Chuck Berry

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33381, 13 November 1973, Page 18

Chuck Berry

Last night at the Town Hall Chuck Berry took the •warm clay left behind by Bo Diddley and made it into an image of himself. The band built a solid riff on the dark stage and the audience built its own excitement and called for Chuck. Everybody was ready for J him when he came—they were clapping and whistling and waiting—and he came and shed the first notes of that golden guitar and it all began. It was so easy. He breezed into “Roll over Beethoven" (give me a shot of rhythm and blues) chopping out thick, friendly, slices of sound. They were dancing from the first note and half way through the opening chord the auditorium took off and it didn’t come down for an hour and 10 minutes. “Sweet Little Sixteen" carried the momentum along and then he stopped and said “we’ve wiggled our strings, we’ve warmed up, let’s open the show.” And he did—with “Carol” and “Little Queenie” —hard, driving, and emphatic good-time rock. i Chuck Berry did exactly what was expected — his great old numbers — and that was exactly what the people wanted. “Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll.” The crowd called for “Ding a Ling” — ] which he hadn’t played in “rather conservative” Wellington (and never got around to playing in “rather groovy” Christchurch). Instead they got the unexpurgated version of "Reelin and A Rockin’,” with a beautiful break thrown in. They were getting better

all the time as he ripped into “Memphis” and then a bit of the blues (“not too much ’cos it makes me sad and I feel happy tonight”). He talked with the audience, friendly and unforced, involving them in him, in themselves, and in the music. The air throbbed with the heat and the whistles and the dancing crowd and Berry’s guitar slicing through it all as he performed rock classics older than many people in [the house. I Then he was gone, then iback, encoring with “Johnny B Goode” and the stage was packed with dancing people. He really enjoyed himself. M.L.