ROBIN TROWER
Bridge Of Sighs
Blues-rocker’s landmark second.
By Nigel Williamson
CHRYSALIS
9/10
Stars align: (l–r) Reg Isidore, Robin Trower, James Dewar
BRIANCOOKE;SAISCHORR
IT’S 1974 and blues rock is badly in need of anew guitar hero. Hendrix and Duane Allman are dead, Clapton and Peter Green are missing in action and Jimmy Page was last heard essaying reggae and doo-wop pastiches on Led Zep’s Houses Of The Holy. Cometh the hour, cometh Robin Trower.
Frustrated by not being allowed to let rip in his years with Procol Harum, Trower had given notice of intent with his 1973 solo debut Twice Removed From Yesterday, which included an incendiary cover of BB King’s “Rock Me Baby” and rather suggested he’d been in the wrong group all along. Backed by Jimmy Dewar on bass and blue-eyed soul vocals and Reg Isidore on powerhouse drums, he followed with 1974’s epochal Bridge Of Sighs, which was to elevate him to the ranks of the most revered axemen of the age.