No problem, DR. Since first seeing him in 1986, I've lost count of how many of his shows I've been to. Whenever I've taken guitarist friends to see him, they leave enthusing about his playing and (with electric shows) have at least one moment of - literally - standing open-mouthed in amazement. Of the last couple of albums 'Sweet Warrior' is probably a better bet than the more recent 'Dream Attic' (which is by no means bad), but pretty much all of his albums have something exceptional and pretty much all of them have some filler. 'Mock Tudor' (1999) and 'Rumor and Sigh' (1991) would also be good investments of your time and money. 'Daring Adventures' - the first RT album I bought - isn't that well regarded now, but does contain a few gems including one of his greatest songs: 'Al Bowlly's in Heaven', which is well worth finding on YouTube. Good versions of it crop up on various official live bootlegs or box sets. Talking of which, there are some great multi-disc compilations available too. I can recommend 'Watching The Dark: the History of Richard Thompson 1968-1992' and 'Richard Thompson: Live at the BBC' very highly. There's a more recent (than Watching the Dark) box set called Walking on a Wire, but as I had a lot of the albums the tracks were from I never bothered getting that. Probably more information than you wanted, but I do tend to get a bit over-enthusiastic about Richard Thompson. I've spent my entire adult life listening to him and watching him live. There's no one like him.
You'll be pleased to hear, Surlyc, that RT played Beeswing last night. He also went into an impromptu Nelly the Elephant in response to someone shouting for him to play something happy.
I just Youtubed RT too "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", bloody lovely. I might have a look at the couple of those albums you suggest Captain, cheers!
He played that one too - it's one of most popular songs. With your liking for the heavier end of the spectrum, find a live performance of 'Hard On Me' on youtube for an example of just how good his prolonged electric soloing can be. The studio version is on Mock Tudor.
I was there when a career got launched ... a friend of mine had his sister-in-law living on his couch. She was about 18 at the time, sweet girl from Whitefish, Montana, who'd learned to sing in church (literally). Ever time I'd go over his house for fishing, basketball or some other activity I'd see Annette Strean sitting there on his couch plinking away on some old guitar, humming to herself. Never paid much attention. Then one day my pal tells everone Annette's going to perform at the Starbucks down the street with another friend accompanying her on guitar. So me and about 15 friends and well-wishers show up, mostly just to be nice, if you know what I mean. Then she starts singing ... There aren't words to describe how good she was. She sang a few original songs, her voice as clear and unaffected as it gets. And she was beautiful. The friend who accompanied her told me later, "I had to stop watching her ... I couldn't concentrate on the song." A few weeks later, my pal tells me she'd up and moved to Nashville. She was and is Annette Strean from Venus Hum, who, among other things toured the world with the Blue Man group. Her most famous song was a remake of the Donna Summer song "I feel Love", which she played on the Jay Leno TV Show (audience of about 10 million each night). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5-ClvcHtK4 But she and the group have put out about 4 or 5 albums over the years.
Just watched the video, DR. Great singing. Rumour has it that her dress is the inspiration for next season's Fulham away shirt, flashing lights and all.
I still like the old pea-green shirts from last year. When they laid down in the grass, they'd become invisible.
The Guardian (Music Page) had an article today about an up-coming UK tour by the 80s band, Cult. Won't comment on the re-incarnation of the band but loved this quote by Billy Duffy: "No; he admits he has always been content for the Cult to be a medium-sized fish in a big pond. "I always thought of the Cult as the Fulham of the Premiership," says the diehard Manchester City fan. "A cute little ground where everyone likes going, and a team that sometimes beats the big clubs"
We've become a metaphor ... I've never been so proud! This could actually become a trend: Lancia, the Fulham of auto manufacturers. Norwegian Forest cats - They are to the cat world what Fulham is to football.
Well Dembele leaving has compounded my misery... On Monday I got a text from our singer (I'm in a band, in case nobody knew) saying our drummer is leaving. It was as a big a shock as Dembele's departure. The text(!) my singer got simply read "Hi Si, this is the only way I can tell you because I know you'll talk me out of it, I'm leaving the band. Sorry mate.". This came after he missed a gig and a few practices citing a dodgy wrist. He didn't turn up to the last practice we had, and we tried calling his mobile and house phone, with no answer. This was Sunday, the day before he announced he was leaving. So obviously our singer texts him saying we respect his decision etc, but why? No reply for a few hours, then he gets a text saying drummer is on holiday for two weeks, after then he'll meet up with us for a chat. And that's where we are now, we still don't know why, and we won't know for two and a half weeks. We don't even know if this chat is to talk through whatever problems we may have, or to tell us why he's leaving or what. So we can't even start properly looking for another drummer yet. I'm only really posting this for catharsis purposes, really, as I'm frustrated as we can't do anything with the band right now. I really can't work out why our drummer has come to this decision, he's been with us since the beginning (3 years). And if he does leave, drummers that are a) good and b) not already in a band are rare as hen's teeth. He's a fantastic drummer and more than that, he's a great bloke to have around. So yeah, the Dembele news is especially unwelcome!
Just got back from work and not sure what to do with myself- maybe go out and have a drink, maybe just lie on the sofa and wallow. At some point I'll get a grip, been walking around feeling sorry for myself all day- shoulders slouched. Pathetic really.
That's rough, Bidley. Have your band got much lined up for the next few weeks that this hiatus will have an effect on? Hope it all works out, anyway.
As it happens we're going through a bit of a dry spell, gig-wise, so I guess that's quite favourable. Only thing is, if we get offered gigs we can't really accept them. We were also going to do a bit of DIY recording and put a new demo out of latest songs and continue writing new ones, but we can't really do that either!
And I guess it's not an option to change direction and become and acoustic folk-heavy metal duo/trio/however-many-of-you-are-lefto, is it? Just a thought. Hope you either talk your old drummer round or find a drumming Berbatov before too long.
Bidley, Every drummer I've ever known or played with was bonkers. I think it goes with the territory. The fake rockumentary "This is Spinal Tap" has this on-going joke about how the band's many drummers died, including spontaneous combustion and drowning in vomit ("Though," one of the musicians comments, "they were never able to identify it if was his own, or someone else's.")
