John Mayall and B.B. King

[karohemd]

Last night, two old men rocked my world at Wembley Arena. John Mayall (75) started off playing a mix of new stuff from his Freddie King tribute album interspersed with personal classics and finishing with the legendary Room to Move. Absolutely brilliant. The only bit that annoyed me was that the lighting was static without follow spots so whenever he or the other non-stationary musicians moved, they were almost in darkness.

After less than half an hour stage change, B.B. King's bandorchestra entered the stage, laying down a groove (rather jazzy at first, with everyone taking solos) that wouldn't end until 2 hours later. The King of the Blues (83) came on to standing ovations and just thrilled everyone with his charisma. He now sits comfortably on a chair but his voice and guitar playing have lost nothing of their power. The first time I heard Lucille's voice, I cried because it's been something like 15 years since the legendary concert at the Serenadenhof in Nuremberg. It was awesome. First I thought JM's band were good but that band's groove was even more tight and wonderful.

I had a reasonably good seat in block C5 (rather high up but close to the stage so a good view) with easy access to the exit for a quick getaway. Managed to get out before the majority of the crowd but still only managed to get the sloooow midnight train to Cambridge which meant I was home at 2am. I was still hyper from the gig so I caught up with online things and watched Top Gear (poor Stephen Fry).

I tweeted some of it. I also more or less liveblogged the Springsteen gig at Glasto on Saturday night.

I'm not really awake now but have to soldier on.