Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scot-Heron shuffles onto the stage underneath the crimson tints of the stage lights with a somewhat tentative, ambling gait, betraying more than a hint of the weary, elderly gent that he has personated for a while – and boy, does he blether like one. But such is Scott-Heron’s infectious personality that a ten minute riff meandering between an (possibly apocryphal) anecdote about a dwarf motorist, the trials of pronunciation (‘February’ and ‘Eyjafjallajökull’) and the 'Give Back February' campaign to celebrate Black History Month in May (there isn't the space to explain, but it was good) is diverting stuff, and all the while infused with the man’s trademark vigour and lucidity. After enduring a decade to forget, Scott-Heron seems an old man reborn, and the maelstrom of emotion that crackles through his haggard timbre – relief, joy, redemption – is palpable: “glad you could make it...glad I could make it.”

One of the most notable aspects of Scott-Heron’s opener, 'Blue Collar' (and indeed, the entire show itself), is that Scott-Heron’s granite-flecked croon largely retains the buttery quality of his youth; something that, oddly, doesn’t really come through on his latest album, I’m New Here. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why he omits it from his setlist; it's not like he doesn't have other records to cherrypick from. The bewitching ‘Winter In America’ is preceded by a wonderfully incisive spoken-word piece on the seasons, and his band lend the requisite fire to ‘Is That Jazz?’ (again, preceded by another witty rumination, this time on the x-rated etymology of ‘jazz’), and ‘The Bottle’. Indeed, by the closing song of the night, the uplifting ‘Celebrate, Celebrate, Celebrate’, there isn’t a cold pair of palms left in the sold out Picture House.

Scott-Heron, looking energised and full of verve by the end, has only his grey cap to conceal his broad smile to the gallery overhead. And you know, there's a spring in his step as he saunters offstage - he talks the talk, sure, but he's also walked the walk in all the ways that matter tonight.