller/Baby One More Time/Doncha
Shooting At The Moon
with Radek
Yes I Do (Jamie Marshall/Clive Gregson)
Trust Me
with Band (but without drums)
Until I Hear It From You
Vagabond Heart
Full Band Set
Which Side Of The Line
The Question Why
Hallelujah Day
Stir My Soul
Good News From The World Outside
Long Way To Fall
The Tricks That Time Can Play
Troubletown
She Is In Me
I'm Not Waiting
Encore
Just Enough Of A Moon (Jamie Marshall/Johnny Black)

*the album In Our Lifetime is no longer available but some of the songs from it have been re-recorded and rearranged and appear on the CD HereAfter which can be bought from iTunes, Amazon etc. via www.jamiemarshall.com plus from the man himself if you are lucky enough to see him live.

Thanks to Ralph Lunt for the photos www.eccentrica.co/