Todd Rundgren @ Eventim Apollo, London

April 6th 2019

View: Front Stalls

Standout collectable: signed copies of Todd’s autobiography The Individualist (£40)

Imagine if your favourite band put together two sets that combined all their hits from 1968 onwards  and than added an equal quantity of deep cuts that hardcore fans fantasised about hearing live.

That’s what Todd and a sympathetic five piece band achieved tonight over two and a half hours and 29 songs. For every I Saw The Light there was a Fair Warning, for every Hello It’s Me a Sometimes I Don’t Know What To Feel. This date, comprising 50% of a European tour, was designed to promote Todd’s biography, hence its retrospective nature.

Prairie Prince provided thunderous drums, partnered by the extraordinarily youthful Kasim Sulton on bass plus Jesse Gress (guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards) and Bobby Strickland on an array of horns and woodwinds. Todd solo’d extensively on Foamy, his turquoise Strat, his vocals were strong throughout and his introductions witty and self-deprecating

There were a couple of missteps – Todd having to perform ace Nazz single Open My Eyes on air guitar because of a malfunctioning strap and a video Q&A with fans where the questions were unintelligible – but overall this was a night that celebrated a half century of extraordinary music from Rundgren.The final encore of Just One Victory saw the capacity crowd clapping along, ecstatic at what they had just witnessed.

(written for Record Collector magazine)