Terry Reid appearing at a major UK festival , fronting a band , with Lee Miles on bass. Sigh, a lovely idea, never happen of course , just a dream.
So there was I standing in the warm afternoon sun at Womad, on Friday 26th July 2002, watching a man, bearing a remarkable resemblance to Lee Miles, walking with a man, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Terry Reid. There they were right in front of me, not a dream.

Lee

Dzal

Bosco

Gig the First :The band assemble, meet, greet, equip themselves and kick off the first gig, which was in the large blue Siam tent. There's a good sized audience, fair sprinkling of primed Terry Reid fans, judging by the cheers and calls.
Terry and band come on for a soundcheck, unable to resist the pull of an audience, Terry almost started the gig there and then. Took a firm stage manager to get Terry off to come on again properly. We'd have preferred him to have got stuck straight in.

So Terry and the band come on and straight into a blinding rendition of 'Ain't No Shadow'. Any concerns about the short rehearsal time happily blown away.
The set continued ( I think ) as follows,Without Expression,Faith To Arise,Don't Worry Baby,Hong Kong, One Night Of Sin,You Don't Know Me ( Ray Charles ) and finally I Just Wanna Make Love To You. A wish that several guys in the front row of the audience would happily have granted, judging by the blissful looks on their faces, facial hair and middle aged spread notwithstanding.

You want objective criticism ? Sorry, I was several clouds above number 9. Was it note perfect, was it by the numbers ? was it OK ? Nope it was just plain superb, it was live, sorry, LIVE, it was fun, it was exciting it stirred some emotions.It was even better than I'd hoped it would be.

Terry gave it his all from the first note to the last. The familiar foot stomping, swooping and, thrusting his guitar like he was pitching hay. Dzals guitar soaring away , he's his own man and doesn't need any comparisons but to my ears there were moments when I swear the benevolent ghost of River era Lindley was floating around the stacks.

Lee as cool as could be driving along on the bass with Bosco beating out an irresistible rhythm at the back.
Some quiter moments with Bosco tapping his Bandeiro and later some cool piano from Lee on the Ray Charles number.

How long's an hour? Seemed like 3 nano-seconds. Ah well round 1 over, everyone out back for some post gig chat before Terry and Lee drove back to the hotel for some food and a change of clothes.

Talking of clothes, Terry brougt an impressive array of suits with him. All hung out along the tent wall, like it was an outdoor gents outfitters. Slightly disconcerting for Dzal and Bosco who were attired in more relaxed festival style gear and the cause of some amused speculation about how Terry would choose what suit.

Gig the Second :In the Little Big Top, a club sized tent with a nice atmosphere and packed with people by the time Terry came on at 11 pm.He'd changed into a really sharp suit complete with buttonhole giving rise to numerous jokes about weddings and brides.

Terry really liked the feel of this place and relaxed straight into a running conversation with the audience, in between songs. So much so that he probably missed out on a song or two. Never mind the chat was great.
Similar set to earlier , missed Without Expression after some problems with an acoustic guitar. Responded to a shouted request and launched into a brilliant rendition of July much to the delight of fans.One Night Of Sin belted out again, surely a new Terry classic its a helluva tune.

It was the sort of place and a relaxed kind of atmosphere that the gig could just have carried on through the night. Terry would have been up for it for sure but as before it was over too soon. Had to leave just as the last number was starting , an unexpected but delightful rendition of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Old Friends'.

Gig the Third :Sunday 11 pm, Terry and band came on for the best of the 3 gigs. With tooth problems in abeyance ( thats a whole long story ) and a phone call from Jimmy Page to wish him well Terry was set for a historic performance.
As well as the previously played numbers , Ain't no Shadow , Faith To Arise and so on, Terry performed two numbers with Josh Ralph. Josh had offered to do a couple of songs with Terry and duly took the stage ( I've been told that this was Josh's live stage debut no less).THe numbers were, Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel ( one of the ones they recorded in New York) and Dean Martin's Sway.
Everything was going perfectly and needless to say the packed crowd was ecstatic.The band had really got it going. Confidence built on the first two gigs allowed the band members to relax a little and show just what they could do.
Womad don't like /usually allow encores but the audience would not let Terry go without a fight . Womad relented and Terry came on to finish with Little Man Had A Busy Day ( a Jazz standard I believe ).
And so it was done, Terry had returned to play a major venue and proved to the world and any agents/producers/hacks that he still had what made him a legend.
Post gig Terry was overwhelmed with well wishers and the celebrations went on into the small hours.
He left to catch his flight back to LA early Monday in a limousine courtesy of Paul , American Cars Southend, who offered Terry a free ride, went back to Southend in the wee small hours and returned with Limo to give Terry a suitable send off.For icing on the cake, Gibson presented Terry with one of the guitars they'd lent him.

In the Mojo review of Terry's London Palladium gig last year Andrew Male likened the show to a high wire act . Well, to continue the metaphor Terry's been walking the high wire again , only this time he's coaxed three others along with him. I can happily say they all got to the other side, no-one fell and the crowd were mightily entertained along the way.
The Little Big Top thus coincidentally providing a suitably named venue for one of the gigs.

I can think of no more suitable way of winding this up than to reflect on the fate of a Terry fan I encountered whilst nipping around stage front to get some shots.
This man was a regular Womad attender and as it happens a long-time Terry fan. He came to Womad, as usual, unaware of Terry being on the bill, bought a programme and was more than a little pleased at who he saw listed.
When I encountered him he was close to tears of the joyous kind. This man is still on the same spot, this man will still be there when the festival is dismantled and gone. This man will still be there in years to come.This man will be found by park officials who having failed to penetrate his serene gaze will plant a ring of flowers round his feet.
Later they'll organise the fixing of a commorative plaque at his feet.
It will simply read ' Terry Reid Played Here July 2002 '.
He did you know, he really, really did.

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