Gigs

Saw Australian Pink Floyd last night. Hammersmith Apollo. Unbelievably good. Forgot about the laser show too. The whole thing was mind blowing! DSOTM followed by a load of fantastic tracks. Can’t recommend it enough. Never got to see Pink Floyd but this was the next best thing. If you’re a fan and haven’t seen them, go if you can!

 

Off to see Dave Gorman next Wednesday

 

There’s a name I’ve not heard for years

 

Did you go ... we were there and booked tickets for 2024.

 

We did! £9 a can! ‍‍

 

Lindemann @ Wembley Tuesday night.
Not Rammstein but still good to watch.

 

I bought two rounds for me and the wife £50 from the upstairs bar! (a round = double vodka + tonic & pint of beer)

 

You look like you had fun… in those seats…

We went for the poor option!

 

We didnt sit down, booked almost identical seats for next year. We treat ourselves for one night of the year.

 

Graham Nash at The Palais St.Kilda.

For ‘Sixty Years of Songs & Stories’ Graham Nash takes us into the holy grail of these historic and classic songs. I had no idea until he told us tonight that ‘I Used to Be a King’ was about his breakup with Joni Mitchell. Graham also mentioned as part of his stories that Neil wrote ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ about his breakup with Joni. I knew the story of ‘Our House’, a literal description of Joni buying a vase, bringing it home and Graham lighting a fire. The opening lyrics “I’ll light the fire/You place the flowers in the vase/That you bought today” are an exact narrative of the moment. ‘Wounded Bird’ is a Graham song written for the Stephen Stills about his relationship with Judy Collins. (Collins was also the ‘Judy’ in CSN’s ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’). Stills was also honored with the set ending with a cover of Stills classic ‘Love The One You’re With’. No doubt we will hear more stories of the era when Judy Collins performs in Melbourne next week.

Some songs were created instantly. ‘Just A Song Before I Go’ was a song Graham wrote on a dare just as he was about to leave a friends house. ‘Cathedral’ was conceived in the back of a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce while on an Acid Trip. ‘Marrakesh Express’ is a literal account of a train trip to Marrakesh in 1968.

The show never strayed far from remembering Graham’s closest friend David Crosby. CSNY broke down to CSN and then to CN before reaching solo status. David Crosby and Graham Nash recorded multiple albums together outside CSNY and CSN with three of those from the 70s represented in the set. One of those, ‘Immigration Man’ from the 1972 ‘Wind on the Water’, is another literal account of Graham being refused entry into Canada.

This was a special show for a number of reasons. 1. Just the history in a bottle here makes the ticket worthwhile 2. This songs a classics and will be around long after you, me and Graham are gone. 3. Graham is 82. Its remarkable the man has the energy he has and he definitively not saying he is about to retire but as life has taught us “enjoy every waking moment”.

Graham Nash setlist 7 March 2024, Palais Theatre Melbourne

Set One
Wasted on the Way (from Crosby, Stills & Nash, Daylight Again, 1982)
Marrakesh Express (from Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1969)
Military Madness (from Song For Beginners, 1971)
I Used to Be a King (from Song For Beginners, 1971)
Bus Stop (from The Hollies, Bus Stop, 1966)
Right Between the Eyes (from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 4 Way Street, 1971)
To the Last Whale…A. Critical Mass B. Wind on the Water (from Crosby & Nash, Wind on the Water, 1975)
Immigration Man (from Crosby & Nash, Graham Nash David Crosby, 1972)
Better Days (from Song For Beginners, 1971)
Love the One You’re With (from Stephen Stills, 1970)

Set Two
Simple Man (from Song For Beginners, 1971)
4 + 20 (from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Déjà vu, 1970)
Wounded Bird (from Song For Beginners, 1971)
Taken at All (from Crosby & Nash, Whistling Down The Wire, 1976)
A Better Life (from Now, 2023)
Cathedral (from Crosby, Stills & Nash, CSN, 1977)
Just a Song Before I Go (from Crosby, Stills & Nash, CSN, 1977)
Our House (from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Déjà vu, 1970)

Encore:
Find the Cost of Freedom (from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 4 Way Street, 1971)
Teach Your Children (from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Déjà vu, 1970)
Chicago (from Song For Beginners, 1971)
Ohio (from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 4 Way Street, 1971)

 

Shirley Collins @Melbourne Recital Centre.

Judy Collins took to the stage this evening clutching a guitar with a wild sparkle in her eyes. Happy to be here? “At this point, I’m just happy to be anywhere,” said Collins with a sly smile referring to her vintage. The crowd giggled in anticipation. Oddly, dedicating her first song to King Charles III and his queen – “formerly his girlfriend,” she notes with a laugh – Collins launched into a fine cover of Norwegian Wood. She strummed her guitar and was accompanied by a pianist. Together they creates an elegant musical context for Collin’s vocals which flutter effortlessly across the room.

Placing special emphasis on her age, Collins told us that she is the American Idol of 1956. While it’s amusing to many in the audience, it is quite an achievement that Collins has been doing the whole singer-songwriter thing for over sixty years. Amazingly at 84 she still tours aggressively. Truly great musicians only get better with time and the iconic Collins is no exception. Despite the occasional misstep, Collins’ vocals sound as beautiful as she does many of the tracks she has recorded over the years.

She remains as prolific as ever. She talks ups a forthcoming anthology of poetry she wrote in 2016, in which she challenged herself to write a poem everyday for a year with the idea that these poems would become source material for songs.

Tonight’s setlist recalls the glory of her past but it is also an opportunity to showcase tunes from 2022’sSpellbound. “You can get the from the cloud, or would you buy it from Amazon? Do ya’ll hate Amazon?” she asks but then concedes that “it’s convenient if you want to buy something”. Both Sides Now features early in the set. We have heard many an aspiring signer warble their way through this song, but listening closely to Collins breathy melancholy vocals practically executed to perfection confirms we are in the company of a true master, in complete control of her craft, at work.

Collins talks her way through the show. Reminiscing about the past, she regales us with stories and memories. “I didn’t take many drugs back then,” she laughed. “I was worried that it would get in the way of drinking.” Although sober now, Collins tells us this because she was passed out on her sofa when she got a call from a friend who introduced her to Joni Mitchell, who has just written Both Sides Now. Collins reveals this is how she got to record and release the song before Mitchell.

Each of these songs evokes memories and Collins in a very stream of conscious kind of way meandered her way through the stories that connect these tunes. She moved beyond providing amusing patter between songs to connect with the audience. At times she reeled off names as though we knew them. Perhaps we should. She honoured her father who was a musician and a radio celebrity. In retrospect My Father is a sweet yearning dream of her childhood. Although squarely rooted in folk and Americana, Collins transcends her influences to produce an elegantly eloquent sound that drips with emotion and lived experience that resonates with her fans.
Collins also talked about her starter husband and a then her two-year romance with Stephen Stills. Collins revealed Stills wrote Helplessly Hoping about her and launched into a sweet version of the song.


“Dylan!”, I knew him before the name change. “Who was he? Robert someone?” The crowd called outZimmerman. “That’s right”, she said before telling us that way back when she knew him he covered the worst Woody Guthrie songs, had poor taste in clothes and was possibly homeless at the time. Collins didn’t stop there, telling us that her record company called to tell her that they had an early demo but were disappointed as they thought he didn’t know how to sing.

The crowd giggled but Collins acknowledged renewed respect for Dylan when she saw his lyrics published in the illustrious folk magazine SingOut! Collins spontaneously burst out into Mr Tambourine Man and asked the crowd to sing along. Collins often sang a line or two to illustrate songs she was talking about. Amusingly she sang a line of Danny Boy and then decided to play the whole song and insist the crowd sing along.

Collins is a workaholic. She acknowledged being sick and diagnosed with tuberculosis after her Carnegie Hall debut. “I was young and had important work to do” but they kept her in the hospital for months. It’s this fierce compulsion to create that has yielded the refined gentle beauty of recent tunes like When I Was A Girl In Colorado, The Blizzard and Mountain Girl that showcase a powerhouse of a singer-songwriter.

Collins sarcastically laughs that Rod Stewart now owns the great American songbook. Once she’s done delivering the heartache of Send In The Clowns and her acclaimed but sobering version Amazing Grace, there can be no doubt that Collins’ playground is the great American songbook. It’s when she leaves the stage that we notice that Collins has been teetering on vertiginous looking heels the whole time.

 

Fantastic review...
Wow 84...and so full of fun..

 

Ozric Tentacles and Gong. Psychedelic madness

 

Going to see Leo Sayer in October , if he survives til then, dont laugh he has done some great work over the years not only for himself but for others as well, only as recently as 1973 with Roger Daltry .

 

I was going to the Lyme Regis gig
But I was hospitalised