#fernando saunders

Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live 2024 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab ——————————————————————— Tracks: 1. Freeway Jam 2. Earth (Still our Only Home) 3. She’s a Woman 4. Full Moon Boogie 5. Darkness • Earth in Search of the Sun 6. Scatterbrain 7. Blue Wind ———————————————————————

Jeff Beck

Jan Hammer

Steve Kindler 

Fernando Saunders

Tony Smith

currently thinking about fernando in the live berlin performance thing when he takes a water break and goes full 🧍‍♂️mode

@axlrosesixx02 asked for the links to the videos from this post, and while i raided google images for those specific gifs, i thought it would be nice to make a masterpost of arms links :) these are the fullest versions of the shows i could find. without further ado:

royal albert hall (london, england), sept. 20, 1983

cow palace (san francisco, california), dec. 1, 1983

cow palace (san francisco, california), dec. 2, 1983

the forum (inglewood, california), dec. 6, 1983

madison square garden (new york city, new york), dec. 8, 1983

madison square garden (new york city, new york), dec. 9, 1983

Lou Reed - Live at the Roskilde Festival

Lou Reed - Guitar and Vocals

Robert Quine - Guitar

Fernando Saunders - Bass

Fred Maher - Drums

Lou Reed - Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey, September 25, 1984

In last week’s Summer of Lou episode, we said hello to ace guitarist Robert Quine. This week, we’ve gotta say goodbye. As noted, Lou all but mixed Quine off of Legendary Hearts — and then didn’t even invite him to play on New Sensations. But he did hire Quine for the New Sensations tour, so we get one last taste of the Lou + Bob team-up. In this pro-shot video out in Passaic, their spirits seem relatively high: Lou introduces Quine as “my favorite guitar player” and Bob occasionally almost cracks a smile at a few points throughout the show. Does the guitarist add a Cosey-esque skronk solo to “I Love You Suzanne”? He does not. He’s definitely a muted presence, only stepping into the spotlight on occasion (he’s disappointingly mixed low on what should be his “Waves of Fear” showcase). Ah well. 

Actually, it’s Fernando Saunders — the “fretless wonder” as Reed calls him — who might be the real lead instrumentalist during this era. His big, buttery tones dominate, giving the set a buoyant, pop-funk feel; even “Street Hassle” is re-imagined as a hard-charging power-pop number, which is a little strange. Saunders will end up being one of Lou’s closest collaborators for the remainder of our Summer of Lou journey. Some people don’t dig that smooth fretless sound, but I think it works usually ... We’ve also got a keyboardist in the mix now — the fairly anonymous Peter Wood, who adds some rooty-tooty solos to “Walk On The Wild Side” and “New Sensations” (not to mention some accordion (!) on “Doin’ The Things We Want To”) but otherwise stays pretty much in the background. 

Sidemen aside, this is really the Lou Reed show. But it’s a pretty different Lou than we’ve seen before. A positive Lou! A happy Lou! A friendly Lou! He really does seem to be in a great mood for this gig (except for a moment when he chews out the lighting guy). He’s downright chatty throughout, and not in a caustic Take No Prisoners kinda way (funny to hear him tell the crowd “This is not an endorsement, it’s just a song” before “Waiting For The Man”...Was Nancy Reagan there or something?). Lou is having such a nice time that he even cedes his stage to two other artists towards the end. The Chantels, who croon through their hit “Maybe” (probably a teenaged Lou fave) and then none other than Jim Carroll, sounding not that far off from his hilarious cameos on the Max’s Kansas City LP. Carroll rollicking through his “People Who Died” brings little bit of that old dangerous feel that the rest of the show lacks. I salute you, brother! 

Lou

Fernando Saunders on bass and Quine on guitar. Lou played some great guitar with this line up and I suspect Quine encouraged him in that direction. Regardless of why, it was clear Lou was back and playing his ass off again.