Review: Joe Cocker, George Thorogood and the Destroyers

Joe Cocker, at the Vector Arena last night, still twitches and shakes in all sorts of odd directions when he sings, as he famously did at Woodstock. Photo / Richard Robinson

Is that Kim Basinger up on stage? I swear it is. It looks like the seductive and leggy blonde. Oh no, it's just the backing singer singing along to Joe Cocker's sex-pot song You Can Leave Your Hat On?, a track made famous by the 1986 film 9 Weeks, starring Basinger and Mickey Rourke.

And last night, after a subdued start, it was the song that got the girls - and some of their guys - off their feet to dance.

This may be Cocker's Hard Knocks Tour, in support of his 21st studio album from last year, but the gravel-throated Sheffield singer serves up nothing but the hits.

Well, pretty much, because the crowd sit politely through a clutch of new songs, including opener Get On, which is a kind of Tom Jones on American Idol-style pop hit.

While songs like ballad Up Where We Belong lag, the set is lifted with the piano-driven riffs of Feelin' Alright, You Are So Beautiful with its beautifully brittle ending, and a surprisingly stomping Unchain My Heart.

Cocker still twitches and shakes in all sorts of odd directions when he sings - like he did at Woodstock performing the Beatles' With a Little Help From My Friends in '69 - although these days the contortions are confined to his twisted hands.

And last night was a true double-bill, with blues rock veteran George Thorogood, and his band the Destroyers, cranking out an hour-long set of jams beforehand as the crowd toasted him with their bourbons, scotchs and beers.

But besides Thorogood classics like One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer and, of course, Bad To The Bone, the real surprise was his beautifully snakey and mantra-like version of Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love?. It writhed and slithered just the way Diddley would have liked it.

And he got the crowd primed as he moved from 50s, Happy Days rock'n'roll to the bluesy pub rock blockbusters of Get A Haircut and an extended version of Bad to the Bone.

But in the end, after a slow start, it was Cocker who was the baddest, with his towering version of that famous Beatles cover, which starts with an eerie and epic Hammond organ solo and ends more than 10 minutes later. Thank you and good night.