Gig review: Ray Davies - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

By FIONA SHEPHERD
Published on 15/10/2012 02:36

Despite playing to an audience of millions at a certain summer sporting occasion, there was a ring of truth about the first lyrics out of Ray Davies’s mouth at this good-natured, informal show: “This is where I belong”. He didn’t need any Olympic bounce to convince this crowd of the enduring romance of Waterloo Sunset or any of his other classics.

Ray Davies

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

* * *

The more vaudevillian qualities of his songwriting were highlighted in the matey opening acoustic slot, with Davies peppering the songs with quips and observations. He has never been the most melodic of singers and, at points, he almost lapsed into speaking his lines, even breaking briefly into the Johnny Cash rendition of Dedicated Follower Of Fashion. But he was sensitively supported by his guitarist Bill Shanley, who embellished Sunny Afternoon and Dead End Street with some plangent country picking.

Later, with full band on stage and some additional guitar work from support act James Walbourne, he rustled up some more country flavour from his Muswell Hillbillies days. The public may have neglected certain periods of his career but Davies certainly doesn’t. This was a pretty comprehensive trip through his back pages.

There was even time for two renditions of the immortal Waterloo Sunset, one acoustic and one electric. Davies’ tuning was even more wayward when backed by the gusto of full band, but this didn’t appear to concern the vocal crowd who were happy to take up the slack, demonstrating the enduring strength of his classic catalogue – sometimes more ably than Davies himself, who managed to make a meal of the pithy You Really Got Me.