LIVE REVIEW : MIKE SANCHEZ AT THE 100 CLUB 08/12/2013

Back at the 100 Club just one week after the Dan Baird And Homemade Sin gig. Sanchez started with a band called The Big Town Playboys in the middle of the eighties. After leaving the band in 1999 he went solo while being a member of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings (replacing Gary Brooker from Procol Harum). The gig at the 100 Club was billed as Mike Sanchez and his band which means you get to see Mike with Nick Withfield on bow fiddle, Mark Morgan on drums, Tom Bull on guitar, Martin Winning on tenor saxophone (also plays in Geraint Watkins's band) and Nick Lunt on baritone saxophone. He also tours solo and with a smaller line-up colled The Portions that doesn't include Martin Winning.

I had quite high expectations for the gig as all the reviews I had read on the web said Sanchez was an absolutely fantastic performer. The band came on stage just after nine (no opening act but after having witnessed the gig I wonder who would be crazy enough to open for this lot !!!!). After a short introduction where Mr Sanchez explained to us that he had woken up with a stiff neck 3 days before and that it would take him some time to get warmed up, he then proceeded to tear the place apart with a 45 mins set of relentless boogie woogie. The band was simply fantastic tight, special mention to the two guys fro the horn section (they must have lungs made of iron to sustain the sometimes lengthy codas that Mr Sanchez inflicts on them...). Mike's repertoire is almost entirely made up of covers ranging from the end of the 1930's to the 50's but he plays the material with such ease and passion that you would think he wrote the tunes himself.  The gig was made of two parts.. First a 45 mins set followed by a short 15 mins intermission  and then a lengthier second set that finished just before 11.30pm. By the time the gig finished there wasn't a dry patch left on Mike's jacket. He said that he would be back at the 100 Club next April. You can be sure that I will book my ticket as soon as the date is announced.