Philip Sayce: Ruby Electric

Hectic blues repurposed.

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If you are not yet familiar with the razzed-up, out-of-control joy that is guitarist Philip Sayce in full wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am mode, this is as good a place to start as any.

Not least as it mostly comprises choice cuts from his three previous albums – albeit re-recorded both as-live in the studio (in Hollywood) and actually live on the road (in Europe). All of them, like the reactivated, re-enervated likes of Daydream Tonight and Were You There, several grenade explosions beyond their original, already dizzily hectic original versions.

Even more exciting, though, are the new numbers like the single, Let The Love In, featuring Melissa Etheridge, who Sayce worked for as a frankly untameable sideman in the early 00s. Equally top-blowing are the all-new title track, and of course his now trademark reinvention of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl, which closes the set in utterly explosive style. Simply, there is no off switch to the full-on, driving music Sayce makes.

Some have compared him to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Well, maybe, yeah, if Stevie Ray had been born with flames for hair and a rocket up his arse. And while Vaughan had the better feel and technique, Sayce has the power to really hurt you. Look out…

Mick Wall

Mick Wall is the UK's best-known rock writer, author and TV and radio programme maker, and is the author of numerous critically-acclaimed books, including definitive, bestselling titles on Led Zeppelin (When Giants Walked the Earth), Metallica (Enter Night), AC/DC (Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be), Black Sabbath (Symptom of the Universe), Lou Reed, The Doors (Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre), Guns N' Roses and Lemmy. He lives in England.