Recent gigs

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

Good to see Sunjay starting to headline arts centres - it's been a long time coming for him. He is an excellent musician who deserves this break in his career.

Sunjay will be supporting Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman in Barry Island Sports and Social Club at the end of April. Really looking forward to this one as I missed him last time he was in town.

I quite like Sunjay but not KR & SL (sorry!) so we're not going to that one. Shame, as I'm keen to support live music especially at local venues, but no point if they're not my bag!

[Chris]

Martin & Eliza C last night - excellent night - quite a history lesson as they gave us insight behind each song & the history surrounding each one. Filmed for a future DVD release.

[John From Austin]

Dave Mason, One World Theater, Saturday night! He was absolutely fabulous, and I wish he had a larger audience. Highly recommended.

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[blagden]

Dave Mason, One World Theater, Saturday night! He was absolutely fabulous, and I wish he had a larger audience. Highly recommended.

If the American shows were priced similar to the UK ones it might explain the size of the audience.

[Andy Tuck]

Excellent new band for me last night, The Orange Circus Band. A mixture of bluegrass, appalacian and old timey. Great stage presence and wonderful musicians that know how to have a good time.

[John From Austin]

A weekend two-fer:

Judy Collins, One World Theater, Saturday, March 5 - I went to the second of her two shows that evening, and her operatic voice was none the worse for wear. She's been on my bucket list for a long time, so I'm so pleased to have seen her at last.  She drops more names than Donovan and Petula Clark combined.  She introduced "Send in the Clowns" as "That Song."

J[ohn] D[avid] Souther, One World Theater, Sunday, March 6 - I finally got to see one of the great American songwriters, J. D. Souther! He sang a lot of wonderful new material, as well as his greatest hits performed by other artists (New Kid In Town, Heartache Tonight, Best of My Love, Faithless Love, Heart of the Matter).  I would have loved to have heard "Her Town Too," but you can't have everything.  He told a lot of very long and funny stories, including not wanting to split the "Heartache" royalties with Bob Seger, who wrote the chorus, because four songwriters "slice that dollar pretty thin."

He has an incredible voice, somewhere between Don Henley and Glenn Frey, as well as tremendous skill on the guitar.  He would have been a natural choice to augment the Eagles after Glenn's passing, but for whatever reason...

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

A weekend two-fer:

Judy Collins, One World Theater, Saturday, March 5 - I went to the second of her two shows that evening, and her operatic voice was none the worse for wear. She's been on my bucket list for a long time, so I'm so pleased to have seen her at last.  She drops more names than Donovan and Petula Clark combined.  She introduced "Send in the Clowns" as "That Song."

J[ohn] D[avid] Souther, One World Theater, Sunday, March 6 - I finally got to see one of the great American songwriters, J. D. Souther! He sang a lot of wonderful new material, as well as his greatest hits performed by other artists (New Kid In Town, Heartache Tonight, Best of My Love, Faithless Love, Heart of the Matter).  I would have loved to have heard "Her Town Too," but you can't have everything.  He told a lot of very long and funny stories, including not wanting to split the "Heartache" royalties with Bob Seger, who wrote the chorus, because four songwriters "slice that dollar pretty thin."

He has an incredible voice, somewhere between Don Henley and Glenn Frey, as well as tremendous skill on the guitar.  He would have been a natural choice to augment the Eagles after Glenn's passing, but for whatever reason...

Would have enjoyed both of those!

[blagden]

Would recommend all of the JD Souther back catalogue.

[Shane (Skirky)]

I went to see David Hepworth do, essentially, a lecture-cum-synopsis of his two recent books. He’s a man who knows his own opinions and isn’t afraid to express them in no uncertain terms, but charming nontheless. One thing he mentioned that struck our party was that the History of Rock is increasingly, like that of the Second World War, being written by those who weren’t there.

[davidmjs]

I went to see David Hepworth do, essentially, a lecture-cum-synopsis of his two recent books. He’s a man who knows his own opinions and isn’t afraid to express them in no uncertain terms, but charming nontheless. One thing he mentioned that struck our party was that the History of Rock is increasingly, like that of the Second World War, being written by those who weren’t there.

Was this just an observation (clearly correct) or did it carry some value judgement with it as well?

[Shane (Skirky)]

I went to see David Hepworth do, essentially, a lecture-cum-synopsis of his two recent books. He’s a man who knows his own opinions and isn’t afraid to express them in no uncertain terms, but charming nontheless. One thing he mentioned that struck our party was that the History of Rock is increasingly, like that of the Second World War, being written by those who weren’t there.

Was this just an observation (clearly correct) or did it carry some value judgement with it as well?

It was part of his introduction, wherein he explained that he had won the rock lottery of life by being born in 1950, thereby being of a perfect age to observe everything since (“I was even still mobile, and able to feed myself, in 1976”) first hand. He had the air of a chap not being particularly impressed by - if you will - rockumentaries produced by “...young men who spend Friday nights in, watching BBC4”.

[davidmjs]

As an historian (in background at least) this is certainly interesting.  A first hand account of something can be absolutely fascinating.  However, "Histories" written by those who were there often aren't actually histories though, however much they think they are.  One generally needs distance.... "How can somebody tell me what happened, when they weren't there and I was?" is an interesting one - historiographically, and philosophically!

[Tasha]

Phil Beer solo on Tuesday night. What a great musician and raconteur. I really enjoyed the mix of music too. Trad folk alongside covers of the Band, little feat and Steve Earle!  

[Shane (Skirky)]

As an historian (in background at least) this is certainly interesting.  A first hand account of something can be absolutely fascinating.  However, "Histories" written by those who were there often aren't actually histories though, however much they think they are.  One generally needs distance.... "How can somebody tell me what happened, when they weren't there and I was?" is an interesting one - historiographically, and philosophically!

One only needs to look back at the ‘Fairport on Fairport’ wars to know the truth of that...  
Counter-intuitively, he described the explosion that kick-started ‘rock’ in great detail. One didn’t like to point out that, by his own admission, when Little Richard was recording ‘Tutti Frutti’ in New Orleans, he (Hepworth) was five years old and living in Yorkshire.
Equally though, take a straw poll on what Bob Geldof actually said when he swore live in front of the biggest television audience ever assembled. Then ask the guy he swore at.

[davidmjs]

Equally though, take a straw poll on what Bob Geldof actually said when he swore live in front of the biggest television audience ever assembled. Then ask the guy he swore at.

 

[steve-n]

Peter Knight and John Spiers at Worcester. Truly awesome musicianship. If you can't catch them on the March tour, then treat yourself to the CD.

[Tim Fletcher]

Leveret and Spiro “Eccentric Orbits” at Cecil Sharp House yesterday. A really excellent evening with sets from both bands (Leveret then Spiro)  culminating in a joint encore. They were then dragged back for an unrehearsed encore and a standing ovation from a more or less full Kennedy Hall crowd. First time I have seen Spiro and definitely now on my “they would be good at Cropredy” list.

[Phil Perry]

KT Bush Band at the Hertford Corn Exchange , including the guitarist & drummer from Kate's original band. Fantastic gig ... don't be put off by them being a "cover band". If you get the chance to see them ... just go !  

[MarkV]

KT Bush Band at the Hertford Corn Exchange , including the guitarist & drummer from Kate's original band. Fantastic gig ... don't be put off by them being a "cover band". If you get the chance to see them ... just go !  

They were very good a year or so ago at Farncombe Church.  I would certainly go see them play again.

[Will S]

Faustus and The Foxglove Trio last night at Ace Space, Newbury.

The Foxgloves started off with half an hour of their beautiful songs, and I'd have been happy with more of that, and then Faustus came on and gave us a bunch of their high energy songs and humour - Benji Kirkpatrick seemed to be totally hyper.  Saul Rose explained that they had three gigs cancelled last week because of the weather and so had a lot of pent-up energy!  We even had a world première of a new song, from a project they are working on, setting poems from the Lancashire Cotton famine to music.

An excellent evening, in a venue that's new to me, in a long hall in a back street, but thankfully I managed to find it OK, despite the rain and my unfamiliarity with Newbury.