Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters – Bournemouth Academy – 10th November 2014
(Images sourced online as labelled for reuse)
Robert Plant is a musical adventurer: If anybody keeps alive Led Zeppelin’s unofficial motto of ‘ever onward’ it is him, and with the Sensational Space Shifters he has put together a band who are equally adventurous, each member having come from contrasting musical backgrounds.
We’re also treated to three blues covers, of which Spoonful is so nigh on unrecognisable that it brings to mind some of Bob Dylan’s more ‘inventive’ live versions of his own classics. However, in Spoonful’s case, Plant demonstrates how a song, and indeed a genre, can be taken to a whole other place. On Bukka White’s Fixin’ To Die Plant steps back and lets his band rip on a much extended middle eight, which has waaaaaay more than eight bars. Juldeh Camara’s Gambian fiddle is positively otherworldly. It is not just confined to making African sounds either, as the Celtic tinged solo in Little Maggie illustrates.
No Robert Plant gig would be complete without some Led Zeppelin, and herein lies a bit of a problem for him. Many of the audience are here primarily to hear him sing Led Zeppelin songs.
The set concludes with an epic Whole Lotta Love which commences with slow 12-bar snippets of I’m A King Bee and I Just Want To Make Love To You before the main course is served. Herein lies Plant’s problem. Despite his musical searching, seeking and exploring, 34 years after the demise of Led Zeppelin he is still their singer, no matter what efforts he makes to escape. Perhaps the answer for him lies with this band, and with the kind of set delivered tonight. A set mixing his newer material with adventurous re-readings of his musical back pages delivered by an eclectic rag bag of musicians who have a similar need to explore.
By eschewing the possibility of a full Led Zeppelin reunion and the additional millions that it would bring, Robert Plant has chosen the more difficult, and indeed exciting, road to travel. He and his cohorts take Western music to Africa and all points North, South, East and West before ending up somewhere between West Bromwich and Bron-y-Aur. Why don’t you join them? It’ll be quite a trip.
Mark Kelly