Pete Townshend: “Give Blood” Live, with Chucho Merchan
Here’s Pete Townshend and one big band performing “Give Blood” live, with Chucho Merchan on a fretless Steinbergers bass. Also of note is Simon Phillips on drums and David Gilmour on electric guitar.
Merchan has performed with the Eurythmics, The Pretenders, Thomas Dolby, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Bryan Adams, Kirsty MacColl, Jaguares and Everything But the Girl.
The tune, which appeared on Townshend’s 1985 solo effort, White City, featured Pino Palladino on bass.
Chuco’s part is more subdued that what Pino played on the album.
This is slammin’ and not what I expected from PT. Different approach than what I was used to. He really surprised me with this and the Steinberger sounds hot! Solid, punchy bottom. Nice groove. Love the percussion parts and Simon’s on top of it as usual!
Not taking anything from Chucho, but I prefer Pino’s playing on this tune.
You are right; the Steinberger has a solid, punchy bottom. I had a fretless Steinberger stolen in 1999 (not too many made) but this video looks like it was a little before that by the hair and age of players. It was nice to see Pete Sears get his Doug Irwin Dragon bass after 35 years.
Had a long chat with Chucho once in Ronnie Scotts. Really nice guy who wanted my Elites Bass Strings t-shirt that said “Put more Bass in”. I offered to swap it for his funky hat, but he was having none of it. We shared bass stories, but he had better ones than I did.