Back in time with Simon & Garfunkel
The Simon and Garfunkel Story, at the Corn Exchange, on Friday, June 24. Review by DEREK ANSELL
Very popular in the 1960s and 70s, Simon and Garfunkel were one of the best of the folk pop groups. Along with The Everly Brothers they combined strong melody with folk song-derived material and mixed it successfully with rock ‘n’ roll. This tribute band comprised Adam Dickinson as Paul Simon and Cameron Potts as Art Garfunkel and they were backed by a three-piece band of bass guitar, keyboard and drums.
Some of these timeless pop classics, most with built in nostalgia content, were sung with skill close to the originals by the vocal duo, but others proved almost impossible to replicate accurately. On Sound Of Silence they were spot-on and you might have thought this was the real thing. The two voices in harmony and the rhythm backing recreating not just the sound of silence, but the sounds of the 60s.
A back projection screen played moving pictures of the times and the people involved like Martin Luther King, civil rights protesters and Vietnam war demonstrators. We are living through pretty bad times now, but the 1960s were not too clever either.
The duo began as teenagers back in the 50s, calling themselves Tom and Gerry. That name was soon snapped up by a cartoon cat and mouse double-act so they went out under their own names. In between singing various hits like Scarborough Fair and Homeward Bound, the two singer/actors reminded us that the album Bridge Over Troubled Water sold 25 million copies, outselling The Beatles records. Yes, really.
One highlight was seeing a very nervous looking Dustin Hoffman on the screen behind, watching Ann Bancroft playing Mrs Robinson remove her stockings, as the two singers belted out the song.
The story unfolded with most of the very popular songs delivered by the duo with both exercising closely-studied vocals and Dickinson showing impressive facility on the guitar lines. Good support too from drummer Luke Hinchcliffe, bassist Leon Canfield and keyboard player Will Tuckwell.
They must have been confident of demands an encore as they saved Baby Driver, The Boxer and Bridge Over Troubled Water for their final songs and were cheered off stage by a wildly enthusiastic audience.
