Lloyd Watson
The Roundhead, Bretton, Peterborough May 17 2008
My friend John lives in the States now and comes over once or twice a year. We try and meet up and go to a gig if we possibly can. This time John fancied going along to see Lloyd Watson, a guitarist who we had both seen supporting King Crimson at Newcastle Odeon around 1974. John could remember more about Lloyd than I could (my memory is really getting quite bad these days); I checked him out on his website; he’d been a winner of the Melody Maker contest in the 70s and had also played with Eno and was a member of 801, a Roxy Music spin-off band, who I’d seen at the Reading festival in the late 70s.
So I pick John up on the Saturday and we make the 200 mile drive down to Bretton which is just outside Peterborough. We find the venue, a pub called the Roundhead quite easily, its at the side of a shopping area. We go off for a bite to eat before the show, and return later.
When we get into the Roundhead, Lloyd comes up and says hello (I have been in touch with earlier to get directions) and seems quite pleased to see us. He’s billed these days as playing “exceptional blues and demon guitar playing” and he certainly lives up to that. He has a unique technique which sees him running both hands up the neck of the guitar and squeezes some pretty amazing sounds out of his strat. His set is mainly covers including Albatross and Layla. The crowd are pretty enthsuiastic and seem to consist mainly of regulars who obviously know Lloyd. Good to see him again after all these years; do go along and see him if you are in the area.
check out Lloyd’s site: http://www.lloydwatsonmusic.co.uk/
801 band Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/801_(band)
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Posted by John P on November 28, 2009 at 7:42 am
I saw Lloyd recently at The Angel Inn – Yarwell, Near Peterborough – I would put the evening en par with Clapton at the Albert Hall – it was that good. Great guy too – delighted to talk to everyone – a real pleasure. And am back to Yarwell this evening (28 November 2009) to see him again.