Paul Gurvitz and the New Army @ The Compound Grill

The Compound Grill, the Phoenix venue and eatery has hosted its share of touring classic rock veterans like Mickey Hart and Timothy B. Schmit. “I’ve heard of them,” you say, “but this Paul Gurvitz and the New Army has me scratching my recognition meter.” Well, with his brother Adrian Gurvitz, he played with Ginger Baker in The Baker Gurvitz Army and later with Moody Blues’ timekeeper and poetry slammer in The Graham Edge Band. Y’see, back in the excessive ’70s when even drummers put out solo albums, they needed frontmen to ensure you wouldn’t get a whole album of “Toad,” and that required hiring U.K. journeymen like Paul Gurvitz, who had U.K. chart success in Gun and The Knack, which didn’t record “Banana Man” or “My Sharona.” If you’re still struggling for the whys, pull out that box set called Nuggets 2 and see Paulie G was the weepy lead vocalist in Rupert’s People, who recorded a woe-is-he “Whiter Shade of Pale” imitation called “Recollections of Charlie Brown.” You probably won’t hear that gem, but just ask yourself, would Gurvitz be in showbiz 50 years if he couldn’t at least pass for a rock legend?