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Elly Roberts reviews
Cripple Crow: 
Devendra Banhart is one lucky guy. Women drool over him. Guys think hes cool.
Both camps agree on one thing hes a star. Sadly, not a mainstream one.Banhart is currently wowing crowds across the country with his inimitabletrippy-hippy brand of music.
His cult status guaranteed a full house, nearing 1,000 at Academy 2.Coming on 10 minutes late, due to support Vetiver (his former-sometime band)overrunning, the crown prince of retro alternative-folk was greeted like along lost hero.
Dressed in torn flared jeans, denim waistcoat and b&w t-shirt, he quicklytuned his Gibson, announcing his arrival with, “Hi Im Devendra Banhart,”– inevitably screams, cheers and lots of “Yes”s rang out. Gypsyfied inappearance (lets not forget his stay with French gypsies some time ago),handsome Banhart opened with a solo spot, before his bit-part Vetiver bandjoined him.
Hes here, with such a big following, I would guess; because of the criticalacclaim for 2005’s spellbindingCripple Crow,though we didnt get much from the wacky masterpiece.
Keeping track of songs was difficult, as Id only heard his fourth albumCripple Crow, (much to my embarrassment), and there was no setlistavailable.
What came from it was sensational – Heard Somebody Say, Long Haired Childand a Dragonflys/Mama Wolf medley. In fact, Banhart is much betterlive – rougher edges, and, highly entertaining. His nutty humour andspontaneity was so refreshing in a RockNRoll world thats lost its sense offun.
Soon into the set, a local lad is coaxed (not that he needed much) to takethe stage and do a solo spot on guitar, with Banhart beating drums in thebackground. Suddenly, he announced his band was now called First WomanMillionaire, bringing roars of laughter yet again.
More incredible music followed, including a thumping version of White ReggaeTroll, accompanied by some spacey antics, facial contortions, which add tohis appeal. His 90 minutes were soon up, far too soon for me, and his adoringfans.
Returning bare-chested for the encore, he rounded off with a couple moresongs that sent the crowd delirious. Hippy days are here again!!!
Elly Roberts with Devendra Banhart.
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.