Arthur Lee

Arthur Lee is a fucking legend.

The prime mover behind late sixties LA crew Love he perfected that dark psychedelic pop sound that has been an influence on so many bands over the past quarter of a century that I could clog up this review yakking on about them.

Love's music, ostensibly pretty, poked around in the dark undergrowth of the times, a dark undergrowth that The Doors would go on to make a career out of. Morrison's mobbing Love's virtual understudies.

Lee staggered on through the seventies and occasionally surfaced over here for small club tours. In the nineties he spent years in prison after reaching his' three counts and out' on gun charges.

His life a staggeringly staggerlee of a tale but the lean worn well legend is strutting the stage like a born star. In a long white fur coat, tonight he is every inch the rock star; his legend finally on the increase. The place is packed with an enthralled audience watching Lee rattle his way through Love's classic 'Forever Changes' album.

With the added orchestration and a near perfect backing band Lee makes a perfect job of this- the music sounds timeless, great complex melodies and brilliant arrangements springing out from the basic chassis of garage rock that Lee twisted into orchestrated mini masterpieces- a music with its own strange and powerful ambience and atmosphere. You're drawn in by the song's atmospheres and stunning melodies and its fantastic to see after his fucked up life that Lee is allowed his swansong - one that he milks to the max - still playing encores to the loving faithful even an hour after the venue should shut.

Book him for Glastonbury he'll blow the place apart.