Music: Barrence Whitfield & The Savages

Jeff Hemmings talks with Barrence Whitfield

Getting on 60, there seems to be no letting up with Barrence Whitfield, a highly energetic performer who, along with his dirty soul and rock’n’roll band, has been enjoying a new lease of life of late. Firstly, there was the first album for nearly 20 years, Did The Savage Soul, and then an appearance on Later… With Jools Holland.
“Yeah, we had a good time doing that,” says Barrence. “Jools kept thanking us for being on the show.” Barrence Whitfield & The Savages released their first record back in 1984. “I’m from Florida, grew up in New Jersey and then went to Boston University, where I was there for the blink of an eye, and then went to Emerson University, and kinda dropped out of there and that was where the band started. I studied journalism, I wanted to be TV anchorman – not the man in the movie! – but more a serious newsman.

“But music was always in the blood, and I met Peter Greenberg (of garage rockers The Lyres) and that was where the candle got lit.” With Greenberg, they concocted a fearsome blend of gritty soul, r’n’b, rock’n’roll, with influences such as Little Richard, Otis Redding, James Brown, and Boston’s legendary garage-rockers The Standells at the forefront. And, as luck would have it, someone from the UK came a-knockin…

“Andy Kershaw had a friend called David Woodhead, who was playing with Billy Bragg, and they were playing the Washington DC area, and he had a friend who turned him onto our first record. He brought it back to Kershaw in the UK, and he played it on Radio One. And as Kershaw later described it to me, his head went through the ceiling, he just went nuts. Six months later he came over to Boston to see us. and to film a segment for The Old Grey Whistle Test. The next year we went over to Britain to play. I owe it all to Andy Kershaw and other guys like John Peel, who championed my work.”

Live, Barrence is a force of nature, truly a man on fire. “I enjoy doing what I do, I have fun, I love to entertain, and to see the faces of the people in the audience. You light my fuse, and I’m like dynamite, like TNT, nitroglycerin.

“It’s music that all can appreciate – if want to dance, if you want to scream, if you want to dive on the floor and act a fool, or if you want to yell at me, it’s fun and it’s exciting. It’s not dangerous, except to your health!”

The Haunt, Friday 16 May, 7pm, £12.50