Simon Kirke and Larry Oakes, Freeway.

Bedford Esquires Lev 2. 27th April 2007.

Tonight Esquires was privileged to welcome one of the elder statesmen of the rock world - Simon Kirke, drummer and founder of the pioneering early seventies band Free, as well as the later Bad Company.

The evening was split into two parts. Firstly SIMON KIRKE was joined by LARRY OAKES (ex-Foreigner) to perform a number of Free and Bad Company classics in a rich melodic acoustic style. Although regarded as a sticksman, Simon proves he is an accomplished guitarist, as well as tinkling on the keyboards for a couple of songs. Although he now resides in Manhattan, he still retains that typically deadpan Brummie burr most wryly when he states "I was in Birmingham before Ozzy arrived"!
That comment seems to sum up why it was such a memorable evening, as Simon Kirke reflected on his career - highs and lows, both witty and sad times, especially the tragically early death of the talented Free guitarist Paul Rossoff.
With a 9pm start. Kirke and Oakes keep a small audience enraptured, especially when they play the timeless 'My Brother Jake', it seems to get a collective hum of approval when the opening bars are played while 'Be my friend' is another old Free song that receives warm applause. The pick of the Bad Company songs is the exquisite 'Shooting Star'. Not surprisingly, given his years in the business, Simon has a couple of songs that have an alcohol theme. Firstly a composition about that legendary country and western star George Jones (a noted heavy drinker) while the hilarious '50 ways to love your liver' (with an opening apology to Paul Simon) is a song for us all, telling us the perils and pitfalls of our drug of choice!
The only downside to this acoustic celebration comes from downstairs in the bar, where the punk bands sounds are threatening to drown out the duo. At the conclusion of their set Simon Kirke triumphantly announces "We silenced those bastards downstairs"! For seventy minutes you most certainly did!

The second part featured FREEWAY, a semi-Free tribute band notable for its vocalist Terry Wilson-Slesser, the former bandmate of Paul Kossoff in the seventies rock outfit Backstreet Crawler who made the album the band plays on. The quartet perform more Free songs in their conventional style, and are joined midway through by Simon Kirke in a moving version of 'All right now'. For me the evening was finished in style by a rocking version of the classic hit 'Wishing Well'.