And it makes you wonder…..

Saving Grace – Birmingham Symphony Hall – Sunday 14th December 2025

ALMOST HOME TURF

Robert Plant likes a home crowd, rising always to any such situation, however eager he is to clarify that home is actually 17 miles away. A pre-Christmas gig in Brum is almost a staple of his these days, and the 6 or 7 years that this line-up has been germinating, means that many present tonight have seen the band a fair few times before. Of course, rather than the more down-home charm of Town Hall, where I caught them in 2019, now it is the lavish plush and pelour of a pretty packed Symphony Hall, with much the crowd dressed up accordingly. Freak flags were few, and far between, perhaps the encouragement for the singer, like Rapunzel, to have let down his locks, rather than the man-bun he tends now more often to tout.

Uncertain beforehand as to whether there was even going to be a support, all had arrived good and early. But there was, a trio of earnest young men, Burr Island. Seemingly undaunted by the venue or it’s size, they played a 30 minute set, with remarkably little connection to either the following act or to this listener’s taste. Yes, they sang sweetly and, in another setting, their songs might have had a little more traction. Nonetheless, they were greeted politely, if chastely. No offence, but they seemed just to be an odd choice.

A BISON RESPLENDENT

But, if that were a disappointment, it was the last of the evening. On the stroke of, well, whatever it was, on strode the engine room of this band. Their places and instruments had been already laid out at the back of the stage, from the start, there to entice us, along with the backdrop, a facsimile of the album cover, a bison resplendent. The cheer was warm and welcoming.

Right to left, it was Tony Kelsey and his guitars, the stocky figure of “string elf”, Matt Worley, behatted cellist, Barney Morse-Brown and drummer, Oli Jefferson, each seated in a dark red glow. For just a little longer we were made to wait, and then, one from either side, and to what was now more roar than cheer, came the joint focus of Saving Grace, Robert Plant, from the right, and Suzi Dian, from the left. For, try as you might, and there were likely in the audience wishing otherwise, this is so much not Robert Plant and, but Saving Grace with, and Dian gets as near equal billing as the more famous name. Deservedly, as we will see.

YES, SHE IS THAT GOOD

Rather than kicking off with a track from the rather wonderful debut, from a month or few back, it is with Nora Brown’s The Very Day I’m Gone they open with, the song they have been lighting the fuse with, throughout this year. The lighting is simple and very effective, bathing whomsoever is most pivotal at any one stage, leaving the others in all but silhouette.

So as the backroom boys are firing up this bluegrass/world hybrid, Plant and Dian are in the shade, only lit up as, together, they start to sing. Worley leads the musicianship from the start, his banjo chiming out like an oud. The two singer’s voices adhere like glue, so perfectly do they suit each other. Plant is on record that Dian is the most perfect foil he has countered yet, with it difficult to deny that fact, with Alison Krauss, Patty Griffin and even Sandy Denny falling short. Yes, she is that good.

BEST FOR SEVERAL YEARS

Moving to longtime favourite, The Cuckoo, the fact that Plant is perhaps singing the best he has for several years needs a mention. Sure, he has managed to maintain a far greater range than any septuagenarian should reasonably expect, but the clarity, in even the higher notes, was little short of remarkable.

Attention was also now drawn to Jefferson’s extraordinary drum kit, which had him appear as if at a bank of tables, so many larger and more exotic percussion pieces were in employ. The range of lower note thumps at his disposal was a sight to both see and hear, with just as much chance of him, mid song, switching to the frantic patter of hand drums. Morse-Brown, this year’s most welcome addition to the band, had this one time member of The Imagined Village swapping between pizzicato plucking, for the low notes, and exuberantly sawed drones.

AMPLIFIED ACOUSTICITY

Higher Rock was the first from the album, Plant and Dian trading verses over this agreeable two guitar gospel shuffle, and the first time Plant whips out his harmonica. Anyone expecting just a perfunctory rock singer honk immediately sat high, drawing in every last drop of his perfect pitch and control on the instrument. Wonderful, as was the first of a few from his old band, indicated, as they were all, by the code of Dian strapping on an accordion.

Personally, I am not convinced on the need for these revamps and revisions, such the strength of anything subsequent, but I guess it puts bums on seats, and, judging by the loudest applause yet, upon recognition, there were a fair few here for just this. Ramble On is a good one, mind, and is of a style that fits well the amplified acousticity of Saving Grace, especially as the percussion and guitars headed off somewhere far and eastern.

More of that glorious harmonica next, with Plant right down at the lower register, it issuing a hellfire and damnation growl. Fittingly, as the song it introduced was album highspot, The Soul Of A Man. Live, this was even more incandescent, resonating once more the democracy orf the band, wherein, live and on record, the best vocal performance is from neither Plant nor Dian. Matt Worley would be a front man, in any band, courtesy his string play, but his vocal prowess is equivalently immense, in this keening and plaintive prayer.

RELAXED AND ENGAGED

May Queen was up next, from 2017’s Carry Fire, following a slightly rambling introduction around whether anyone could think of anything around the end of April. That said, and from that point on, the between song banter became ever more voluble, with even Plant commenting on it being more than usual, possibly confirming he has now earnt the right to be considered the folkie we always knew he had in him.

So there were tales of how he came to chance upon the convenience of working with these musicians, all so conveniently on his doorstep, and he on theirs. And a little around each of them and the venues they first played, reeling off the names of Dudley Town Hall and the Regal at Tembury Wells. (Actually, that one needed prompting, but became a place he then returned to, time and time again.) He appeared relaxed and engaged, the audience in total alignment.

STUNNING

Dian then took the lead vocal for a stunning Orphan Girl. Why Gillian Welch’s fabulous song didn’t make the album, Lord only knows, as this was another undoubted highlight, knocking Worley back into second place, for the coveted best singer in the band award. Starting almost acapella, the build was tremendous, marked by an astonishing solo from Kearey, all Duane Eddy meets Hawkwind, on his sky blue electric. Woo and, indeed, hoo. Dian’s accordion back on, Four Sticks was introduced as being a song from the 17th century. Underlining a possible personal prejudice, this worked far less well than Ramble On, but it pleased the masses.

Far far more successful was the exquisite It’s A Beautiful Day Today, casting Plant’s mind back to when he first heard of it, recalling wistfully a time when music could make a stand again the corruptness of any government. A pause, needing nothing more to be said, and it was sweeter even than the recorded version, still only the 3rd song from the album thus far. Given the record had perhaps only one mention, from the stage, over the whole evening, this underlined the essential non-promotional aspect of the show, it being more for pleasure than to necessarily ramp up sales.

HEAVY PARADOXICAL BEAUTY

The rarely played Down To The Sea, from Plant’s uncelebrated ’80s followed, distinguished more by the co-ordinated muscle put into the arrangement by the backline, than perhaps the melody. But that soon became forgiven, as an actual song really from the 17th century was gifted with the same expertise as on the album. It is true to say that As I Roved Out has never sounded quite like this, or so heavy, that adjective then reminding you the nature of instruments being played, with banjo at the fore.

True, Kelsey, now with a bright red guitar, added more of his trademark electric maelstrom, but still a thing of paradoxical beauty. Plant was shedding his own years by the instant, bringing back croons of yesteryear, assumed long gone, seeking to win back his crown, if only for the band, as he dropped plentiful aaah-aaahs all over the shop.

DRAWN OUT, DRAMA AND PATHOS

But Dian hadn’t finished herself yet, with a 3rd pinnacle of the set lying ripe for her grasp. This was an astonishing and unexpected version of Neil Young’s For The Turnstiles, from 1974’s On The Beach. Drawn out with drama and pathos, this also included Morse-Brown’s set piece, a remarkable solo cello breakdown, as a and in the middle of the verses. You know that crazy bit of guitar noodle in Whole Lotta Love? Well, it was sort of like that, but better. And, I guess, an applicable peamble for Friends, one of the acoustic tracks from Led Zep III, which thus translated well into the equivalent thrash, offered it by Kelsey and Worley. And, of course, some textural accordion interludes from Dian.

NOT A HEAVY HANDED DECONSTRUCTION

Suddenly, it was the end, and all six dashed off stage, certainly catching me by surprise. So much so that it was a moment before the sustained and rising calls for more came, the claps and stamps becoming ever more insistent. And still we waited. Surely not? But no, surely not it was, and out they eventually trooped. More bloody Zep, I’m afraid, The Rain Song, but, in truth, who cares, as I had stopped too, by then, caught so up in the joyous racket.

And, so, as priorities be not forgotten, the final offering for this triumphant Sunday was the penultimate track from the album, Everybody’s Song. The rockiest track on said album, the sextet hammered out the bejasus from it, with Plant’s assurance that writer, Alan Sparhawk, of Low, was cool with what he called their heavy handed deconstruction. I would disagree, citing it a perfect concoction, bringing together the myriad manifest that makes up the magpie mind of our most celebrated living rock god. Even if he is only the 3rd best singer in his band!

There’s enough material here for at least a second album, but I doubt he’s in any great hurry, as this is all just too much fun.

Here’s Higher Rock from Jools Holland’s Later, with some of that searing harp:

Saving Grace (as Robert Plant) : Website

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