RT 'Electric' tour dates 2013

[ColinB]

Cheers for that Mike. Despite having an incredibly unoriginal title, and an appalling cover, the music's fab!

I seem to remember The Cult titled one of their albums Electric back in the 80s which was when they ditched their goth image and admitted that they really wanted to be like AC/DC.

You'd have thought RT could have gone for something more along the lines of "Voltage Enhanced" which I thought was a great title for the amplified disc on You? Me? Us?

[Andy]

Friends of mine have recently returned from a cruise (in the the USA) on which RT performed material from this and past albums. Their copy of Electric, purchased on the cruise, is described as "brilliant".

I look forward to my copy, on order from Amazon.

[RobertD]

Electric is now available to stream for approx the next week on NPR's First listen series: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/27/170103841/first-listen-richard-thompson-electric

Cheers for that Mike. Despite having an incredibly unoriginal title, and an appalling cover, the music's fab!

I quite like the cover actually, and don't think its apalling. With you on the title though....Voltage Enhanced would have been better....oh wait, he used that one already!

[Ollie]

Electric is now available to stream for approx the next week on NPR's First listen series: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/27/170103841/first-listen-richard-thompson-electric

Cheers for that Mike. Despite having an incredibly unoriginal title, and an appalling cover, the music's fab!

I quite like the cover actually, and don't think its apalling. With you on the title though....Voltage Enhanced would have been better....oh wait, he used that one already!

It just looks a bit naff, that's all. Maybe appalling was a bit strong.  

[Nick the Stick]

If it's not a naff cover, it's not an RT album  
I give you Front Parlour Ballads, m'lud.

[davidmjs]

Thanks for the streaming link.  It's another good sounding late period electric Thomo album.  Strong songwriting, great (and at times blistering) guitar.  There's some slightly atypical singing from the man on this one.  And that's a good thing, I think.

Nothing there to really make me fall deeply in love with it, sadly....like most of his more recent efforts I imagine it will be be played a few times and then shelved.  I think I probably prefer his later acoustic work to his later electric work.  Sort of surprises me saying that, but I think it's true.  For now, anyway...

Better than most people will ever manage in their careers of course, but that's the problem with legends....If I was reviewing it (after one listen only) it would be a 6/10.  

[ColinB]

After that rather short burst of RT which I posted about on the Listen Now thread, hopefully there's a bit more of him to listen to here -

http://www.wfuv.org/audio/archives/words-and-music-studio/richard-thompson-words-and-music-2013

[Shankly (Peter)]

My signed 2 disc copy arrived from Proper Records over the wekend and I must say I'm loving it so far. There are some excellent songs that I can't wait to hear live and even the weaker songs have something to recommend them, be it some clever lyrics or nice guitar breaks.
 It's too early to say how many will become regulars in a live set, but it's a really strong album.

[Jim]

RT is on the BBC breakfast show tomorrow

[ColinB]

RT is on the BBC breakfast show tomorrow

One of the presenters got a bit confused and called him Robert Thompson before he came on.  

He was on at the very end of the programme which will doubtless be on the iPlayer shortly.

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

I caught this too... he was very smiley this morning, they didn't give him long enough though.

[Andy]

"Tell us about Billy Connolly".

Did the album get a mention as such?

Pah and pish.

[Col D]

What a shambles. A brief snippet of video that was cut before it got going, an 'interview' that spent more time talking about Billy Connolly than the new album/tour and when they finally gave him chance to play something at the end of the programme the two presenters talked all over it. You got the impression that nobody, including RT, had a clue what they were supposed to be doing.

[Jim]

RT is on the BBC breakfast show tomorrow

One of the presenters got a bit confused and called him Robert Thompson before he came on.  

He was on at the very end of the programme which will doubtless be on the iPlayer shortly.

good thing they weren't interviewing terry venables then!

[Brendan]

What a shambles. A brief snippet of video that was cut before it got going, an 'interview' that spent more time talking about Billy Connolly than the new album/tour and when they finally gave him chance to play something at the end of the programme the two presenters talked all over it. You got the impression that nobody, including RT, had a clue what they were supposed to be doing.

To be honest I think most people get this treatment, if they are going to get any musician on they should do some research, give them enough time or possibly not bother, although I suppose some exposure is better than no exposure.

[Mackem Geoff]

They do it with virtually every musical guest they have on - no preparation, no research, banal questions and invariably (although not on this occassion) an irrelevant TOTP clip from 1978. Compare this with the Andrew Marr show who always has at least a couple of well thought out questions and then lets his guest play a song. It absolutely does my head in!  

[bassline (Mike)]

My signed 2 disc copy arrived from Proper Records over the wekend and I must say I'm loving it so far. There are some excellent songs that I can't wait to hear live and even the weaker songs have something to recommend them, be it some clever lyrics or nice guitar breaks.
 It's too early to say how many will become regulars in a live set, but it's a really strong album.

I got mine too - but I have a quandry.I want to play it,but as it's signed,sealed (and delivered - it's mine!),I'm not inclined to open it.I guess I'll buy another copy.

[Nick the Stick]

Well that's breakfast tv for you.
I remember ages ago when Ian Anderson was on Breakfast Time, at the time Under Wraps came out.
Mike Smith went on and on about 'you're so succesful, why do you continue as you're so rich' and the fact that his salmon was available in Harrods.

[Dan O.]

His appearance on BBC Breakfast left a lot to be desired, however, it's a good thing that an artist of RT's calibre gets exposure on terrestrial tv at all. After all, Melvyn Bragg made a South Bank show about The Darkness, for goodness' sake, but never one about RT. (BBC 4's A Solitary Life more than made up for this, though)

Just giving Electric it's first spin now, sounds like another good RT album to me. I've long since concluded that RT doesn't make bad albums, there are just some that bother my cd player more often than others  

Anyway, it'll be nice to hear the songs ahead of seeing the trio in Basingstoke on March 8th. I'm also off to BBC Maida Vale studios tomorrow afternoon to be in the audience for the recording of Mastertapes for Radio 4, in which various artists discuss one of their classic albums (last series had Ray Davies, Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Suzanne Vega, The Zombies). RT will be discussing Rumor (sic) & Sigh.

[ColinB]

I got mine too - but I have a quandry.I want to play it,but as it's signed,sealed (and delivered - it's mine!),I'm not inclined to open it.I guess I'll buy another copy.

I didn't have that problem when my 2 disc copy arrived at the weekend. Off with the wrapping and on the cd player! The only problem I have is that our living room is out of use due to there being workmen in repairing the damage after a leaking pipe incident so my hi-fi is up in the attic. But it still sounds great even just on my portable cd player (are they still called ghetto blasters?). After a couple of listens I'd say it's grabbed my attention more so than Dream Attic and Sweet Warrior did.

I now just have to decide which 2 tracks to play on my show next Monday - a loud one and a quiet one.