Tag: Jerry Soffe

REVIEW – Chaz Thorogood @ The Southgate, Devizes – Sunday 24th October 2022

Thoroughly Good Thorogood

In Praise Of Sunday Afternoons At The Gate

Andy Fawthrop

Do you ever get that feeling that each day has its own special feeling, its own atmosphere?  Do we even need to talk about Mondays?  Fridays, especially Friday evening, have that “thank God it’s all over for another week; let’s go out and have a drink to get the weekend started” vibe.  Saturdays are sport, leisure, shopping, maybe a meal out, perhaps a music gig.  And Sundays, well Sundays are different yet again, aren’t they?  Yes I know there’s that well-documented slight anxiety about the coming working week, but there’s just something more laid-back, more relaxed about the whole atmosphere.

And that’s how it is at The Southgate on Sunday afternoons – comfortable, relaxed and a nice buzz amongst the regular music-goers.  Some of my best memories of 2022 have been those lazy, hazy Sundays at Dave & Deb’s place, watching some of the best local musical talent on show.

All year, on each first Sunday of the month, local hero Jon Amor has been showcasing his musical “friends” – his trio with Tom Gilkes on drums and Jerry Soffe on bass, together with an eclectic set of special guests (Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse in the early part of the year being a particular highlight).  But one of those guests, guitarist Chaz Thorogood, impressed so much that he was asked to come back with his own band and do his own gig, and yesterday we were treated to the results.

But first a short aside – last Sunday afternoon featured another superb artist: Jack Grace and his trio.  What a show that was.  More than two hours of country/ folky/ blues/ rock songs stitched together by Jack’s amazing commentary and stories.  There were echoes in there of Hot Tuna, Tom Waits, Alex Harvey and a whole vaudeville vibe that was by turns exciting, hilarious and totally infectious.  It was genuinely one of those gigs that you just don’t want to end.  Musical entertainment of the very first order.

Jack Grace Band

However, I digress – back to Chaz.  As if last week-end’s show couldn’t be bettered, here was something equally good.  Playing plenty of rock-infused blues, Chaz’s two sets were a revelation.  Taking several blues standards by the throat, he and his boys steadily squeezed new life out of them.  Crossroads, Got My Mojo Working, Folsom Prison Blues all got the treatment, with some absolutely inspired leas guitar work.  And then, if it were possible, he went up another gear.  What he did to Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile was absolutely stunning (“filthy” was the word used by a friend of mine).  Later he repeated the trick with All Along The Watchtower, and even managed (I can’t believe I’m saying this) to kick seven bells out of Britney Spears’ Toxic.  And there was a final cherry on the cake – a stonking and inspired version of the Beatles’ Come Together.  To say that this guy knows his way around a guitar is a massive understatement.  Entertainment of the very first order.

So yet another brilliant Sunday afternoon completed – good beer, great company, wonderful atmosphere and some stunningly good music.  It’s what life’s all about in my book – stuff Monday!

So if you’ve not poked your nose around the door of The Southgate yet, I strongly suggest that you do so.  There’s gigs on various Fridays and Saturdays too but, for me at least, Sundays just have that edge.  And your next chance to experience just what I mean is in a couple of Sundays’ time, when Jon Amor returns to his monthly residency with his trio and another musical guest.

Future gigs at The Southgate:

Saturday 29th October  Barrelhouse

Saturday 5th November  41 Fords

Sunday 6th November  Jon Amor + Friends ft Ben Waghorn (sax)

As Cool as an Eddie Martin; Blues at The Southgate

It was a typical, standard Saturday night at Devizes Southgate, but a typical and standard night at the Gate equates to an absolutely blinding night in most other pubs……

Amidst friendly faces, welcoming staff and warm familiar surroundings, the unpredictable drizzling autumn was set aside for Mr Eddie Martin to group with the finest drum and bass section to grace the alcove, Tom Gilkes and Jerry Soffe respectively. And together they blasted us full in face with some sublime three-piece electric blues. An unchanged formula for decades, because it works.

Though Eddie himself is diverse, the last time I saw him he was solo, filling gaps between bands in at The Wiltshire Blues and Soul Club’s grand evening at the Corn Exchange, where clad in golden suit he executed vintage blues akin to Muddy Waters. A high accolade it may well be but fully deserved. With full horn section he went for the big band style recently at the Long Street Blues Club, but here at the Gate, he’s truly rocking the electric blues, in DMs, black jeans and one too many shirt buttons open. He can do this, with apt blue shades and shaved head he looks the part, and certainly sounds it.

With a few blues covers, but nothing immediately recognisable or cliché, Eddie mostly rolled out original tracks from his plethora of albums, in a suitcase at his feet. This matched the appreciation of the slight but blossoming crowd. It was, in short, electrifying yet cool as a cucumber; an electrified cucumber, if you will. In fact, I could skewer the idiom to cool as an Eddie Martin!

Nimble on the strings, with extended instrumental breaks of mesmerising proportions, he polished those songs right there before our very eyes, and it was something to behold. I believe, if memory serves me well, my top drunken exclamation was a rather Punch and Judy, “that’s the way to do it,” because it is.

Not that this was the night I had planned, intentions were to get to Bath for a bit of ska and boss reggae with Ya Freshness, but difficulties with non-existent public transport meant I’d have to drive, and being I’ve galivanted elsewhere the past few weekends, sometimes one desires a few too many ciders, where everybody knows your…erm, cue classic American sitcom theme, because it’s apt. The Southgate is that dependable tavern, which hasn’t failed me yet, and neither on this occasion either.

Eddie, a local bluesman of international calibre knows exactly what he’s doing, Devizes renowned blues circuit love him for it. Not only does he know his way around a guitar, but he also even attaches his harmonica holder stylishly and he knows how to rouse a crowd. Which means I don’t make comparisons to blues legends lightly, but justifiably, and the thought hangs on the Howlin’ Wolf. Needless to say, I had a great night, and even flagged a taxi home with ease, cool as an Eddie Martin, what is this now, 2019? No one gets an unbooked taxi in a rank at midnight in Devizes anymore; luck is a lady!

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