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Radio review: The Ronnie Wood Show
The Rolling Stone guitar man sounds on good form in this relaxed, no-frills show that steers away from any lurid tabloid tales and concentrates on the music
Elisabeth Mahoney
The Guardian, Monday 16 August 2010
Ronnie Wood. Photograph: Richard Young / Rex Features
The Ronnie Wood Show (Friday, Absolute Classic Rock; Saturday, Absolute Radio) promises to be "the soundtrack to Ronnie Wood's rock'n' roll life". And that's exactly what it is: a tightly produced hour of music and A-list anecdotes. Wood is on good form in a pared-down format ["just me and my guitar"] where the tunes are the focus and lurid tabloid tales of excess are a world away.
His delivery – a very lived-in drawl – takes a little getting used to, though. He elongates the final syllable of phrases ["This is Ronnieeeeee"], and everything has a sing-song, mid-Atlantic twang. But his spontaneous bursts of guitar are fun ["that was a little flashback to skiffle days"] and his links between songs are novel. "You're about to get really turned round in your head," is a typical introduction.
A couple of weeks back, the show featured Kenney Jones from the Faces. Their chat was endearingly shambolic ["What are we gonna talk about then?"] until they focused on tracks. Jones recalled Wood phoning him in the middle of the night for help with a song he was working on with Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Jones nipped round. "We started to play," he said. "And came out with this song," Woods added as he played the Rolling Stones' It's Only Rock'n'Roll.
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