Concert Review: Gil Scott-Heron

Gil came out to a deafening applause, no fanfare or music to welcome him, just picking up the microphone, he opened up by saying "when your as good as me, you don't need no introduction, you just come out!", and with that he set the tone for the evening, when this man talks he commands respect, the grandfather of hip-hop music, the room hushes up to hear his every word.

Not knowing what to expect, the crowd were treated to a comedy routine from Gil, amusingly he touched on topics such as the difficulites of touring Europe during the time of a freak volcano eruption & the reasons why he dosn't like Black History Month. After giving Richard Pryor a run for his money, he sat down to the piano. He then performed an old African piece and songs from the early part of his career.

This led neatly into him being joined on stage by his fellow musicians, when the celebrations really began. Oddly, he seemed to ignore songs from his new album "I'm New Here". Those who came expecting to hear "Me & The Devil" (vid below) or "New York Is Killing Me", were instead introduced to some jazzy style songs from the 70's. Not that the majority of the room seemed to care, the average age was over 30 and all felt the vibes Gil was creating.

One hilarious part of the show was Gil commenting on hip hop artist's and their tendency to sample him, "I didn't know i'd been sampled by Tupac Shakur, Kanye West, a real cool brother called Common and others so i had to run home to listen to it when people told me, all i taught was.... sh!t sounds the same to me!" a memeber of the audience then shouted out "and Mos Def!" to which Gil replied "hey... Sh!t happens".

Also absent from the show were some of his well known poetry readings such as "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" & "Whitey On The Moon". Ending with much loved classic "The Bottle", he then came out for an encore to delight of a much excited audience.

Gil Scott-Heron - "Me And The Devil" from Adam F. on Vimeo.