“NICE TO see a class band down ‘ere again, ennit?” muttered Chalky, a veritable voice in rock circles and a man whose word should not be taken lightly.  We’d just been watching the Robin Trower Band play their third encore at the Marquee — Trower wringing the final notes from his sweat-drenched guitar as the lads complete a triumphant farewell to London prior to their Stateside trip.
It was a gig that the band badly needed to overcome the colossal psychological setback of Wembley where they played two fairly ordinary gigs alongside Jethro. Speaking to Robin after the Marquee gig it was obvious that Wembley had hit him harder than most  — it had reduced him to a level of total re-analysis and reappraisal, almost a feeling that perhaps he should give up.
A lot of basic re-thinking has been done and on Wednesday night he was well pleased by the reception the band had been given.
Trower confessed afterwards that he wasn’t sure how they’d manage to summon up the effort to go back for three encores on a night when the Marquee was at its stickiest and most overbearing, but throughout Jimmy Dewar’s singing and Robin’s playing seemed to exude an extra pleading emotion, Dewar’s passive stance contrasting alarmingly with Trower’s twisting body and contorting face as he felt for every note.
BB King’s “Rock Me Baby” was the real test, and like everything else Trower plays it as he feels it not as he sees it.  It’s at this point that the Hendrix comparisons become not so much invalid as incomplete for it’s Trower’s mood and Trower’s mastery that come across onstage.
But then with Reggie Isadore and Jimmy Dewar alongside you gotta be good.