Concert Chatter

[ragtime]

What a fabulous gig last night (7th May 2005) at Chequer Mead, East Grinstead.
...
Miss you most of all

Glad to hear he has played this one liive at last, but I'd love to have heard it. I think it's the best of the Boy With A Note and a great song in its own right. If he'd played it the other night, it would have been the cream on the cake. but then again there was no piano at the Huntingdon Hall.

BTW the Worcester gig was on election night of course, and towards the end ralph said "I wonder who's won" and someone shouted "You did Ralph!". Abosutely right!

Chris (ragtime)

[MAJ]

And the yellow flowers shimmered with brightness and hope.

Driving through verdant green Norfolk countryside listening to Vaughan Williams’ Thomas Tallis on the radio and on the way to see Ralph McTell, it couldn’t have been more perfect.  Cromer was very cold and very windy.  Lots of fishing going on from the pier and even some surfers in the murky water.  Me? – I headed for the bar, passing Ashley Hutchings on the way as he headed off the other way (“…well it’s folk rock really” was all I heard him say to the man asking him questions!).

I met up with my friend Rory McGrath and his partner Nicola and whilst they went in to see Red Oktober I stayed and listened to a bit of Hot Rats.  They were very good, (Celtic Rock) especially the fiddle player, Ian Cutler (Feast of Fiddles) but the bassist was way too loud.  Anyway, had enough of that after an hour and went into the theatre and saw Miranda Sykes Band.  So nice to see and hear Maart’s much more musical bass. 

After a brief interval to re-set the stage, Ralph came on at 9:40pm.  As it was VE day he said that, in choosing his set, he wanted to capture the spirit of the day with the spirit of being in a seaside town.  Being literally at the end of a pier over the water was a first for him. 

The set was, in no special order (as I had forgotten pen and paper!) Maginôt Waltz, Summer Girls, Arthur Blake, From Clare To Here, Girl From The North Country, That’ll Do Babe, Grande Affaire, Mr Connaughton, Lost Boys, Round the Wild Cape Horn, Streets of London, Easter Lilies, Still In Dreams, Peppers and Tomatoes.  Encore: Glory of Love.

He combined his two themes brilliantly with his opening "Maginôt Waltz" ("All off to Cromer in a charabanc…").  He followed with another song with a seaside feel, "Summer Girls".  Then came the first of the two “really difficult” pieces, "Arthur Blake" –"come on Ralph, get on with it!"   After "That’ll Do Babe", he said, over the riotous applause, that he thought it best to keep it short and get it over with!  "I'm going to join the Army when I'm older" from "Mr Connaughton" was poignant and through "Grande Affaire" and "Still In Dreams" you could have heard a pin drop.  Magic.  "Round The Wild Cape Horn" gets more rousing each time I hear it.

The chat between songs was funny and informative as usual, and he told us that he had recently bought yet two more guitars – "I can’t seem to help myself".  The Radio Shropshire/Roger Whittaker tale preceded Streets.  Lovely to hear the theatre in song, except for the complete fool behind me, who insisted on singing it in the ‘pub’ style and who, even when Ralph wanted the ladies to sing one chorus, continued to sing half the chorus at male pitch and then falsetto for the rest, loudly.  Sadly, he ruined it for me and many others around us.

In keeping with the ‘war’ theme "Lost Boys" was particularly moving as was "Peppers and Tomatoes" which finished the set.

At the end of the evening I was very pleased to be greeted warmly by Ralph and to have my photo taken with him and Rory.  At nearly midnight as Rory, Nicola and I walked off the pier back to our cars we reflected on a superb evening.  Ralph just gets better…


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[Snodin]

Hi,

After our Ralph convert in East Grinstead (7 May), I added a brief review to the Acoustic Sussex website.  No pictures, unfortunately...  For anyone who's interested, the review reads:

"Ralph was on tremendous form this evening at Chequer Mead, East Grinstead. The intimacy and excellent acoustics of the venue suited his performance perfectly, and the audience were entranced throughout

Playing straight through with no interval, Ralph's selection of old and new material was excellently balanced.  Beginning with the ragtime number, 'Arthur Blake' the set included 'Hiring Fair' (often covered by the likes of Fairport Convention but it was a delight to hear it from the man himself); the wonderfully evocative 'Mr Connaughton'; and a spine-tingling  performance of the thought-provoking 'Lost Boys'. 

Naturally, he played 'Streets of London' but by doing so without introduction in the middle of the set, and with subtle changes in the opening to each chorus, the audience quietly listened - a nice change from the mass choir that so often accompanies the song!

Other highlights included the mesmerising 'Still in Dreams', A Feather Fell', 'Summer Girls', 'Miss You Most Of All', 'Wild Cape Horn' and (accompanied by piano), the ever-popular 'Naomi'.  But my favourite song of the evening was his riveting performance of the moving 'Jesus Wept' - you could have heard a pin drop.  A well-deserved encore of 'Glory of Love' followed, sending the appreciative audience home happy (after the usual CD and book signing session, of course)."

It's interesting to see just how much his choice of songs changes from gig to gig - Cromer sounded quite special.

Regards, Martin

[Jacky]

Hailsham.
I've just returned from the Hailsham gig and thought I would give you a quick report of the first night of the "intimate" tour. Ralph was on good form and we had great seats in the 3rd row. The only disappointing part was that the show seemed to be very short and there was a mix up over the starting time, the tickets saying 7.30 but the actual start being 8pm. No explanation for this was given but an announcement was made that there would be no interval and that Ralph would play for about 2 hours so it was a bit of a shock after an hour and a quarter when he was instructed to wind up!
There wasn't really as much interaction with the audience as I would have liked but I expect this will improve as the tour goes on and there were lots of well told anecdotes preceding many songs. The set list was very varied and included the following:- Walk into the Morning, Lovin' I Crave, Cape Horn, Birdy, Nettle Wine, Maginot Waltz, Streets, Tammy the Tortoise (hilarious!), After Rain, Dreamtime, Mrs Adlam's Angels, Summer Girls, That'll do Babe, Angie, a Woody Guthrie song and an encore of a Jesse Fuller song. Ralph played banjo (interesting) and, for the encore, 12 string guitar, symbols, harmonica and kazoo. Highlights for me were the rags, Nettle Wine, Maginot and, most surprisingly, Tammy the Tortoise played on the banjo! Hearing him play Angie was also very exciting and I was delighted to meet a young Russian guy outside after the show who told me he loves to play this tune himself and has listened to much of Ralph's work.

Jacky

[Penny]

Thanks for that review Jacky.  I'd love to have that whole show on a CD.  The sound and atmosphere were perfect.  I have one criticism (which is rare for a Ralph show).  I did not like his version of 'You Make me Feel Good' on the banjo.  It was good to hear his introduction for it, regarding his daughter and how much pleasure he got from her antics as a child and that her own daughter is replicating this, but a big thumbs down from me when he sang it with banjo.

He was very funny last night, lots of jokes about banjo players (which I won't repeat in case he's repeating them on subsequent nights.)

Was that cymbal gadget called a 'High Hat'?  He was like a one man band!

Those of you yet to see the rest of this short tour are in for a big treat.

[Jacky]

Penny, I agree absolutely about You Make Me Feel So Good on banjo. It was dire! However, Ralph did promise it would be improved next time and he played the whole thing on a wrongly tuned banjo. I think one banjo tune is enough for anyone so I hope he just drops it. By the way, I had anticipated that we might have seen the ukelele making an appearance but was wrong. I'm note sure the "high hat" worked but it was fun to watch.
Jacky

[Penny]

Jacky wrote:  "The only disappointing part was that the show seemed to be very short and there was a mix up over the starting time, the tickets saying 7.30 but the actual start being 8pm. No explanation for this was given"


Me again ... Prior to Ralph coming to the stage, music was being played by Eric Roche (sp?) and Bob, the organiser, read out a long, warm, affectionate, very personal tribute to Eric who played there recently and has just died aged about 33 years, from testicular cancer.  Bob listed Eric's family and the ages of his (very young) kids and introduced another song by Eric.  As heartfelt as it was, I thought it would be diffcult for Ralph to walk onto the stage, to cheers and applause, after we'd all become so mellow and sombre and wondered if that was a contributing factor to him being late?

[Jacky]

It certainly didn't set the evening up well did it? The strange thing was, despite the fact that I had all the tickets, I had it in my head that the concert started at 8 and had arranged to meet friends outside at 7.45. One of my friends had the brains to check the starting time on the Pavilion website earlier in the day and found that it started at 7.30 which I confirmed by finally looking at the tickets. The result was we had to dash off to the venue, forgoing our meal, only to find when we got there that the start was postponed to 7.45 and we were advised to go and get a drink. Needing no second telling, this we did, but when we took our seats at 7.45, being about the last to sit down, we still had to wait for another 15 minutes and listen to that rather sad announcement. All rather strange and, I'm sure, not what Ralph would have wanted on the first night of a new tour. I wondered if he had always intended to start at 8 and play without a break but the venue got it wrong. Who knows?

[Jacky]

Just as a matter of interest for guitarists, Ralph played most of the set on a recently aquired Gibson (he's been dabbling on Ebay it seems.) Just after starting That'll Do Babe he stopped because he realised that he had never actually played it on that particular guitar before and he wasn't sure he would be able to find his way around it. He then proceeded to play it brilliantly!

[lucienne]

Why not drop him a line and tell him your thoughts.  He doesn't look on this board.  He says he feels he would be intruding!

I'm very interested in the news about this new Gibson.  My views on the sound of the Yamaha are well documented here!   I hope he plays it again at Maidenhead.

He said it was a J45, the same as the guitar he first used to use. As a non-techy .. it was very pretty  and it sounded very mellow. Beautiful.

It was a shame that he had a banjo sting out of tune for "You make me feel good". He had retuned it to "G" tuning after "Tammy the Tortoise" ... and must have not quite got that string right. Unusual for him to keep going when something is wrong like that. Makes it easier to understand the "Banjo" jokes !
L.

[ragtime]

It's interesting that he played YMMFG on the banjo - even 'though it didn't go down too well because of tuning problems. The recorded version, rarely played live and a personal favourite, is in open G tuning on the guitar. This is actually a banjo tuning, so makes me wonder if he originally wrote it on banjo or is he just experimenting with arrangements.

[ragtime]

I got the impression that he didn't write YMMFG on the banjo but was playing the banjo when it occurred to him that it might work. I'm not a fan of the banjo myself and don't think it would have sounded brilliant even without the tuning problem but I could be completely wrong. It would be interesting to hear how it fares in future performances.

Perhaps he feels the banjo fits with the memeory of his ddaughter as a harem scarem tomboy - a bit Huckleberry Finn, if that makes sense. On the other hand the chords to the song are quite mellow "major sevenths" and so on, not the sort of thing normally associated with the bright, brash banjo. I'd be interested to hear.

At least no one can accuse Ralph of churning out the same old songs. He seems to be positively relishing re-exploring his back catalogue and presenting things in new ways, although not quite as unpredictable as Dylan (we hope).

[Chris]

Jean Camp reported on the EXeter gig on the public part of the Longdogs board....

"Excellent evening in the company of Ralph at the Barnfield in Exeter last night.

First thing to strike me was the cymbal set and the percussion foot drum, hmm bit different, wonder whats in store I thought.

Streets was in the set and some new songs for an album that Ralph is musing about.  Not going to say too much in case others are going to see Ralph before Christmas as a very delightful set.  New songs sound great and the last one "Somewhere down the Road" is just fabulous - his next hit I reckon.  Sell out concert too.

He looked very well and was relaxed out in the bar after, and didnt not seem in  a rush to get away.  His lovely wife Nanna had gone home before him to "put the soup on"!  Yes, he did have a lift back from the merchandising lady who lives near him and a couple of others...

Catch this tour if you havent already done so or booked as it was a great evening."

[Al]

I've been urged by a friend for some time to attend the Acoustic Avalon guitar show at Leicester Racecourse and eventually gave in and went online to get a weekend ticket when I noticed for the first time that the Sat. evening concert looks a real treat - not only is our Ralph playing but also the amazing Jaques Stotzem, an absolutely fabulous guitarist. So, as I am seeing Ralph in Maidenhead on Nov 16th, I am now seeing him of the 19th too - two shows in one week - hurrah :-) The guitar show, I am told, is really good and worth a visit in its own right with lots of guitars to pick up and play and ogle at etc and demos by players etc.

[JJ (Joanna)]

An amazing place the High Barn, most fitting for an intimate Ralph concert, but we can never find it, we are always treated to a run around the lanes of the Essex Countryside first  In the dark and torrential rain that is not easy!

Seated at the front table gave a good close up view of the charming relaxed Ralph who seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening. He too looked up at this wonderful barn and asked how old it was and through his ear piece he was told it was 800 years old, so, fittingly, he sang 'Hiring Fair' which seemed so appropriate!

He began with 'Walk into the Morning' this song really does paint a perfect picture of the young Ralph beginning his career 'on the road.' Good to hear 'You Haunt me Baby', sung as it was Halloween! Instrumentals included 'That'll do Babe'.

I didn't write down a list of songs I just wanted to relax this time and let the whole Ralph experience wash over me and wanted to capture every minute of this beautiful concert but he did sing a real favourite of mine 'Still in Dreams' and 'When did you leave Heaven.'

The audience were 'quietly polite' and gentle clapping seemed the order of the evening. No-one sang along with 'Streets' even though we were invited to?? I think for many of the people there, this was their first Ralph experience (I spoke to one lady sitting next to me and she said, "It was her first time and it was 'very pleasant'!    It seemed a very sedate evening all round from the 'posh' end of Essex!  I wanted louder clapping, a few of those whistles that I can't do and also, when a few chords are recognised at the beginning of a great song, I wanted to clap but didn't like to!! He did make the audience laugh when he relayed his 'Roger Whittaker' tale about the radio interviewer who asked him 'whether he had ever had a beard' and when Ralph replied "No", the interviewer asked, "Are you sure you haven't?" Ralph laughingly said, "No, I don't think so"!!!!!

Ralph did ask for 'any requests?' and a voice did call out 'Nettle Wine' so I supose there was someone else there who had heard of Ralph's stuff other than 'that song'!

The sound was excellent (thanks to Donard!). Afterwards there was a table at the back selling CD's and books, but not the new book/dvd. Ralph came out smiling and willing to sign cd's and I joined the queue for a photo opportunity and a very nice chat with Ralph about the 'last' printed newsletter, he said in the future they are hoping to produce a newsletter that will be 'printable' from the PC, and the fact that he didn't get lost find the High Barn because, as he said, "I've got a driver!!!" LOL

Good to meet up with Delfini from this Board who joined the queue for a photo with Ralph too! 

A lovely memorable evening!

[lucienne]

when a few chords are recognised at the beginning of a great song, I wanted to clap but didn't like to!!

Thank goodness for that! There are a lot of us that detest this - we pay to listen to the artist concerned, not the audience spoiling the first 30 seconds of each number they recognise....

Some of us appreciate a live audience as much as a live musician 
L.

[Chris]

I've no problems with the audience going wild at the end of each number - just at the start. Which rarely is the very first bar played, but a few bars in. This may  go on for a while, as others pick up on it....by the time it's died down, the artist is generally a line or two in, and my concentration has been jarred.

My bet is that the artist doesn't like it much either....

[lucienne]

My bet is that the artist doesn't like it much either....

I am surprised you think that, Chris.  I would have thought that the artist (especially Ralph) would appreciate knowing that the audience are pleased to hear particular songs and it would help put him at ease. 

He's nervous on stage to start with, & to my knowledge really concentrates while performing. A round of applause (or even worse, people 'whooping' at the start of any (all? God forbid!) at the start wouldn't be exactly helpful.....I would've thought.

Something to ask him, I guess. There's nothing to hide here.

Oh to have your self-control Chris ....... the excitement of hearing the first few notes of one's favorite song is sometimes too much to bear without a short expression of approval and thanks. I would prefer silence at the end of the number so that I can return slowly. Even when the sound has finished the sound goes on.
Viva la difference !
L.

[JJ (Joanna)]

Maybe I didn't express this too well I didn't mean 'whooping' with delight or anything like that at all, I just meant that occasionally when the first few notes begin, especially on Streets, I think it encourages a performer, especially someone like Ralph. To hear a slight ripple of applause, conveys the audiences appreciation of a song that maybe he wonders whether we are tired of?

I hope this one small thought I had in my review hasn't detracted anything from it, and what was a superb night!

[Jess]

It was my intention to post the set list, but I have just realised that I haven't got my notebook with me, so I'll do it later.

So here it is:

High Barn, Gt Bardfield. 31st October 2005

Walk into the Morning
First Song
He's in the Jailhouse Now
Weather the Storm
Still in Dreams
Wild Cape Horn
Anji
England 1914
Maginot Waltz
Lost Boys
Please Don't Haunt Me
That'll Do Babe
FIN
Nettle Wine
Hiring Fair
When Did You Leave Heaven