Entertainment For Lively Minds
Richard Thompson's 1000 Years Of Popular Music - here's the bullet point review
If you're going to any of the dates on this tour, make sure you get there early. Last night at the Barbican he came on at 7.30. There are two sets with a twenty-minute intermission in the middle. First half starts in the middle ages and finishes in the 19th century. Second half is almost a decade-by-decade race through the 20th. The Britney Spears tune that he used to finish with has been retired and replaced with, well, why spoil the surprise? One emerges thinking the following:
* those medieval troubadours had Goth pretty well covered
* Gilbert & Sullivan were also quite sharp
* it's amazing what a head of steam can be achieved by just a guitarist and a percussionist
* if Richard Thompson can manage to keep one guitar in tune all the way through the show, why does everybody else need teams of roadies scurrying out with substitutes?
* his voice seems to have lost nothing
* the forgotten songs of the Beatles are better than most people's classic hits
* the old gag about the different sorts of hell still makes me laugh
* It's probably coming to a town near you
- More from David Hepworth.
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Coming to a town near you?
No-one ever comes to a town near me. Curse you, Suffolk!
I live near Monmouth...
...and LOADS of bands come here.
Unfortunately, they're all only interested in Rockfield Studios and they never actually play in the town :-(
Sounds as excellent as I had anticipated
Looking forward to Birmingham Town Hall on 29th. Pity I'll have to forego that extra pint in the Wellington if he kicks off at 7.30 prompt.....I guess the old fella likes to be tucked up nice and early with a mug of Horlicks and a good book. Either that or the fleshpots of Broad Street beckon (perhaps not).
Cambridge tonight...
...thanks for the heads-up Mr H, I shall be punctual!
Coming to a town near me...
Perhaps a visit to Firenze from RT is too much to hope for.
Heresy alert
How can I say this and survive...... I nearly included Mr T in the adjacent strand on artists one has lost interest in...... That would be too strong, as I have an enormous interest in him, and read all his interviews and enjoyed the recent podcast. I look up his website on a near daily basis. I have seen him myriad times over the years from the mid 70s, 3 times with Linda, then virtually every tour since then, solo or the various duos, bands etc. But, and here's the rub, his recorded output is less and less reliable. Even the much lauded Sweet Warrior has really only 3 tracks worthy of sustained revisiting, in my view, with the last more fully enjoyable LP being as far back as Mirror Blue. Live with band I find less and less exciting, paradoxically, as solo or duo-with-Danny-no-relation, he gets better and better. I confess my knowledge of 1000 years is based only on the recorded output or on the snippets he pulled out at Cropredy 5 or so years ago. Jolly clever and, on first hearing, quite amusing. However, is it not essentially a novelty act? I am not sure I can be bothered to sit thru the songs, which aren't really all that great as covers, once the dogs hind leg novelty palls, however much I enjoy the mid song banter. Maybe I am just jaded, but is the good idea now not being milked a little too far?
On a more positive note, I see and read that another of his show types is the all-request show, based on the audience applying their requests on paper beforehnd, to then be plucked and, um, plucked. Now that I would like to see! Until then I'm saving my money for Teddy, on tour later on this spring.
On having a quick look at http://www.richardthompson-music.com I have just seen that RT berets are now available from hi on-line "store".....
Good grief!
I saw the 1000 years show in about 2001...
...in San Francisco (final song: Kiss by Prince) and, although the set list has been tweaked a little since then, it's fundamentally the same idea.
Much as I love RT's music, I have to agree with Retro that this idea *is* a bit of a novelty show; it was a good idea as a one-off but I get the impression he's milking it now.
I liked the 'human jukebox' show as well, it was huge fun but again it comes across as a bit of a novelty act.
Is RT's appeal realy now so 'selective' that he needs to do this aort of thing to pull in the punters and make a few quid? Maybe I'm doing him down and he's doing it because he generally likes it?
I feel very much the same as you, Retropath...
I don't think his last few records have been that great to be honest. But even a poor RT album is better than most other artists' offerings.
I last saw him live at the 100 Club in 1999, which is one of the greatest shows I've ever been privilege to witness. Since then I decided to stop going to gigs on account of the amount of antisocial, chattering arseholes there are (see numerous Word blogs for details).
Forgotten Beatles songs
Which “forgotten” Beatles songs does he do?
I’ll Be Back? I Call Your Name (in which they lurch into bluebeat having just heard My Boy Lollipop)? Yes It Is? Baby’s In Black (sea shanty)?
Sorry to be a Corgi-Registered-Beatles-Bore but I’d love to know.
Well, he does some well known ones
But in the middle he does "There's A Place", which I hadn't heard for years. Great middle eight as ever.
Coming to a town near you?
not if you live in Northern Ireland!
A-ha!
I was at the Barbican show and I thought I saw the Great Man (as in David Hepworth, of course, not RT) across a crowded foyer. But sadly our eyes didn't meet and he had disappeared before I could go over and address him as 'sir'.
I'm glad you rated the show, David - I loved every minute but I'm not very critical about RT and can't be relied upon for an unbiased opinion.
Don't want to reveal more of the set-list but it is extraordinary how RT can seemingly play the entire parts for so many songs on one acoustic guitar. Go see.
I got tired of saying how remarkable Richard Thompson is..
...long ago. I figure anybody who's ever going to be converted is already converted. Last night's show was quietly brilliant and I'd seen it before. My wife, who had not seen it before, thought it was wonderful. I don't compare and contrast with previous shows. I figure, just enjoy it while you can.
Highlight from last night (Cambridge Corn Exchange)
was the following (slight paraphrase due to crap memory)
"We're going to do an Abba song now, and this one sort of sums up why we love music, do what do as musicians, why we get up in the morning and get in the van and go on tour."
Cue the impeccably-played intro to "Money, Money, Money".
A musician who gets up in the *morning*?
Surely not!
Richard Thompson...
puts in the hours. How else did he get that good (and stay that good)?
For comparison...
...here's the set list from the 2001 version of the '1000 Years' show:
01 "Worlds Blis Ne Last" - a 12th Century song in pre-Chaucerian Old English.
02 "So Ben Mi Ca Bon Tempo" - a song in medieval Italian by 16th Century composer Orazio Vecchi
03 "Bonnie St. Johnstone" - a Scottish murder ballad
04 "When I Am Laid In Earth" - Henry Purcell
05 "A-Beggin' I Will Go" -
06 "Blackleg Miner" -
07 "Shenandoah" - the American classic
08 "I Live in Trafalgar Square" - a music hall ditty
09 "Why Have My Loved Ones Gone?" - by Stephen Foster
10 "There Is Beauty In The Bellow Of The Blast" - from "The Mikado" by Gilbert & Sullivan
11 "Old Rockin' Chair/ - Hoagy Carmichael
12 "Orange Coloured Sky" - Hoagy Carmichael
13 "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" - Jimmie Rodgers
14 "Cry Me A River" - Julie London
15 "The Fool" -Elvis Presley
16 "A Legal Matter" - Pete Townshend
17 "Tempted" - Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford
18 "Kiss" - Prince
19 (encore) "You'll Never Walk Alone", from Carousel