B.B. King
Congresgebouw
The Hague, The Netherlands
Thursday Night
October 26, 1978

Lineage: Soundboard master tape > ? > 2 Flac files > Audacity 2.3.1 > Flac level 5
Taped by: hansdevente

Posted by bbdenv on Dime, May 28, 2019

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I've included a clipping from "De Waarheid" (October 28, 1978), a Dutch newspaper, which contains a review of this
concert. Here's the translation of that article:

"B.B. King with beautiful accompaniment

In a half-filled, but no less enthusiastic, Congresgebouw in The Hague, B.B. King performed Thursday night, one of the
few blues singers who tours regularly.

If one looks at the usual visits of American blues singers to our country, it's hard to imagine that this phenomenon is
only about thirteen years old. Only in the mid-sixties did the pop music audience discover the "black" origin of pop
music, and that's when B.B. King came to our country for the first time. B.B. King is currently the most famous
representative of the "urban blues", a blues style somewhere in the middle between jazz and rhythm & blues on the one
hand and Chicago-blues on the other.

Back then King's music worked a little different than now, but for the man himself the confrontation with a new audience
must have been refreshing, apart from its influence on his music.

Unlike then, B.B. King has been playing routinely for years, with his guitar playing, which has influenced hundreds of
pop guitar players, always retaining its quality. The slow, high, singing B.B. King-guitar comes into its own in the
slow blues songs. Nevertheless, because of the routine mentioned, a performance by King offers no surprises anymore.

The more so, however, B.B. King's backing band led by Cato Walker, who introduced the performance of B.B. King with a
solid warm up before and after the break. We then heard rock-solid instrumental rhythm & blues with nice long jazzy
solos on tenor, alto, trumpet, guitar and organ, supported by the solid rhythm that is indispensable for this kind of
music.

No routine here, but guys who play with all their might. It's a shame that we don't hear this kind of music enough.
For me the highlight of the evening."

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I haven't done too much with the original files. I've added trackmarkers and removed some silences. The usual tracks
played by B.B. King's backing band are missing and there are some cuts here and there. The instrumental (track 6) is cut
at the end and there's only a snippet of I Just Can't Leave Your Love Alone before the intermission. Nobody Loves Me But
My Mother is cut at the beginning and the Outro is cut at the end.

Although this recording has its fair share of issues, I'm very glad we have anything at all. Thank you "hansdevente" !

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Setlist:
01. How Blue Can You Get
02. Why I Sing the Blues
03. B.B. King talks
04. Instrumental
05. Night Life
06. Instrumental / I Just Can't Leave Your Love Alone
07. Nobody Loves Me But My Mother / Someday Baby
08. Outside Help
09. Hold On
10. Never Make a Move Too Soon
11. The Thrill Is Gone / Outro

Band members:
B.B. King (vocals, guitar)
James Toney (keyboard)
Joe Turner (bass)
Calep Emphrey Jr. (drums)
Milton Hopkins (guitar)
Calvin Owens (trumpet)
Walter King (tenor saxophone)
Cato Walker (alto saxophone)

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: