Ronnie Wood offers a splendid rock'n'roll concert in Barcelona

Ronnie Wood, guitarist for the Rolling Stones for fifty years, and previously with the band Faces, conveyed the feeling of doing exactly what he loves most: playing rock'n'roll in a broad sense of the word, accompanied by a group of musicians in tune and with a very well-chosen repertoire. Before he took the stage at the Razzmatazz venue in Barcelona, it is possible that the audience, who had paid 165 euros for the ticket, would have been satisfied just having a legend in front of them without asking for anything extraordinary. However, Wood turned the situation around. It only took him four songs to turn what could have been a pleasant evening with a 79-year-old veteran into a splendid concert. And the audience, who had already welcomed him with endearing affection, began to celebrate the music.

In a season without a Stones tour, the British guitarist released Fearless: the anthology 1965-2025 last year, a double CD that gathers songs from different stages of his career in bands such as the Jeff Beck Group, Faces, and The Rolling Stones, in addition to some from his solo albums and four unreleased tracks. He chose about twenty of them to build nearly two hours of concert. It's only rock'n'roll and Hey negrita, two Stones songs in the composition of which he is involved, played in a first block that established some of Wood's musical interests, such as Jamaican rocksteady (the cover of Take it easy by Hopeton Lewis), soul with a rhythm'n'blues and harmonica accent (Am i grooving you, by Freddie Scott), and Bob Dylan, from whom he performed Seven days, a cover he included on his solo album Gimme some neck (1979) and which he sings imitating the nasal Dylanesque accent. The audience, which did not fill the hall, responded with football-style chants, "oe, oe, oe, Ronnie," and the British musician gave a very broad smile of gratitude.

Yes, things were working out. Good songs, good performances and a solid, veteran band that took on rock'n'roll with a commendable attitude: fleeing from salon neatness but without artificial outbursts. And it continued to work out. Examples, by the bucketload: an exciting Baby what you want me to do by Jimmy Reed, an emotional Oh la la by the Faces which he dedicated to Ronnie Lane (bandmate who died in 1997), the Dylan-esque Mystifies me (from his first solo album I've got my own, from 1974) a vibrant Boogie disease by the bluesman Doctor Ross, the apotheotic soul-rock of Stay with me also by the Faces and with which he ended the performance...

Aware that he has never been a great singer, and that he has been part of groups with such charismatic singers as Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart, in some pieces he gave up the microphone to Chanelle Haynes (who also assumes the role of backing vocalist) and Imelda May. Haynes sang the monumental Flying by the Faces, one of the great moments of the night, and May showed why she is a great interpreter of rock'n'roll and blues by catapulting Remember (walking in the sand) by the Shangri-las. Both shared the triple microphone with Wood on other tracks, accompanying this unexpected frontman who seemed happy and relaxed, even though he did not lose control of the situation. On Chain of fools he made a gesture for drummer Andy Newmark to close the song, on Country honk he directed the entrances of the violin and the voices of the audience and in a good part of the songs he alternated the guitar prominence with Johnny Lee Schell, always with generosity.

The final ovation confirmed that it had been a splendid performance, perhaps because it was unexpected, but Ronnie Wood had already conveyed it a few minutes before, when at the end of the Stones-esque Can't you hear me knocking he clenched his fist and raised it. It was the sign of a job well done.