Boy from The Band

Perhaps the truth is that The Band were merely what it implied on the tin: a faceless backing ensemble who shone when they assisted Bob Dylan, but whose own output mostly plodded.

True to the form of decades, the attendance for Garth Hudson, by all accounts the finest musician in The Band, numbered dozens. Unsurprisingly, not every male present had a full head of hair.

Hudson was 70 last month (not something that should overly trouble him, since he looked 70, even as a 20-year-old) and the Canadian, inscrutable underneathhis trademark hat and vagrant's beard (charitable Londoners surely flick 50p pieces at him if he pauses for breath on Oxford Street), remains a keyboards master. He is not, though, a singer and he never was.

Enter Hudson's wheelchair-bound wife Maud who - fighting the 100 Club's chill with scarf, gloves and overcoat - sang much of a two-hour-plus set, rattling her walking stick in time to her husband's keyboard tickling as the lyrics appeared on a laptop in front of her.

When the pair rattled through the gospel barnstormer Stand By Me (not to be confused with identically titled Ben E King standard), they even transcended the wretched sound.

For the most part, they were backed by the spirited Goldrush, who injected youthful vim, verve and some muchneeded rigour into The Grateful Dead's Dark Star as well as Band chestnuts such as The Weight and I Shall Be Released. The Oxford ensemble looked honoured to be alongside the Hudsons. The debt, however, is two-way.
Another performance tonight. Information: 020 7636 0933.

Garth Hudson
100 Club
Oxford Street, W1D 1LL