Larry Miller: The Tunnels

WHILE the rest of the city was painting the town red, donning their red noses and doing something funny for money we were engrossed in music of a completely different hue. Blues in fact.

Not the morbid "my baby done left me" type of blues, but the pile-driving kind where the volume level is welded to "loud" and the metronome is set at "fast".

However, the gig started quietly enough with supporting act Laura Meyer.

Seated on a high stool with an acoustic guitar, the Californian looked very much the archetypal introspective singer-songwriter and so an odd choice as a support on a night that had attracted a predominantly male rock audience.

But with a rather strange blues-folk style, a powerful voice and strong songs mostly about life on the road, the chatty, bubbly singer not only won over those who ventured out of the adjacent bar but even managed to get a well-deserved encore.

Larry Miller, who has been a regular visitor to the city for many years, had a new-ish album to promote called Unfinished Business.

But it seemed to be very much a case of business as usual as, ably aided by a powerhouse rhythm section of Simon Baker on drums and Derek White on bass, he opened with one of the new songs, Mad Dog, that had the trademark crashing chords, pounding rhythms and scorching extended guitar solos we have come to expect from him.

He is too experienced a performer to dwell too much on the new album and loads of older favourites like Shame on You, Outlaw Blues and his fiery version of Junior Wells' classic Messin' With The Kid got an airing.

Miller could be criticised for sacrificing soul for raw power and emotion for unbelievably fast fingering.

But there were two tracks from the new album, Delilah and the very extended and rather beautiful Cruel Old World, that showed a marked change of direction towards much slower power-rock ballads.

And after closing with a very long version of As Blue As It Gets that turned into a homage to guitar gods Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher, it was to the Gary Moore songbook that he turned to finish the show with a stunning version of his lovely Parisienne Walkways.

The only problem was that there just wasn't enough variety in the set and this showed in the way that the audience numbers dwindled as the evening progressed.

Which is a real shame, for Larry Miller is without a doubt one of Britain's finest blues-rock guitarists and a great showman.

7/10

KEITH CLARK