Rodriguez Big Chill Warm Up at the Barbican

The Barbican Centre looks to me like a vision of a future that never came to be. Yet it stands. Sixto Rodriguez, our 70 year-old Detroit blues legend this evening, is a vision of a present that so nearly never came to pass. Yet he stands.

Fujiya and Miyagi, the support band for the evening, offended my musical sensibilities so much I felt like a small man had crawled into my ear and was relentlessly screaming ‘Fuck yourself!’ over and over. Yet they stand. By the end of the night; we were all on our feet.

The story of Sixto Diaz Rodriguez is a truly beautiful one. Having released two albums, Cold Fact in 1970 and Coming From Reality in 1971, Rodriguez was dropped from his label due to poor sales and mixed reviews. He gave up music. Little did he know at the time that his records were receiving lots of airplay in South Africa and in Australia. In 1979 and 1981 he toured Australia, and disappeared from music again after that. He was still totally unaware of his fame in South Africa until 1998, which, by hearing the amount of South Africans I was hearing in the Barbican last Saturday, must’ve meant that he was massive there.

The gig began a bit worryingly though. Rodriguez appeared a frail old man, helped onto the stage, and walked gingerly to the microphone. He began with some ‘Thank you’s’ and flower-giving to his daughter, another organiser, and a muscular bald man called Alison, to which my friend screamed ‘She’s beautiful!’, and caused half the Barbican to unsuccessfully stifle and splutter their laughter. After this though, Rodriguez and his brilliant band of drums, lead guitar, bass guitar, organ and piano, and a small horn section, were underway.

In seconds I knew I was hearing pure soul. There are performers, and inimitable performers, and Rodriguez and his band are the latter. He was great with his banter to the obviously adoring crowd, gifting quips like ‘I ain’t getting old, I’m getting dead’ which could have stood to describe all music of this kind, as it battles upstream against the digital age. Though, if you have the voice, and Rodriguez does; an undying voice as strong as in his past, every utterance will get you a rawkus applause, and on Saturday the Barbican remembered what timelessness was all about.

This gig was a warm-up for his performance at The Big Chill festival this year. I urge you to go and see real Detroit blues. If you find sometimes that you have forgotten that you are actually alive, then your soul will thank you for this.

Barbican Centre
Silk Street
Barbican
EC2Y 8DS

Box office: 020 7638 8891

www.bigchill.net/festival