Bert Inspired: a Concert for Bert Jansch review – fond renditions and a lot of guitar tuning

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Graham Coxon, Bernard Butler and Robert Plant be a part of a diverse, stellar lineup and pay handsome tribute to the guitar hero

Jazz-folk veterans, Britpop pin-ups, basic rock icons, up-and-coming singer-songwriters – how many other musicians except Bert Jansch sit at such a spaghetti junction of influence? A stellar lineup assembles to remember the late Pentangle founder member and finger-picking guitar hero in his city of start on the first of two Celtic Connections curtain-closing live shows in his honour. An evening of fond renditions and recollections, and a whole lot of guitar tuning.

Graham Coxon had written beforehand of how nervous he was on meeting Jansch. The Blur guitarist seems to be twitchy right here, too, as he performs an affectionate One for Jo and a “Bert-imbued” solo composition Latte, but returns later, far more comfortable, for a tricksy twang on Angie along with Martin Simpson. Elsewhere before the interval we get songs from Jansch’s former fellow Pentanglers Jacqui McShee and Mike Piggott, and Jansch’s one-time mentor Archie Fisher doing Down by Blackwaterside – Jansch’s association that he once famously accused Led Zeppelin of ripping off with Black Mountain Aspect.