The Globe was packed out last night for the concert.
I was there mostly because of the Phil Rickman books about Rev. Merrily Watkins. Her boyfriend Lol is a fan of Nick Drake's music, and Lol is such a sweet character (and also a musician), so I wanted to get an idea of what his music would be like.
Brian, who came over from Prestiegne, only heard about Nick Drake a couple of months ago, but the article he read interested him enough to get a CD by the musicians who were playing at the Globe, and then he saw that they were actually performing live, so he had to come over and see for himself.
The evening started with a documentary film about the life of Nick Drake, who suffered from depression and died, aged only 26, in the mid-seventies. He left behind three and a bit albums of beautiful, haunting songs (his sister was the Gabrielle Drake who appeared in Gerry Anderson's UFO in a purple wig).
A selection of his songs were played by Keith James, who is himself a singer/songwriter and a music producer - so he does these concerts for the love of the music, and to share it with an appreciative audience.
Not all the songs were by Nick Drake. One was by another singer/songwriter who died young and was forgotten; another was by a friend, about Nick Drake, and a couple were by the guitarist Davy Graham, whose guitar style influenced a generation, including Nick Drake.
The music really was superb, and Keith James was ably accompanied by Rick Foot on the double bass - there were a couple of amazing bass solos.
For the encore, they unplugged all the electrics and moved away from the mics, and played a song purely acoustically. You could have heard a pin drop - until the rapturous applause!
Mark Radcliffe from Radio 2 is quoted on the brochure as saying: "An absolute must", and I think he's right. This is music which deserves a wider audience, and it's very sad that Nick Drake didn't get that sort of success in his lifetime.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Lesley, the other songs that Keith played were 'If I Were a Carpenter' by Tim Hardin, a great American singer/songwriter who wrote several folk/jazz songs in the 60 and 70s, appeared at Woodstock, and very sadly died of a heroin overdose in the 1980s. Keith also sang 'Solid Air', a song by Nick Drakes' best friend John Martyn, Scottish singer/songwriter and 'hedonist extraordinaire' who died a year or so ago.
I thought the evening at the Globe was delightful –although Keith and Rick's performance was marred somewhat by the bar staff making a bit of a racket throughout the whole performance. They could have closed the bar for an hour so we could hear the music without the interruption of the hissing coffee machine and jangling of teaspoons. Rant over. Fab night.
Thanks!
I have a terrible memory for names, and I didn't want to put down something that turned out to be wrong.
Post a Comment