Snake Davis & His Band
Ripley Live 24th July 2021

What A Night

​

"Snake who ?"
You could almost be forgiven for thinking.

Indeed I'm one of those who has ignorantly overlooked some of the collaborative work he has done with some of the biggest names in the music business.
James Brown, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Dave Steward, Robert Palmer, Primal Scream to name just a few.
The creative constituent part that he brings to the whole.

Snake is generally regarded as a must and go to sax player from who's who in the industry, revered by fellow musicians and admired by fans alike.

After an 18 months long absence of live music of any description, when Snake picked up his saxophone you could almost hear a pin drop in anticipation with the audience taking a deep collective breath.

The moment he started the ball rolling, the excitement was palpable in this acoustic rich Ripley Hall.

The audience gave each other a knowing look with the realisation that a special evening was in store.

The Set for the evening consisted of some of his own original material including the use of a hypnotic Japanese flute Shakuhachi plus a few well known covers such as My Girl, Baker Street and Just My imagination.

The audience was ecstatic.

One funky Number I particularly liked was an aptly named 'Wakefield wobble', rather amusingly.

His sax play was magical and mesmerising, the sound was ably complemented by his band.

When the evening eventually came to a close, the 100 plus strong crowd made such a racket clapping enthusiastically and stomping the floor in unison demanding an encore with amplitude.
The good people in Ripley must have been wondering what the Charles Dickins was happening to their genteel village.

Sure enough the audience was rewarded with a beautiful rendition and interpretation of James Taylor's 'How Sweet It Is'  ...... to be loved by you.

The love in was reciprocated by all around us.

After the gig, I queued up like others to pay homage to his music and he took the time like a gentleman to speak to each and everyone of us.

When my turn came, I wanted to know the don't knows,
"What is your story ? Snake is not a very traditional Yorkshire name, is it ?"

"It's because of the way I slip, slide, wiggle and wriggle about, Sir", he replied patiently.

That's Snake Davis in a nutshell.

An accomplished consummate professional musician and a gentleman of the finest pedigree.