Okay, obviously we don't really do previews of one off live shows as a rule because by the time most people read them, the show is way over and most readers are far flung from here and aren't just down the street enough to make it over to the show... Who says we don't do anything other than pander to you. The Reader. But the Pete Williams Band at Cork's in Bearwood on Friday December 16th is an exceptional case. A different kettle of fish.
Maybe it's something in the water round here, here where the people used to grow up to go nowhere... I remember well being forewarned about the futility of hope for the future, and Pete to his credit captures that and rails, rails, rails resignedly against it. Capturing his Black Country zeitgeist perfectly, somewhere between the past and the present. The past Pete captures is one of nostalgic misery imagined, the truth less romantic. But then no one's about the truth anymore. The future bolstered by broken relationships will be bleak when we meet it again. Sure he doesn't sing like Solange, nor carry her eloquent Black Lives Matter message as she quietly demands a Seat at the Table. Pete's Black Country Lives Matter too though, as was evident on his excellent full-lengther Roughnecks and Roustabouts where Pete's observational powers, are so apt I was alive, but a teenager again in his great great songs. Hey, if you know the album, I had that First Real Job he talks about and it changed my life. The songs and the lovely understated guitars make the Pete Williams Band in Bearwood maybe the last unmissable night of the year.
Oh and he was a founding member of Dexys Midnight Runners from the Searching for the Young Soul Rebels era... obligated to say that...
More info on the Pete Williams Band website
LIsten to Roughnecks and Roustabouts on Spotify (we highly recommend that you do!)
Pete Williams Band
Live at Corks Club
Bearwood
Friday, December 16th
