The Bob Dylan Story rolled into Liverpool’s Epstein Theatre this past Friday. The full title is The Bob Dylan Story – Isle Of Wight Festival 50th Anniversary – Greatest Hits Show, and as that implies, the show packs a lot into its two-hour running time.
Leading the way on vocals is Bill Lennon, who is authentic, likeable and highly talented as Bob Dylan, as well as being informative in explaining Bob’s key moments and providing context to a particular number. He performed the first few songs completely alone aside from his guitar and mouth-organ, before he was joined by his backing band who arrived at various points: Leigh Chambers on guitar, Tom Bayliss on keyboard, Phil Marriott on drums and Al Parker on bass.
The backing band were very good, perfectly recreating the original beats of Dylan’s back catalogue. A video screen showed images and footage of Dylan, along with news reel clips, photographs of famous political figures and fallen singers, along with other pictures that added to the rendition of a particular tune. Meanwhile, Lennon had various costume changes: he began in denim with a small hat and a leather vest before moving onto a cowboy hat, then donning a white suit, and finally sporting a perm and sunglasses.
Of course, it’s the music that really makes a show like this a success, and almost all of the biggest hits from Bob’s lengthy career are performed here. The Times They Are-A Changin’ kicked things off, which was followed by the hugely-popular Blowin’ In The Wind. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right led us to Mr. Tambourine Man, I Pity The Poor Immigrant, All Along The Watchtower and I’ll Be Your Babe Tonight, the latter of which would be performed by several other major stars in the future. Just Like A Woman, I Want You, Story Of The Hurricane and Knocking On Heaven’s Door (accompanied by a montage of departed musicians, and with the crowd singing along) concluded the first half.
The second half began in style with a mini-concert performed as if it were on the Isle Of Wight (hence the name of this production), with renditions of Maggie’s Farm, Highway 61 Revisited (which was accompanied by a slide-whistle being played) and The Mighty Quinn, as well as Get Stoned, apparently an appropriate song for the pretend setting! We then moved onto what was regarded as Dylan’s finest work, the Blonde On Blonde album, with such hits sung as Positively 4th Street and Subterranean Homesick Blues, before For Ever Young ended the main section. To chants of “One more song!”, Lennon and co. returned to the stage to round things off with How Does It Feel. With the exception of some occasional issues where it was hard to hear what was being sung when it came to the actual words, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and practically flawless night of musical entertainment, and the audience were fully invested from beginning to end.
Overall, then, The Bob Dylan Story managed to deliver the next best thing to witnessing Bob himself live. Any Dylan fans will truly relish the chance to experience this tribute to one of the most famous singers of all-time.
Overall Rating: 9/10 – Outstanding
