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Elly Roberts reviews
Circus: 
With the Celeb Big Brother storm raging and gale force winds battering Britain,could a 64 year-old rock icon stir up his own type of storm in his native Wales?
For almost 42 years, Welshman John (Davies) Cale has enjoyed cult statusaround the globe. As founding member of seminal rock outfit Velvet Underground,which included Lou Reed, Cale has gone on to burrow a fascinating musicalcareer.
The fruits of his labour havent exactly been rewarded in terms of majorcommercial success. Recognition did eventually come in the mid-80s with albumV.U. and finally in 2002 with the resurfacing of Velvet Underground &Nico, and one single Venus In Furs which peaked at a lowly 71 in theUK charts. As a solo artist hes never charted here.Nevertheless, hes still a magnet for musos who still regard VU as aninfluential band.
On his homecoming gig, the first of his UK and European tour, he eventuallyemerged from the shadows following an endless – and annoying – drone thatseemed to go on for ever. Coming on to rapturous applause, the seasonedveteran beamed with delight, saying, “Hello Wrexham, nice to see you.”
It was straight down to business from his 16-song setlist over 90 minutes,opening with a great rocker Read My Mind from album Hobosapiens.From then on, he meandered through more rockers, the best being – Turn TheLights On a grungy rocker layered with wailing guitar by Dustin Boyer,Dirty Ass Rock And Roll an almost tribal affair with dirty riffs andcrunching chords which brought a huge roar, to the shuffling rhythm of Fear,through to keyboard-led Ghost Story with plenty of his classicaltraining on show.
There were also acoustic ballads like the stunning gentle lament Big WhiteCloud from recent flick Smokin Aces (Ben Affleck/Andy Garcia Universal Pictures).
Loud clapping and cheering predictably brought an encore one song, Chorale,followed by, Nos Da! and he was off.
The night was an excellent choice of songs, from albums Fear, VintageViolence, Guts, Blackacetate, Sabotage Live and Island Years, whereCale effortlessly switched between keyboards, electric and acoustic guitarsreinforcing his credentials as a major force on the rock scene. He wassupported by his all-American band Dustin Boyer (guitar), Michael Jerome(drums) and Joe Karnes (bass).
Central Station promoter Aled Owens said, “Its been an honour to host aliving Welsh legend at our venue. Thanks to all the music lovers who turnedup from far and wide to see this show. Its a real feather in our cap andranks alongside the likes of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin who weve had playin the past.”
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.