Theatre review: Georgie Fame & The Three Line Whip, Glasgow

Oooh, he’s a right charmer, is Georgie Fame. He fairly oozes charisma and humour in his very conversational and funny stage patter.

Georgie Fame & The Three Line Whip - Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

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So much so that, at Saturday night’s sell-out concert at the Glasgow Jazz Festival, nobody gave a damn that the floor of the Fruitmarket was positively littered with names that Fame had dropped there.

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Before he’d even got to half time, everyone from Eddie Cochran (with whom he appeared at the Glasgow Empire in 1960) to Humphrey Lyttelton, whose colourful collection of trousers (on the evidence of the raspberry pink pair being sported on Saturday) he appears to have inherited, had been name-checked; often – in the case of the rock ‘n’ rollers – to cheers from the adoring crowd.

This really was a Fame-hungry audience; one which spanned the generations from Fame’s age group (he’s 70) right down to twentysomethings. And the savvy star made sure he made reference to great musician acquaintances that would appeal to both ends of the age spectrum, from the 1950s teens who would remember him dodging the cast-iron ashtrays hurled at Billy Fury at the Empire to the young people impressed by being in the presence of someone who knew Hendrix and the Animals.

And the music? Well, it was party time most of the evening with Fame – whose voice sounded ageless and whose energy was infectious – swinging out his greatest hits on the Hammond organ, accompanied by his sons on guitar and drums.

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