ShareAverage White Band performing their Let’s Go Round Again One Last Time Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Monday 13th May 2024.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Fifty years on from the release of their classic self titled album, Average White Band are on their Let’s Go Round Again One Last Time Tour and they dropped in to Rock City on Monday night to say their farewells.
Having sold millions of records and topped both the album and singles charts, AWB are not a band that are instantly familiar, but they are one of the most sampled bands around with their melodies ‘borrowed’ by the likes of Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Mark Ronson and The Beastie Boys.
And as soon as they stepped on to the stage, the seven piece immediately showed their class with the likes of opener I Just Can’t Give You Up. On a packed stage there was no vying for attention. Alan Gorrie’s bass playing has stood the test of time as has his voice, whilst his founding partner Onnie McIntyre’s guitar playing was top notch. The grooving lead vocalist Brent Carter, the former front man of Tower Of Power, was also extraordinarily good.
With Fred Vigdor and Cliff Lyons on saxophones, drummer Rocky Bryant and Rob Aries on keyboards, the band delivered a set list of funk and soul of the highest order. There was The Jugglers and This World Has Music from their 1973 debut album, Show Your Hand that went down a treat.
Unlike most of the venues that AWB have played on this tour, Rock City is standing only which meant that the crowd didn’t need to be lifted to their feet, as a funked up version of Burt Bacharach’s Walk On By had the crowd dancing and singing along.
There was a fabulous saxophone solo on A Love Of Your Own, Cloudy showed the tenderness in their ballads and Work To Do had the crowd singing at full belt. The depth and quality of AWB’s catalogue meant that the glorious Let’s Go Round again and the million selling instrumental Pick Up The Pieces were saved for the encore.
The fans had turned out to witness the musical energy and trademark sound of one of the truly great soul bands, the likes of which it is unlikely we will see again. But they leave behind an envious musical legacy.