Didn't It Rain

Wednesday evening, and it was pouring with rain as we made our way to Trade Kitchen for dinner, before walking down to the Michael Fowler Centre to see Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band.

Hugh Laurie is famous to all as one half of Fry and Laurie, the hapless Bertie Wooster from Jeeves & Wooster, and most recently as the acerbic Dr. Gregory House. More recently, though, he’s thrown over his comedy and acting career to pursue playing in a blues band. He’s recorded a couple of albums: Let Them Talk and Didn’t It Rain, and tours the world with his band, made up of extremely competent blues musicians and singers.

When he came on he apologised to us for buying this pig in a poke. After all, we had no idea whether he was any good or not. He likened this to an announcement made by the captain of your plane after you’ve taken off, telling you that until two weeks ago he was a hairdresser, but flying planes was something that he’d always wanted to…you’d understandably feel a bit nervous. This showed that (i) he was deliberately underselling his own abilities, and (ii) hasn’t given up the comedy entirely. Indeed, throughout the show, as well as praising his fellow musicians, he kept up a stream of witty banter to keep us amused.

Oh yeah, and he can play the piano a bit.

The show was great, as he played material from both albums as well as some other classics such as show opener Iko Iko. On vocals he was helped out by two blues singers Gaby Moreno and JeanMcLain – it would be fair to say that he doesn’t have the world’s greatest singing voice, but then you don’t need one to sing the blues.