Soul Man loses his way

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Right now, Isaac Hayes is between careers. As befits a soul giant about to celebrate his 65th birthday, he's had several: the Sixties songwriter who, in partnership with Dave Porter, penned such timeless wonders as Soul Man and Hold On I'm Comin'; the Seventies solo megastar and, more recently, following the inevitable bankruptcy and tundra years, a cartoon hero as South Park's Chef, only for the buffoon to bite the hand that fed him so well by flouncing off last year when it parodied his hobby of scientology.

Just to hammer home both his displeasure and his stupidity, he's stopped playing Chocolate Salty Balls, Chef's Number 1 which introduced Hayes to a whole new audience.

Now the father of (at least) 12 who suffered a stroke last year is lost. The very act of walking on stage appeared to exhaust him. His voice, formerly a deep, lascivious tool of seduction, was flat, even as it grappled with his 15-minute version of Walk On By, or mumbled through Don't Let Go.

A trio of keyboardists covered for the piano work of which he is no longer capable. No wonder audience rapport was limited to a factually inaccurate "it's been 50 years" comment, before a karaoke dismantling of Soul Man.

Even among this wreckage, there were moments where it was possible to remember that Hayes was once soul's bravest practitioner, not least when he swanned through his mighty trawl through By The Time I Get To Phoenix, as a backing singer simultaneously rattled out I Say A Little Prayer. A mess in theory, it worked thrillingly well in practice.

And then there was Shaft, as taut and, yes, as sexually charged as ever. That it worked chiefly because Hayes restricted himself to "conducting" the band and croaking some of the lyrics told its own sad tale. Heartbreaking, actually.

Isaac Hayes
O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Shepherd's Bush Green, W12 8TT