Ronnie Wood with the Charlatans
Shepherds Bush Empire, London   -  Dec. 8  2004

Review and photos from Philippe Duviquet

Ronnie Wood's appearance with the Charlatans was part of a 3 concert series held in London to help the Nordoff Robbins music therapy association.

The concert started with 2 opening acts, the 2nd being Babyshambles, the new band of Pete Doherty from the Libertines.
Their set was average, the last 15 minutes being much more interesting and appreciated than the beginning. 
Sadly, their music just isn't as exciting as the Libertines' 1st album.

The Charlatans went on stage at 9:45.
Ronnie Wood joined at 10:PM, on You're So pretty.

He seemed to be sober, in good shape and in an excellent mood at the beginning.
The problem is that he had to face technical problems with his jacks and amplifiers. Despite his legendary kindness, everyone could notice taht he became really pissed of by his guitar problems.

On the Faces' Cindy Incidentially, he just put back his guitar to concentrate on his singing, while Pierre de Beauport did everything he could to fix the problems.
He played Pedal Steel on the Charlatans' A man Needs To Be Told, but as promised, Ronnie could perform a lot of songs from his own repertoire.

The biggest surprise came from the fact that he also played a Rolling Stones song : Dance Pt.1.
He played some tambourine and made a really great guitar solo on this one, which was overall very groovy. Most of the audience loved it, especially the Stones fans who came to see him.

The setlist that you can see on the right is not the exact rendition of what really happened on stage that night. There has been some improvisation, and therefore it isn't complete.

During the encores, Ronnie played on Forever and what I believe to be Around The Plynth, before making a 2nd version of Stay with Me.

The concert was filmed, that's probably the reason why they played it twice, this time after having fixed his guitar problems.

Leah Wood and Kate Moss were seen in the audience, and during the 2nd take of Stay With Me, Ronnie made quite a lot of waving to his daughter.

The concert finaly ended at 11:15, which is later than the traditional 11:00 deadline for the London club concerts.

It was a nice concert, and the Stones fans who were there were happy to see a good looking and good playing Ronnie Wood (when we could hear his guitar) .

The fact that the concert was a mixture of songs from the Charlatans, the Faces and the Rolling Stones was really nice and appreciated by a lot of people in the audience.
A good way to wait until the next Stones tour !!!

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