My soul is at peace

[bellinghman]

It's been a little disturbed ever since February, when the bellinghwoman took me to a Fairport Convention gig at the Corn Exchange.

Unfortunately, good as they are, Fairport have this unavoidable tendency to play songs that are inextricably associated with Richard Thompson in my mind, and hearing a cheerful bunch of musos doing them caused me some deep itching in my soul.

Tonight, I got to hear those songs the way they ought to be done.

And boy is Thompson one hell of a musician. Even when covering Britney Spears. When he does it, 'Oops I did it again' becomes ... oh, OK, it's never going to be great, but would you believe gutsy. It certainly had the audience in stitches, though I suspect he's done it before - knowing the words that well isn't something he would just happen upon.

The support, Jim Moray, wasn't bad - you can see he wants to be RT one day. The problem is, RT himself has had 40 years practice.

And the sound was a bit muddy to start with, even where we were sitting (a yard from the sound desk), but it cleared up fairly quickly.

Nice to see sion_a and j4, too.

Comments

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

How right you are, while the Fairport bods are as good a bunch of folk/rock musicians that you'll ever find in the world, no-one does Richard Thompson songs like the man himself. Do you know the rest of the tour dates at all?
As for Fairport, well chances are that myself (and hopefully Maureen too) will make it down to Cropredy this year, if only for the fact that Jethro Tull are playing there for the first time, which is a little surprising given the crossover with the likes of Messrs. Pegg, Allcock, Conway and co.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Rest of the tour?

Aberdeen tonight. After that, not really, except we noticed Edinburgh, Exeter and Basingstoke.

Ah, Here

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Looks like York, Manchester or Derby for me then. Surprised Mr. Keenan hasn't got him at Leeds Irish Centre; Thompson, along with the likes of John Martyn and Roy Harper, usually puts in an appearance there on most tours.