Reviews

Billy F Gibbons Thrills London With Some Sizzling Blues

Written by Tony Wilson on July 15, 2023

It was an eye catching entrance as the funky Gibbons walked out on stage…

Despite the sad loss of Dusty Hill in 2021, ZZ Top are still a touring entity with guitar tech Elwood Francis stepping into his Texan boots to perform arena dates all across North America. However, although it has been said that Hill had already recorded bass parts for a new album, it’s been eleven years since ZZ Top last released a studio album with the Rick Rubin produced La Futura from 2012.

In that time frontman Billy F Gibbons has released three solo albums, all very much in the ZZ Top groove but with a heavy dash of the blues. His latest, Hardware was released in 2021. Although the Reverend Willie G has been on British soil in the last few years, doing signing sessions at HMV and treading the boards in tribute to Peter Green and more recently Jeff Beck, this Shepherds Bush Empire date was his first performance in the UK as a solo artist. Billy Gibbons band

It was an eye catching entrance as the funky Gibbons walked out on stage with BFG band member Austin Hanks ,both dressed in matching khaki boiler suits ,white Stetson hats with sky blue guitars hung low. A symmetrical look too as Hanks in left handed making it look like there was a giant butterfly on stage, but as soon as they cranked in the music soared.

Got Me Under Pressure from ZZ Top’s classic Eliminator album was a surprising opener which immediately shifted the gig into fifth gear. Raw and dirty, memories immediately came flooding back as this was just like watching ZZ Top’s classic performance from 1983 on Channel 4’s The Tube. The only thing missing was a cloud of flour. With his receding curly locks, drummer John Douglas is a Frank Beard lookalike but this man pounds a lot harder with plenty of beef, no wonder that he has more recently been deputising for Joey Kramer in Aerosmith.

Shifting down a gear for the bump and grind of More-More-More from Hardware, it soon becomes apparent that there is no bass player on stage, yet one or something could clearly be heard. On further investigation, both Gibbons and Hanks are not only playing their guitars but also performing as virtual bassists with the help of a new innovation called A Little Thunder pick up which according to the website adds a -1 octave or -2 octave bass signal to the lowest strings while preserving all 6 organic guitar strings through a traditional 8.2K humbucker. No MIDI, 9V, routing required. Got that? Good.

Gibbons is no stranger to new technology having, controversially at the time, added synthesizers and drum machines to make the multi million selling album Eliminator, the success of which was something that would pave the way for metal heavyweights Judas Priest and Iron Maiden to explore.

Our Billy is also a dab hand at covering lesser known blues chestnuts and making them his own with the Texas shuffle of Rollin’ And Tumblin’, Roy Head’s Treat Her Right and the slow burning grind of Slim Harpo’s I Got Love If You Want It all making the grade in this sold out London show. Recounting a time back in 1969 when his first band the Moving Sidewalks supported the Jimi Hendrix Experience and having the gall to perform one of his songs in front of the guitar legend himself, Gibbons redelivered a smouldering version of Foxy Lady.

The Billy F Gibbons penned West Coast Junkie seamlessly surfed in amongst a wealth of ZZ Top material which naturally raised the biggest cheers. Gimme All Your Lovin’ was given an early rout as was Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers, a track covered by early the days of Motörhead. Blue Jean Blues and Brown Sugar, the first track from ZZ Top’s First Album let both Gibbons and Hanks delve deep into blues with some burning licks.

The show ended the same way that a regular ZZ Top show does with the jovial charm of Tube Snake Boogie and La Grange where everyone in the audience knows what Billy is talking about. The end came far too early with the audience begging for more, but on this evidence they’re be hungry for further solo shows, as this seems to be where Billy is the happiest in his twilight years.

Review by: Mark Taylor
Photography: Dawn Osborne