The Blue Shoes
The Acoustic Strawbs
A Glimpse of Heaven
The Golden Salamander
Tears and Pavan
The Flower and the Young Man
The Hangman and the Papist
Alice's Song
Flying
Simple Visions
Benedictus
You and I When We Were Young
Ghosts
The River/Down by the Sea
Lay Down
Hero and Heroine
PWLLHELI FESTIVAL, 3 AUG 2002
We arrived slightly late for the start of proceedings at this pleasant theatre, missing the first song from The Blue Shoes, who easily won over the audience with Jim Diamond's incredible voice over straightforward acoustic guitar and Snake Davis's masterfully played flute, whistle and saxophones. Their genuine modesty endears them still further. Jim's own compositions are as much classics as are the well chosen covers in their set.
After a short interval Acoustic Strawbs took to the stage. Needless to say they once again gave us the excellent standard of performance that we happily travel all these miles to witness. Some minor tuning and sound balance problems were ironed out as their single set progressed. In distinct contrast to two women with their own agenda, who thankfully left early on, the remainder of the audience all properly showed their appreciation.
This is the first festival here and some seats were unsold, but hopefully next year this will change.
Some material inevitably had to be left out due to the shorter performance time allowed by the double bill, but there was plenty still to enjoy. "Benedictus" was magnificent, and seems to benefit from its new midway position in the running order. "The River/Down By The Sea" and the encore of "Hero And Heroine" were also stunning.
The Blue Shoes
The Acoustic Strawbs
12 months on from the appearance at the Edinburgh fringe, this was another opportunity to take in a gig on the way to that festival again, albeit with a significant detour.
Those present at the first night of the fringe last year would remember the Band being introduced by a somewhat tongue tied announcer as the Acaustic Strawbs. This time the local listing described them as Acwstig Strawbs, this time however, it was nothing more sinister than that the listing was in Welsh. ( I think)
The concert took place in a lovely old theatre, but strangely was not in line with most venues these days, as it did not have a bar, although the Band somehow managed to smuggle in their liquid refreshment.
The evening was shared with a duo called Blue Shoes and this mean't that there was a change to the usual two set acoustic set. Nonetheless, with the exception of "Autumn" ( a great shame), "Evergreen" and "Live Inside Your Hell Tonight", the single set lasted just over one and a half hours and contained everything thing else that would have been in the two set show.
The relatively small but very appreciative audience were rewarded for their standing ovation, with a quick return for "Hero And Heroine" and comments as the gig closed suggested that a number would be dancing their way home from the theatre following that rendition.
With my good lady, attending her annual gig, showing concern about the potential eccentricities of local licencing laws, it mean't a swift departure for the refuge of our hotel and no chance to thank the band for their performance.
Travelled to Pwllheli Festival on Saturday to the Town Hall to see the Strawbs. After a few hours of going through some beautiful countryside we arrived to glorious sunshine. They were on the Town Hall, a very pleasant place - Paul Brett, who played with the Strawbs some years ago [he added guitar to Dragonfly, and also played on Fire's album, The Magic Shoemaker; he was also a member of Velvet Opera with Hud and John - DG] actually organised it. Support group being Jim Diamond and Snake Davies who to be fair were very good. Not a very big audience but they were very appreciative. They started off with "A Glimpse Of Heaven" and ended with yet another brilliant rendition of "Hero And Heroine". "Down By the Sea" went down very well as did "Tears And Pavan", another great show.
Luckily the hotel where we all stayed was only across the road,had a chat and a drink with Dave Lambert in the lounge bar back at the hotel, drove back home the following day, well worth the trip.
GRAVESEND FESTIVAL, 28 JULY 2002
photo by Chris Bates - more photos from Chris
Benedictus
Witchwood
Tears And Pavan
Remembering/You And I (When We Were Young)
The Hangman And The Papist
Simple Visions
Ghosts
A Glimpse Of Heaven
Autumn
The River/Down By The Sea
Lay Down
LUDLOW FESTIVAL, 29 JUN 2002
Had a lovely pleasant and relaxed afternoon seeing the guys play at the Ludlow festival folk day yesterday. To explain the format, this was an afternoon-and-evening event with the Strawbs headlining the afternoon, and Fairport Convention in the evening. As you could buy tickets separately for either half (or both combined) and as personally I'm not that much of a folk/Fairport fan, I didn't stay for the evening, but the afternoon was great with the guys following on after a variety of enjoyable support acts.
The festival was held in the grounds of Downton Hall, a large country house with rolling grassy slopes interspersed with stately trees, a short way outside the town and on the crest of a small hillock. Everything was lovely and lush green, and the position I had taken up within the crowd offered a great backdrop with the stage in front of me and, to the left of it, a sweeping view across a countryside vale to the nearby Clee Hill - England's green and pleasant land at its finest. Having checked the weather forecast, I'd taken my waterproof jacket, but fortunately this turned out to be unnecessary, indeed at one point I was almost regretting not having any sun cream! Sadly the early afternoon sunshine gave way to grey, almost threatening clouds before the end, but the skies did hold and Dave took full advantage of the conditions as I'll explain in a bit.
The guys played a good 75-minute set which, though shorter than their concert offerings, provided a worthwhile afternoon's music. Their main difficulty had been that their only chance for a sound check was in the ten minutes before they started playing, and Dave explained to me afterwards they'd omitted "Alice's Song" because it would have taken longer to include the banjo in the set-up. The hurried nature of the preparations also made itself apparent in the way that some passages came over quieter than was really ideal - as Dave put it afterwards, he'd have liked the sound to have had a bit more "poke"! But I don't want to dwell overly on these little niggles because, as expected, they singing and playing was as accomplished and refined as we've come to expect. For setlist see right.
Dave started out by telling the crowd he was going to take them on a tour around all the places that had inspired different songs, and duly introduced most of them with the stories of his visits and journeys that will now be familiar to regular supporters. The exception to this was when introducing "Autumn", with Dave taking his cue from the grey skies, saying he thought we'd just had our summer now, and he was sure could see a brown leaf on one of the trees.... :) Funnily enough, references to autumn and winter also appear, of course, in the lyrics of "The River" - whether this ordering was coincidental or planned one could only speculate.
All the songs were delivered with the usual aplomb, but the highlights were "Ghosts", which was played in really smooth and flowing style, and I was particularly struck by Dave Lambert's singing and playing on "The Winter Long". This is only the second time I've heard the acoustic version of "Autumn" but it's now beginning to sounds as well honed as the other numbers. I think those of you going to the forthcoming gigs could be in for a real treat there!
photo by Chris Bates - more photos from Chris