It’s almost 3 years since we first visited Theatre Severn (to see Cara Dillon), and I remember thinking almost as soon as I walked into the place that I wished Ralph would go there one day. Tonight I got my wish!
It’s a beautiful modern theatre. Sometimes newer theatres don’t have much character, but in this case they’ve knocked through into the former chapel next door and turned it into a bar – I think this intriguing mix of old and new is the reason I was so taken with it!
Incidentally, I feel that this review should be prefaced with ‘contains spoilers’ – just in case someone reading it has tickets for an upcoming gig and doesn’t want to know what songs are featuring in this tour!
We took our seats about 10 mins before Ralph was due on stage – second row, just left of centre, with an uninterrupted view of the stage – perfect! ‘Sofa Noodling’ was playing in the background, and a silhouette of Ralph with guitar, encircled by the words ‘One More for the Road’ projected onto the back curtain of the stage. On the stage, 3 guitars (one a 12 string) a grand piano and a harmonica. 8pm came. And went. After about 5 minutes, silhouette, music and auditorium lighting faded out, and the stage was lit up. Still no Ralph. Another couple of minutes elapsed before he finally arrived, in black jeans, blue polo shirt and shiny black shoes, carrying Miss Gibson (Four guitars! We thought that three was a lot for Ralph!), and was greeted by a roar of applause.
Having thanked us for the applause, he launched straight into ‘
London Apprentice’, commenting at the end that London is a place no-one knows entirely, that there are always new bits to learn about.
His second song came as a complete shock to me – both in that it has great personal meaning for me, and because Ralph has said in more than one interview that because it’s so deeply personal to him he could probably never play it live – ‘
Daddy’s Here’. He explained a bit about his family background at this point – how he last saw his father when he was 6, and about the effect of this on his family.
His next two songs –
‘After Rain’ and ‘
Weather the Storm’ were, I think, both dedications/requests – one to Maart Allcock and his wife who were in the audience. Ralph explained that his memories of the effect of summer rain showers on the dusty housing estate in Croydon (Poole not mentioned!) when he was growing up inspired the first of these. I think the only thing he mentioned about the second one was that a number of his songs seem to be weather-related!
Next, he spoke about WW1, and the fascination it holds for him, arising partly from speaking to his grandfather, uncles and ‘not really’ uncles about their memories of the war. This led firstly into another request ‘
Maginot Waltz’, and then into the first of two brand-new songs in the set, and the only one to be played on the 12 string.
He didn’t give a name for this song – in fact, he said that in some ways it’s still a work in progress, so perhaps it hasn’t got one yet so I’ll call it “
Canopus”. It’s about a small steam engine called Canopus that ran between Pentewan and St Austell in Cornwall from the late C19 until the outbreak of WW1. It mostly carried Cornish clay from the pit to the harbour, but was also used to take children and families on Sunday School outings to the seaside. The engine was taken to the Continent after the war broke out, to be used for a much sadder purpose – to bring dead soldiers from the Front for burial. Ralph skilfully combines the imagery of it carrying the Cornish clay with that of the soldiers being brought from the mud of the trenches to be buried and returned to the clay from which, metaphorically, they came. A song of moving words and striking tune. I realise that it’s partly down to using the 12 string (and, of course, immense talent and constant practicing!) but this is one of these tunes with such an incredibly rich sound – melody, bass and more – that you find yourself astonished that it can be made by one man playing one guitar!
Then, back to Miss G for ‘
Sweet Mystery’, prefaced by an explanation of him watching young couples leaving a disco many years ago, making what he said could possibly be described as ‘romantic’ suggestions / requests to each other, that were so blunt that the friend he was drinking with at the time, wondered aloud where all the mystery of romance has gone, giving rise to this song.
Next, two songs on the piano –
‘Traces’ – with no introduction or comments at all, and
‘Naomi’, with the story about visits to his great aunt and uncle that inspired it.
Back to the front of the stage, and Miss Gibson, next, for ‘
Grande Affaire’ and
‘Housewives Choice’. ‘Housewives Choice’ was preceded by an anecdote about the recording of his ‘Sofa Noodling’ album – and how it came to resemble a scene from a fairy tale!
Ralph then spoke of programmes he’s been watching recently presented by Prof Brian Cox (who he described as an ex-musician, before mentioning his academic career!), and the sense of wonderment about the universe they’d inspired in him, before launching into
‘Lunar Lullaby’. This was followed by
SOL – we were all invited to join in – apparently this brings tears to the eyes of his roadie, Eduardo.
Then an absolutely blistering performance of a song that’s been a personal favourite of mine since we were lucky to be at the first (just possibly 2nd ?) ever public performance of it, which he described at the time as a practice for its proper ‘premier’ at his 60th Birthday concert – ‘
Around the Wild Cape Horn’. It was word, tone and note perfect. I’m not sure why, but some performances of a given song just seem to stand out, no matter how often you’ve heard it before, and this was one of them. Stunning.
The following song, ‘
An Irish Blessing’ brought tears to my eyes, as our daughter has just gone back to Uni for her second year. It’s the line ‘to cherish is the easy part, the hardest task is letting go’ that really does it I think! Another example of Ralph’s skill in expressing your everyday experiences and feelings in words better than you can yourself.
The penultimate song was also the second new one. It’s called
‘West 4thStreet and Jones’, and is based on a Bob Dylan record cover from 1963, containing a photo taken at this road junction in New York.
Finally, with little introduction except that it was dedicated to one of his guitar heroes, ‘
The Ghost of Robert Johnson’, another outstanding performance.
Ralph left the stage, to more tumultuous applause, and returned to play
‘Hesitation Blues’ as his encore, again on Miss Gibson, leaving us to wonder what the other two guitars were for!
He didn’t announce that he’d be coming out to ‘meet and greet’, but Eduardo had assured us that he would, so we waited, chatting with McTellite friends – old and new – for ten minutes or so and, sure enough, he did come.
The queue had somehow formed in two directions at once, splitting where it went around a table and chairs, but McTellites being polite people, with much ‘after you’, ‘no, after you’, we gradually merged and moved forwards.
A brief chat to Ralph and a signature on the new Songs For 6 Strings, and the evening was over.
Ralph did mention at this point that his hand / wrist is causing some problems, but that he’s going to get it ‘looked at’. I know that the type of tendonitis he has (Quervains, according to the newsletter) can usually be successfully treated, so things should improve for him - I hope so, as I know from personal experience how excruciating tendon problems can be. (I did wonder if this problem was the reason for the 4 guitars – so he could change to one with a different size neck if need be, as I think that he mentioned in an interview that this can make a difference.)
All in all a truly fantastic evening in the company of someone whose magic, perhaps, lies in being both extraordinary and yet very ordinary, at one and the same time. Very highly recommended! If you haven’t got your ticket yet, get it soon – last night was a sell-out, as is tonight.
I heard a number of people saying last night that they hope this isn’t the last tour, and despite his worries about people thinking he’s showing his age or looking tired, to me (and judging by comments from others last night, not just me!) he’s as good as ever, still getting better even, as the new songs show. He certainly didn’t look at all tired last night. Mind you, it would be understandable if tours got a bit shorter as he approaches his big birthday!
