In 1975, as an awestruck 18 year old, I saw Supertramp at Bournemouth Winter Gardens. For the last half century they have remained one of my timeless favourite bands and tonight, 49 years later, I went to The Confederation Centre of the Arts to see the tribute band, Classic Albums Live, who played Supertramp’s ground-breaking progressive rock album, Crime of the Century, from front to back.
I parked a three minute brisk walk from the theatre and was in my seat by 7:10. Unusually for the Confed Centre filming and photography were permitted so I dimmed the screen on my phone and switched off the flash in readiness. The house lights were lowered promptly at 7:30 and the familiar haunting harmonica wailed the intro to ‘School’. I was transported back five decades to one of my earliest rock concerts; quite a spine-tingling moment. The compositions on this classic album require no introduction from me. Suffice it to say that tonight’s line-up of musicians, nine in all, played the album scrupulously faithful to the studio cut, even down to fade-outs and the faint ‘cuckoo’ in the silence at the end of ‘Asylum’. It was a stunning performance. The ‘musique concrรจte’ elements such as the train sounds, platform announcements and busking violinist on ‘Rudy’ were reproduced by digital file, making this a deeply authentic experience.
At the close of the final album track, Crime of the Century the band spokesman called for a twenty minute break after which he promised several more Supertramp numbers. I took the opportunity to leave my allotted seat with the giant human sitting typically in front of me and found an uninterrupted view from some empty rows further back and to the side. From there I enjoyed seven more songs from three other Supertramp albums. A nice bonus was that the excerpt from Winston Churchill’s WW2 speech in ‘Fool’s Overture’ was voiced admirably and suitably gruffly by one of the guitarists!
Musicianship was of the highest order with two keyboards, two guitarists, bass, drums, extra percussionist, and woodwind of sax, clarinet, flute and cornet. Lead vocals were shared by one guitarist and a solo singer. Lighting was simple but effective. That the band needed nine players on stage is a testament to Supertramp’s ability to play their music live with only their original five-piece.
Set list:
1 School
2 Bloody Well
Right
3 Hide in Your
Shell
4 Asylum
5 Dreamer
6 Rudy
7 If Everyone Was
Listening
8 Crime of the
Century
Intermission
9 Take the Long Way Home
10 The Logical
Song
11 Goodbye
Stranger
12 Even in the
Quietest Moments
13 Child of Vision
14 Fool’s Overture
