In 1963, the year after Bob Dylan released his debut album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, The Beatles played as part of the Royal Variety Performance in London. Before their final track, John Lennon uttered a now-immortal line to the crowd – and Royal Family – watching on: “Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.”
Last night at the Palladium, six decades after those eternal lines were spoken, Dylan kicked off his four-night residency in the capital by parroting Lennon’s words after penultimate track Goodbye Jimmy Reed, when he deemed the applause for the introduction of his dazzling drummer Charley Drayton to be below par. It was the winking cherry on top of a cake that saw the iconic songwriter continue to grow and evolve into his 80s.
