R A H May 2016

[Mark J Salt]

his arrived today...

We are delighted to announce Ralph's return to the Royal Albert Hall on the 12th of May 2016.

More than forty years have passed since Ralph McTell's first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall. He has now played this wonderful London venue almost a dozen times, both as a solo artist and as a guest, of artists such as The Everly Brothers and Nanci Griffith, and even named his best-selling live album, Ralph, Albert and Sydney, after this venerable venue.
His career has seen him travel across the English speaking world and throughout Europe, where his classic song "Streets of London" is universally known and loved. Translated into dozens of languages, (most recently Korean and Croatian) it is sung in schools all over the world and often used as a guitar instruction piece for teaching finger style techniques. Ralph never seems to tire of singing it and the audience never seems to tire of joining in with the choruses.
With a body of work represented by well over 300 songs, Ralph varies his stage performances on each tour to include some of this vast repertoire among his new compositions, and each night a carefully conceived program is tailored to accommodate requests from his audience.
It was the sheer number of requests sent in each night that gave Ralph the idea for this very special show.
Ralph McTell's  LOYAL COMMAND PERFORMANCE.
For this Royal Albert Hall concert we decided to let Ralph's audience, past, present and future, to nominate ALL the songs to be performed.
Ralph will perform the 20 most requested songs at this very special show.
Details of how to nominate choices of songs will be announced shortly on his website:
www.ralphmctell.co.uk
This will truly be a concert for the loyal friends that Ralph has gained over all the years and as the audience will select what they consider the best repertoire for the evening, first timers will have the benefit of what McTell's fans considers to be the very best of Ralph McTell.

[Chris]

Tickets on general sale on Friday, but there might be a pre-sale on Thursday, keep eyes peeled

[Delfini (Diane)]

Will keep eyes peeled

[Chris]

There's a link right at the bottom of Ralph's email yesterday.....for purchasing tomorrow.

[Chris]

That link I referred to is to Ticket Fsctory. I strongly suspect that you won't get to choose your seat, just the area (possibly) or price.

You might think it better to wait until Friday when you usually are able to choose seats on the RAH website.

[Mark J Salt]

That link I referred to is to Ticket Factory. I strongly suspect that you won't get to choose your seat, just the area (possibly) or price.

You might think it better to wait until Friday when you usually are able to choose seats on the RAH website.

My thoughts entirely, after the comments regarding last weeks Bellowhead Pre-sale seat availability. Although I shall be pretty peeved (and somewhat surprised !) if Ralph sells out the Albert Hall in 4 minutes and I miss out, particularly as its on a Thursday night. Never been to the RAH although I lived in London for 12 years and have been just about everywhere else, looks like now I'm going twice, as booked to see Dylan in October, Happy days...

[John Beresford]

As predicted, Ticket Factory does offer 'best available', but also allows you to select the area, and tells you the row and seat allocated before you commit. I got seats one row in front of where I would have chosen, so very happy. See you there!

[Mark J Salt]

Job Done, Now Boss I am having a few days Holiday, whether you like it or not.

[Chris]

Second row in the Arena, in the middle. Happy Bunny.....knew it was worth waiting until today.

[John Beresford]

Voting for RAH play list is now open!

[macademis]

20 songs was limit enough, but to narrow it down to 10?!!!!!
If I submit 6 or 7 different lists, do you think they would all get counted

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

I'm fairly sure that none of my top ten would get into the chart.

[macademis]

The choice is compounded between favourite album tracks and favourite concert pieces - some material e.g. the guitar rags are brilliant as part of a live performance; then some of my favourite album tracks probably don't translate so well to live arrangements.
Just for old times' sake, I would love to hear him play some of the archive stuff that I've never, or seldom, heard him play live (I don't think I've ever heard him play Kew Gardens and Old Brown Dog I only heard once, for instance).

[JJ (Joanna)]

Voting for RAH play list is now open!

Submitted 10 faves..  

[JJ (Joanna)]

Second row in the Arena, in the middle. Happy Bunny.....knew it was worth waiting until today.

Thanks for the advice Chris. Couldn't book til today but happy to get Arena seating, row 11 in the middle. Just hope I don't get a tall person ( ) in front of me.  

[macademis]

My wife can sympathise with having to put up with tall folk obscuring the view: we went to a Wizz Jones gig at the Half Moon and she was annoyed as halfway through the evening some denim-clad guy came and stood betwixt her and the stage. When she politely pointed out the intrusion, he obligingly shuffled out of the way. It is the only time that she has ever spoken to Ralph!

[Chris]

hah!

[JJ (Joanna)]

I'm fairly sure that none of my top ten would get into the chart.

Would you care to list your choice Colin?  

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

Would you care to list your choice Colin?  

Well my first draft is:

The Fairground
Kew Gardens
Gypsy
Would I Lie to You?
Maddy Dances
Tequila Sunset
Leaving ‘Liggan Woods
Leah's Favourite
Hard Times
Terminus

[John Beresford]

Nice set, Colin.

My two sets, separated by a beer...

As far as I can tell	Walk into the morning
Factory girl	Brighton Belle
Zimmerman blues	You well-meaning
Small voice calling	Birdman
Run Johnny run	Throw out a line and dream
Tequila sunset	That'll do Babe
England	Still in dreams
Water of dreams	The ghost of Robert Johnson
West 4th Street and Jones	Holding hands
Somewhere down the road	Terminus

Of these, the only ones I expect to make the final cut are Still in dreams and Terminus.  We wait and see...