Roachford – Jazz Cafe

Thursday 5th November 2009

Once I heard Roachford was on tour and armed with the memory of a few songs, from an album recorded more than 20 years ago, I booked tickets for his concert.

I’d arranged to meet a mate outside the Jazz Cafe. For one reason or another, he got the dates wrong. Finally, I managed to track him down. Whilst waiting for him to arrive, I enjoyed the tasty beef terayaki in the Japanese restaurant next door.

The Jazz Cafe was packed inside, eagerly awaiting Roachford to appear. Once on stage, first impressions was that he hadn’t aged at all. He still looked well into his prime. Without following Roachford’s career, it almost felt like listening to a new live album. And to be fair, I really enjoyed it. A mixture of rock tunes and ballads entertained the crowd.

I couldn’t help feeling most of the crowd were waiting for one or two hit songs from his early days and after 90 minutes or so, he performed a superb rendition of Cuddly Toy. It was definitely worth the wait. Whilst Roachford may no longer be a regular in the charts, he can still produce quality music. I had loads of fun and got to hear one of my favourite songs from the late 80s sang live.