The Voodoo Rooms Edinburgh    Saturday August 1st    Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival .

Former guitarist and lead singer with the Scottish soul-Funk band The Average White Band, Hamish Stuart has written for and performed with many greats in the music industry including Paul McCartney, George Benson, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson.

At the very intimate Voodoo rooms a sell out crowd of 180 came to see what he could do on a warm Saturday night in Edinburgh and they weren’t disappointed. One of the slight negatives about this gig was that some of the audience around me were extremely rude and persisted on talking quite loudly during the performance which was very distracting not to mention annoying. I can’t understand why people pay good money for a ticket (£20) and then want to talk loudly during the performance.

Musically, the band were very tight and got into the groove right away with the opening number Makin’ it up. Although not familiar with a lot of his solo material I did recognise the average white band song Atlantic Avenue which followed this and generally appreciated the style and funky rhythm and well written material that I didn’t know.

Highlights for me were Hamish’s version of the Al Green song Let’s Stay Together, a song which I hadn’t heard before called Man With A Mission which was about Mohammed  Ali, Watcha Gonna Do For Me?, Queen Of My Soul, and Person To Person which featured some excellent guitar work from Adam Phillips.

A lowlight for me was the lack of connection with the audience. given the intimacy of the venue Hamish could have gotten a bit more involved with the audience especially when the drummer burst his bass drum skin and there was a minute of confusion and blustering about on stage while it was replaced. Maybe I’m being too critical but it wouldn’t have hurt to tell one of his many “showbiz Anecdotes” which I’m sure he has built up over his career.

Having said that, this was a very good gig, the band were all excellent musicians and got into the groove well. I’d love to tell you who they were but the intros were hurried and a bit muffled.

The encore was a fantastic version of the Average White Band hit Pick Up The Pieces where the horn parts were played by Hamish Stuart and Adam Phillips on guitar.

Overall I would give this gig 4 out of 5.