Gig Of The Week (3)
To the Anvil in Basingstoke on 27th October to see Richard Thompson on his Solo Tour. The show was aptly named as it featured just the guitarist, almost lost in the cavernous stage area armed with just a guitar and a table, playing from his vast back catalogue of numbers which, in his own words, span the full range of melancholy. So we were treated to a set ranging from fast rockers such as Valerie to the slower, more thoughtful numbers such as sensitive reading of mental health that is From Galway to Graceland. The set was peppered with his all-time favourites including I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, the only one of his ditties which troubled the compilers of hit parades.
The evening was a joy for Thompson’s aficionados who were encouraged to let their hair down, if they had any, or else to rattle their jewellery. Celebrating 50 years in the business, Thompson has not lost many of his fans but, perhaps worryingly, not gained many new ones. TOWT and I seemed to be in the younger quartile of his audience.
Inevitably he doffed his beret to the Fairport era but his choice of song, Who Knows Where The Time Goes, was odd as Sandy Denny’s version is peerless and the impressive support act, Josienne Clark and Ben Walker, had already treated us to us to a stunning version of Reynardine. Perhaps, having reunited with some of the old Fairports in the summer, Thompson realised that the other person who made the group what it was in its heyday was Denny and this was his homage.
Josienne Clark has a stunning voice and a personality to match and is one to watch out for, her material outdoing Thompson in the melancholia stakes.
Very few artists can hold the audience for 100 minutes, solely through the power of his material and the virtuosity of his playing. Thompson undoubtedly is one of those.
Filed under: Music Tagged: Ben Walker, Fairport Convention, Josienne Clark, Reynardine, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, the Anvil Basingstoke, The Solo Tour, Who Knows Where The Time Goes
