Richard Thompson
Poole Lighthouse
Friday 13th October 2017
SUPPORT:
Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker
SET LIST:
Reynardine (Fairport Convention cover)
Something Familiar
The Birds
Silverline
Chicago
The Tangled Tree
Fotheringay (Sandy Denny cover)
A perfect support act. He sat and played guitar (unlike Richard Thompson, he had two acoustics and a Les Paul) and she sang like an angel. They planned it brilliantly, opening with Reynardine from Liege & Lief, though I spent half the song thinking, ‘It’s from Liege and Lief, I know, but what’s the frigging title? Then they bookended it with Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay, a brave move, but it paid off because Josienne really could sing it perfectly. It fitted so well too, as the opening track on What We Did On Our Holidays, the second Fairport Convention album. For a support band it’s such a good idea to do a couple they know the audience will recognize.
The second Something Familiar comes from their 2016 album Overnight. Suffice it to say I bought the album in the interval for the song. The Birds is the title track of their new EP, on sale on the tour.
Silverline is another haunting melody. She introduced Chicago with a story about a gig in the city. Hilarious comments on the support band. No, I’m not repeating them. So if you go to a later gig on the tour, make sure you see them and hear it. The Tangled Tree was another original.
Unlike many support bands they announced the song titles clearly … you really have to as they will be unfamiliar to many, even though they had the Radio Two Folk Award for Best Duo. They also had vinyl copies of two LPs and the EP … Richard Thompson had nearly all CDs for sale. A missed opportunity as vinyl sells at twice the price.
First rate choice of support.
RICHARD THOMPSON
SET LIST
Gethsemane
The Ghost of You Walks
Crocodile Tears
Valerie
Persuasion
Beatnik Walking
Uninhabited Man
Push & Shove
They Tore The Hippodrome Down
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
Who Knows Where TheTime Goes?
1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Hots For The Smarts
Right From Wrong
Wall of Death
Down Where The Drunkards Roll
I Misunderstood
encore
Turning of The Tide
Beeswing
second encore
Waltzing’s For Dreamers
Don’t Sit On My Jimmy Shands
The last time I saw Richard … it sounds like a song title. Ah, yes. Joni Mitchell got there first. Her last time was in 1968, around my first time for Richard Thompson with Fairport Convention. I found the entry in an old diary. Frustratingly, I can’t remember a thing about it.
The last time I saw him was at Salisbury City Hall, in January 2011, just before I started this blog. I’m surprised I didn’t review it from memory then.
I’ll state my bias. I prefer Richard & Linda Thompson albums to Richard solo. I love his songwriting but have always found his voice a tad harsh. I haven’t bought every solo album, but I have bought most. There are always a couple of tracks I play a lot at the time, and others I forget. I’ve always wondered about the tale of him being invited to join The Band in the early 90s. Yes, Fairport Convention was Band-inspired. Yes, he’s an astonishing guitarist. Yes, they needed a songwriter. But I just can’t see the voices or accents would have blended, or his wry lyrics working for them. But it never happened.
The joy of a solo acoustic set is freedom to do what you want, when you want. It might also be “be it on my own head” but the advantages of being a poet and a one man band are not just financial, though it helps. Just the three Acoustic albums amount to 45 plus songs, plus looking at other setlists earlier in the year, there is no fixed running order and a wide variety of choices. The first of the Acoustic Classics albums was a surprise hit … UK albums #14. This tour comes with the release of Acoustic Classics II and soon after that, Acoustic Rarities. He has a huge catalogue. Even looking at the first three days on setlist. com, over thirty songs were played, but at twenty per concert. There’s great interest in revisiting Fairport Convention and Richard & Linda Thompson classics.
He has his look … black denim jeans and waistcoat, black T-shirt, black beret with tin badge. He sticks to it. The stage had a table with a black cloth and a glass of water. One mic. He used the same guitar all evening too. There were interesting subtle geometric projections on the black cloth behind him. They never distracted, each pattern staying unchanged for a whole song. His guitar playing has an unrivalled self-confidence, and after 50 years as a professional musician, his stage chat (no joke spoilers here) is confident and entertaining. I enjoyed his voice more than I have before too.
There are no shaky iPhone photos. Nowadays, audiences wait politely until the encores, then the auditorium lights up with scores of phone screens. This lot were more respectful. I only saw one lit screen, and that was earlier.
The first two songs are fairly fixed so far: Gethsemane followed by The Ghost of You Walks. Then Crocodile Tears in third place has been two out of three gigs.
A raucous rendition of Valerie was next. At first I thought it messy (It probably was) but it ended up with amazingly loud and accomplished guitar, so overall it was great.
Persuasion was next, as he pointed out, a co-write with Tim Finn. It’s one I didn’t have a copy of it until Acoustic Classics. It’s done as a duet with Teddy Thompson on the Action Packed compilation.
He introduced Beatnik Walking, a favourite from Still, with a long tale about Amsterdam, which is the setting for the song. Good banter too. If you haven’t heard Still you really need to hear Guitar Heroes, the final song. Uninhabited Man followed.
Two songs came from Acoustic Rarities, a collection of songs he had but never got around to releasing.
Push & Shove was the first, which he said was his attempt to write a Who song. The guitar playing matched … it’s extraordinary how hard he rocks with just acoustic guitar … and I could imagine The Who recording it.
They Tore The Hippodrome Down is one I hadn’t heard until Acoustic Rarities earlier in the week, though I had noticed from recent setlists that he always does it. The first time I heard it on record I didn’t like the move into 1930s dance mood, but it’s a real grower, and tonight sounded better than the record to me. It repays repeated listening. It also reminded me of his recording of The Band Played On from 1895, which he recorded with Christine Collister for The Beautiful Old project.
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight would be my all-time favourite of his songs. He mused on his lack of hits since this reached #39 in 1974. Interestingly, he has largely avoided major label since leaving Fairport Convention and Island Records. Hannibal, Duck, Proper, Cooking Vinyl, Beeswing. He had a spell with Capitol, possibly why Mock Tudor and Rumour and Sigh got around. Anyway, the song was massively popular with the audience. It was revived by Bellowhead in 2014.
Before going on to the next song, he talked about the Fairport Convention 50th Anniversary this year, where he played with them at the Cropredy Festival. Both Meet On The Ledge and Genesis Hall (from Unhalfbricking) are on Acoustic Classics II, and he finished the Guildford show with Meet On The Ledge a couple of days earlier. We weren’t so lucky. As he pointed out, he left Fairport in 1970-71, after Full House. He must know that some of his fan base dates from 46 years ago and the Fairport connection. It’s the Paul McCartney / Robbie Robertson position. Over forty years on, people still want to know more about the formative years than the decades since, in Richard Thompson’s case between ages 18 and 22. It is a burden, and when I went to get Acoustic Rarities it was in the “Folk” section. Very little of what he has done in the intervening forty years could be classed as “folk.” Rock songwriter is better. I’m not saying I was surprised … it’s where I looked first.
Who Knows Where The Time Goes? he introduced by saying he can’t sing it as well as Sandy Denny. I’d change that to he can’t sing it LIKE Sandy Denny, because he’s a bloke, but it was a first rate version, with powerful and engaging singing.
I thought the peak of audience reaction followed that song, but the guitar intro to 1952 Vincent Black Lightning got the largest recognition applause of the evening … possibly because the opening riff is distinctive. A good song for Poole which has weekly motor bike meets on the quay.
Hots For The Smarts is the comedy / audience participation centrepiece of the show. Very funny lyrics and he kept stopping and saying There’s more … Singalong too. I hadn’t heard it before. It’s utterly hilarious. Easy to find on YouTube, but otherwise on a Various Artists album (World Cafe Live Vol 21).
Right From Wrong led into the Richard & Linda Thompson classic Wall of Death from Shoot Out The Lights. I guess it’s the second motor bike song of the evening … the sleeveless denim waistcoat looks right for it!
We stayed with the Richard & Linda era for Down Where The Drunkards Roll also from I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. Great for me … probably my second favourite of his songs. It works very well in Richard’s deeper, male voice … surprisingly so for me.
The set closed with I Misunderstood from Rumor and Sigh (for the first time in this position on the tour). It was planned because the lights faded to black as he reached the end. Rumor and Sigh was a successful album, and three tracks from it were played tonight. Other shows had a fourth, I Feel Good.
The first encore had two terrific songs. First, The Turning of The Tide then Beeswing. Beeswing is a great lyric. The song comes from Mirror Blue (1994), his last Capitol album.
The second encore really impressed me. Many were shouting out calls for songs. Someone shouted Walzing’s for Dreamers. Others cheered. I’d forgotten until I got home and started typing this that both Turning of The Tide and Waltzing’s For Dreamers come from the same first Capitol record, Amnesia (1988). He went straight into Walzing’s for Dreamers after the request, though it’s not on recent setlists.
Don’t Sit On My Jimmy Shands was introduced by a story about the Scottish accordion player and band leader Jimmy Shands, that I will repeat to friends, but I won’t spoil here (though he does tell it on a YouTube video). He described it as a polka. That connection to The Band came back into my mind. Garth Hudson would have loved discussing polkas with him! (And Garth Hudson also appears on The Beautiful Old . )
Regrets? No, a well-planned act. Other venues have had The Dimming Of The Day, Tear Stained Letter, I feel Good and the sublime From Galway To Graceland. On songs I’ve played most in recent years, I’d have loved Salford Sunday and Guitar Heroes … but where would you stop? Hundreds of possibles.
