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Queen Elizabeth Hall, London Scotty Moore and The Grundy-Pritchard Band
After an exhausting tour zig-zagging across the country to play at intimate venues, tonight’s show at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall is an unusually formal affair. Yet even though the audience doesn’t leap to its feet and sing lustily along as it did at previous dates, the warmth and reverence in the auditorium from the diverse crowd, eagerly assembled on this bitterly cold night, is palpable.
The Grundy-Pritchard band, who have been playing with Scotty on all the UK dates, play a set of rock ’n’ roll favorites to get the punters warmed up, and prove to be adept at whatever they turn their hand to. Pianist Liam Grundy takes on most of the vocal duties, backed by Pete Pritchard on upright bass, Dave Briggs on the Gold Top Les Paul, Jimmy Russell on drums, and Paul Ansell – the ‘cat in the hat’ – on a beautiful Gibson J200 acoustic (as a nod towards one Mr Presley).
After a short interval, Scotty Moore takes the stage and immediately gets a standing ovation… which he modestly ignores! The band launch straight into Mystery Train, before pulling off a faithful version of That’s Alright – the record that started it all, fifty years ago. This segues neatly into the flipside of the original single, Blue Moon Of Kentucky, giving Paul Ansell a chance to show off his considerable singing skills.
Ansell, moonlighting from London rockin’ band No9, has an uncanny vocal resemblance to Elvis whilst staying strictly away from any corny shtick. A natural frontman, his hard, rhythmic strumming on the acoustic perfectly compliments Scotty’s nimble lead lines.
Although Peavey’s backline performs well, Scotty – ever the professional sidekick – is a little disgruntled that the soundman keeps turning him up to the foreground when the band is trying to replicate the records. The audience certainly has no objection to him being the star attraction however, and the run of Sun favorites, with Pete giving a running commentary, go down a storm.
The band tears through rockabilly template Baby Let’s Play House, Tryin’ To Get To You (originally by The Eagles and also covered by Roy Orbison), Ray Charles’ I Got A Woman, Heartbreak Hotel and its pretty flipside I Was The One, Don’t Be Cruel, Who Will The Next Fool Be, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Otis Rush’s mellow Same Old Blues, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup’s My Baby Left Me, Blue Suede Shoes and a spirited rendition of King Creole, before stopping for a break.
Gail Pollock, Scotty’s ‘best friend and worst enemy for thirty years’ steps up to the plate to thank for the audience for its support after Scotty’s recent surgery. ‘He was told he could play within three to four months,’ she says, before adding proudly to more applause: ‘and this is two months and 15 days!’
The band return for an encore, belting out Chuck Willis’ I Feel So Bad before ending with One Night, before Scotty leaves to the strains of Mystery Train, leaving the crowd in no doubt that it has just been witness to a once-in-a-lifetime event.
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