Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation - Wolverhampton Civic Hall 12/12/2005

"Welcome home!" Robert Plant's evocation from the stage on the first of 2 sold out dates in his home town was made with a wry smile on his face and a sparkle is his eye. After 96 dates in the last 12 months, this long tour was finally reaching its climatic end and the crowd sounded keen to celebrate.

We were ready! After the very real disappointment felt following WOMAD (see earlier), Gill and I really wanted this to be a good'un, so we were ready and eager when the support came on, hoping that they would get things going in fine style. The "Those Legendary Shack Shakers" came on, turned everything up to number 12, and then forced the knobs around to 13 launching into a fast, loud and virtually un-listen-able-to set that might be described as punk-rock-a-billy, with a great double-bass and drum rhythm section, a clearly talented guitarist with a nice looking white (Gretsch?) instrument, they could have been fantastic, but the distortion caused by the volume made it a chore and the act's aggressive and provocative gesturing alienated themselves even more. It was a relief once they had finished and we will leave it at that.

Maybe there was a silver lining though, because any lingering blockages in the ears had now been well and truely disintegrated and after a seemingly interminable wait, the joss sticks finally arrived on-stage and the Strange Sensation led Robert onto the stage and into "Freedom Fries." At last, we felt, there was life in this band after all - the worries of WOMAD were shook off and we were treated to a real concert - one in which we could hear the separate instruments and appreciate the superb music that the band were making. The crowd too seemed to be enjoying it - Early on a fan roared out between songs: "We love you Robert!" earning himself the slightly coy response: "I love me too...!"

Some of the old stuff "still fits" said Robert, offering "Black Dog" from his previous life, and later "Going to California" more acoustically, but not without the ever present and most impressive electronics and keyboards from Portishead's John Baggot, and some nice mandolin from Justin Adams, who later produced some amazing sound from a gimbri - a kind of African Lute. Still in semi-acoustic mode, we got "Another Tribe" with its Eastern keyboard washes and driving rhythm. Skin Tyson is the Sensation's
lead guitar - a master of his art he wrung the neck of his instruments at times, shaking the last decibel of feedback out, or flicking the thing at his amps to produce a surge.

"The Mighty Re-Arranger" album ("we've been nominated for 2 GRAMMY Awards, maybe the 'Express and Star' will get round to an article about it eventually") naturally featured heavily, with "Shine it all Around" and "Tin Play Alley" - a song which lopes along quietly then suddenly bursts out with an energy-laden explosion not unlike Led Zep might have done long ago, "The Enchanter", "Let the 4 winds Blow", "Takamba" and the title track. I'm impressed, listening now to the album, how well they managed to transfer the complex sound from the studio into the live environment, no mean feat, but helped along by the high calibre musicians Plant has chosen to play with him. They band seem to be able to handle both the old and the new, switching from the new album to go back to the 1970's again to play a tribute to "the song that all the psychedelic bands covered back then" - "Hey Joe" which was on Plant's previous "Dreamland" album. How does all this work? Well Alexis Petridis summed it up very well in his Guardian review of the "Mighty Re-arranger" album: "none of it sounds like pastiche, possibly because these nods to the past are surrounded by music that fixes its gaze firmly forward."

They wrapped the night up with a quiet boogie doodle which I suddenly remembered from the previous gig would lead into "Whole Lotta Love" and when it came, the whole audience roared with appreciation and the place rocked out to a rip-snorting version of this Zeppelin standard that was just magic, lead and driven by Clive Deamer's impeccable drumming which had been present throughout the night.

So Plant's homecoming was a great success - and for Robert there was a great line during the usual call and response stuff - winding the crowd up he shouted out- "Come on you lot - I've come a long way for this!" So had we – so glad we made the trip.