Review:

Nils Lofgren, The Anvil, Basingstoke, Tuesday, May, 15

Musically, we are clearly well past peak rock. Kids today just aren’t turning on, tuning in and dropping out to the sound of screaming guitars or anything remotely blues-based.

Nevertheless, there are still lots of ageing rockers out there performing, either through force of habit or perhaps just because they still love the music. Bruce Springsteen’s long-time sidekick Nils Lofgren falls firmly into the latter category. Dressed head-to-toe in black, with a stripy trilby that needed only a ticket saying '10s./6d.' to set him firmly in the Mad Hatter category, he was every inch the archetypal axeman.

Now, I must admit I was expecting lots of full-on, thumping boogie at warp-factor-two volume, whereas what we got was an evening of (mainly) acoustic music and a few name-dropping anecdotes from Nils, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Greg Varlotta.

To be honest, Nils hasn’t got a huge back catalogue of his own hits, but lesser-known numbers such as “Walking Nerve” and Neil Young’s “Long May You Run,” all accompanied by Greg on keyboards, guitar, trumpet or – would you believe it – tap-dancing to the hillbilly rock of “Mud In Your Eye,” were warmly received by an audience that was, let’s face it, more hip replacement than hippy. Indeed, Nils let us into a little secret: he’s got two of his own new ball-and-socket joints, courtesy of years of damage caused by his on-stage shenanigans!

But when, eventually, Nils reached for his old Stratocaster, things really came alive. Suddenly the music flowed, un-forced and natural, and Nils drifted off into another dimension of musical euphoria. At the end, those of us who still could got to our feet to applaud a true rockers’ rocker.

So, if you’re reading this, Ed Sheeran, don’t worry - he won’t nick any of your fans. But watch out, young‘un: reports of rock music’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

By Chris Parkinson-Brown.