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Bob-Dubery

Well we are back from the UK. I got sunburned. In Northamptonshire. I thought that was a bit of an achievement *

I will spare you the boring holiday snaps for now, but just to whet your appetite / send you running for the hills, here are two that I took at the Martin Simpson gig we went to

1) This is the venue. No kidding.

2) Mr Simpson in action, as snapped from my chair. The bass player is Andy Seward.

* Not really. They are having a pretty hot summer, and I spent 7 hours steering a narrowboat up and down the canals. One is bound to catch a bit of sun doing that.

PeteM

Welcome back Bob
The venue is not unlike many we play in here eh?
Amazing how because we have been exposed to the large concerts that we forget that that's how entertainers/musos have been doing it for years.
I love the small venues - close up and personal - although that room looks very narrow so the acoustics must have been a bit iffy, what with hard walls on one side and windows on the other.

Bob-Dubery

Ja. I like the small venues too. I've gone on at some length on more than one occasion about the thrill of seeing Martin Carthy in a small venue in London (I know that Brent saw Mr Simpson at the same venue). Richard Thompson has just announced a new show on his roster of summer European shows - he's playing a 60-seater somewhere in Rutland. I suspect a lost bet or cricket match may have something to do with this, but what an opportunity for 60 folks (well, 60 less whoever he lost the bet to).

I saw Martin Carthy again this year at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the lineup who gave us an excellent evening of political songs. His wife Norma Waterson was on the same bill. Much bigger, more formal venue, but Norma proved to be every bit as good as legend has it. She now walks with a stick, has to be helped onto stage and performs sitting down.

Good performers can turn it on in all sorts of circumstances.

PeteM

X-rated Bob wrote: Good performers can turn it on in all sorts of circumstances.

Very true - the funny little rooms somehow add to the experience for performers and audiences alike.

racman

Welcome back Bob, sounds like you had a great time.

Bob-Dubery

PeteM wrote: Welcome back Bob
The venue is not unlike many we play in here eh?
Amazing how because we have been exposed to the large concerts that we forget that that's how entertainers/musos have been doing it for years.
I love the small venues - close up and personal - although that room looks very narrow so the acoustics must have been a bit iffy, what with hard walls on one side and windows on the other.

Actually the sound was pretty good, both where we sat during the show and what we heard coming from the sound check. It wasn't LOUD, so this may have been an advantage, the sound guy wasn't trying to make ears bleed, he was just making sure that the guys at the back could hear OK. Not a lot of volume really, and with a respectful audience who made all their racket between songs it wasn't necessary.

Also may not have been allowed. The club had to issue a warning to all entrants AND provide free ear plugs.

racman

Of course the BIG question is..... Did you purchase or order your Lowden? ? ?

singemonkey

Welcome home Bob. So how was the musical holiday overall? As good as you anticipated?

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote: Welcome home Bob. So how was the musical holiday overall? As good as you anticipated?

Well it was a holiday with a musical component. We also went to Portsmouth to see the HMS Victory and Warrior. We looked at old castles. We rode on a preservation railway and did some narrow boating. Blah blah blah.... an unexpected addition to the musical component was going to music hall in Llandrindod Wells.

Mostly good weather. In fact mostly hot weather, especially in Wales and the midlands.

I very much enjoyed Loudon Wainwright's performance, though it went a good way towards confirming my suspicion that he only has about 6 tunes in all.

The night of poltical song at the Royal Festival Hall was really excellent. All live music should be that good (though maybe it all is and it's my head space that varies). Tom Robinson was excellent. Norma Waterson was fantastic beyond the telling of it. Camille O'Sullivan (who I only heard about recently because she got added to that bill) was amazingly good and nearly brought the house down with her performance of Jacques Brel's "Next". Jez Lowe, another artist I'd heard lots about but not actually heard, was pretty good.

Martin Simpson.... well, it should be illegal to play guitar that well and make the rest of us feel like giving up. Nice man, and the people at that club made us feel so at home. Simpson had been at the RFH a few days previously, involved in the "guitar night" feature of the meltdown festival. People we knew who had seen him were raving about him, and when we saw him in Hampshire he did not disappoint. The raving, interestingly, was partly because he was the only one of the guest guitarists who could play whole songs. James Burton, Nokie Edwards etc just seemed to have lots of licks but couldn't do a song from start to finish. Hmmm....

If anybody's got some spare cash and a couple of venues Martin Simpson would love to come to SA.

Olabelle, who we had not expected to see, were fab. On the Saturday night at the RFH ("Loud 'n Rich") there was again a free show in the lobby. This time The Fisherman's Friends who did a great set of unaccompanied nautical songs - mostly shanties and such, but they got "The Sloop John B" in there as well.

The name I haven't mentioned... Richard Thompson. We had really, really crap seats for "Loud 'n Rich" and the fact that I went long stretches without seeing the part of the stage where the interesting stuff was happening certainly didn't do much for my humour. Maybe he was shagged out from all his duties at the meltdown festival I heard he played at nearly every show, and he was a key figure in several of the performances - so arranging, rehearsing, playing, speaking to the press.... I can't actually complain, but his performance did seem a bit distant and remote. He did two new songs (new album out soon) and I didn't care for them - they sounded petty and spiteful.

singemonkey

Heh. I saw the Victory when I was a lad. Just a thrilling relic. Everyone has an ancestor who was at a famous event, and I have a great, great, great (maybe there's another great, not sure) grandfather who was 1st Lieutenent on the Belleisle which was totally de-masted by the Franco-Spanish guns. I always imagine that he must not have had to pay for another drink for the rest of his life. Most concisely rousing pep talk of all time: "England expects every man to do his duty." ("Kiss me Hardy," on the other hand, being the famous last words that gave the navy a reputation that it still enjoys today ?)

Sounds like a wonderful ride. Having a particular obsession makes travelling even more fun. Sad about Richard Thompson. You think you're just over-saturated, or you think he's going through a phase? He seems to me a slightly prickly kind of person.

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote: Heh. I saw the Victory when I was a lad. Just a thrilling relic. Everyone has an ancestor who was at a famous event,

Except me. Oh woe is me! Oh the shame.

I had to pay full price for admission.

They nearly kicked me off for referring to Victory as a "boat". I was then taught a useful rule: You can put a boat on a ship but you can't put a ship on a boat.

Sounds like a wonderful ride. Having a particular obsession makes travelling even more fun. Sad about Richard Thompson. You think you're just over-saturated, or you think he's going through a phase? He seems to me a slightly prickly kind of person.

As I said, I couldn't outright complain about the performance. It's not that he wasn't trying, he wasn't just tossing this show off because he had to do it. I'd imagine he had to work pretty hard during that festival, and he is only human (as are all performing artists except, of course, Buzz Lightyear). He just didn't touch the heights I've seen before. Maybe over-saturation - that's a good point. It's never as good as the first time. He was good, just not as good, just a little remote. Maybe my receiver was on the fritz.

Oddly I was impressed by his vocals at both the shows I saw him in. The Richard Thompson that we see on stage today didn't all come along at once. He started off as a shy guitar ace with Fairport Convention. Then came the songwriting. Then things got to a stage some years later where he had to be the front man and carry all the vocal duties himself. Which he's been doing for years now, of course, but when he started singing "Sweetheart on the Barricade" during the evening of political songs I thought "listen to that. 40 years on and he's STILL improving, still working on his craft." So technically it was all there, and you'd be churlish to mark him less than B+ for effort.

[deleted]

BTW:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Nelsons-Last-Words:-Kiss-Me,-Hardy-or-Kismet,-Hardy?&id=165296

(Tipped off by Stephen Fry, in QI, in one of the early seasons.)

Ray

It's good you're back - noone else wants to tell about the acoustic evenings things. And I can show you the teeth sometime.