Venue:
London Palladium
Date: 21/04/2017
I have waited a long time to see John Prine live. The gig at the Palladium was well worth that wait and was perfect in almost every way. Firstly we were treated to a warm opening set from Amanda Shires. Strangely she didn’t use her fiddle for any of her songs. Highlights were the autobiographical Mineral Wells and a lovely cover of Leonard Cohen’s I’m your man. After a short intermission on came John Prince and his 4 piece band and the launched into a jaunty opening salvo of Love Love Love, The glory of love, Monday morning and taking a walk. This was the warming up period quipped John but for the audience it was clear they didn’t need a warm up period as they were red hot. The sound was crystal clear and full marks to the sound engineer. Highlights for me were a very poignant Hello in there, a wonderful Speed of the sound of loneliness and of course Sam Stone. Amanda returned to the stage for a few numbers starting with the duet In Spite of Ourselves. This time she bought the fiddle with her and it soared – especially on a storming, extended Lake Marie which climaxed with John boogying on down and getting a rapturous standing ovation from a brilliant audience that included Bill Nighy. For the encore he was joined by his wife Fiona and it was a lovely end to a special night. He is a true great – of that there is no doubt.
The audience:
Very very good. A complete twat free zone.
It made me think..
A night of great music preceded by a lovely meal with Carl from this parish and his wife Angela. Nights like this are greatly treasured.
retropath2 says
How’s his voice holding? The havoc of surgery and radiotherapy damn near stopped him nearly 20(?) years ago and the odd clip on you tube show apparent straining to reach near any note outside talking range. This and the careful choices on record, so as to avoid higher notes have made me cautious of his more recent work. (Having said, the duets album recently was great, better, I feel, than the earlier such.) He was so good in the acoustic tent at Glastonbury in about 1993 I am scared for the risk of disappointment.
Kaisfatdad says
DuCool and I saw him in Stockholm on Tuesday and, as Steve says, he is on tremendous form.
A generous, very varied concert. Amanda certainly helped to get that band rocking with a vengeance for the final songs.
duco01 says
Yes, a very enjoyable evening. It was great to fnally see Prine live after being a fan of his music for 35 years. His voice was better than I’d expected it to be, given his two cancer operations.
Towards the end of the Stockholm gig, someone called out “We love , John!”. He was only echoing the general feeling in the auditorium. A quality songwriter with a very sympathetic band.
Baron Harkonnen says
I saw JP at a festival in Chorley, Lancashire in the mid `70`s. I can`t remember the date, except that it was held over the week-end. The stand out, probably because it`s one of my favourite songs was `City Of New Orleans`, I`m certain Steve Goodman was on stage with John P. for the song. I was also certain that John P. played twice at the festival. A friend explained that idea was due to old age.
retro, that last JP album is well worth investigating.
hubert rawlinson says
1976, Chorley July Wakes was about to mention it myself. It was a great line up. First visit of the McGarrigles. Steve Goodman was there.
Found a website with the lineup but the photo is out of focus. I do have the programme I’ll look it out.
They had a festival in 77 then no more, the site became Camelot theme park.
@Baron_Harkonnen
Baron Harkonnen says
Thanks @hubert_ rawlinson, you`re not related to the Golborne rawlinsons are you? One of them attacked me with a shovel when I came out of a pub in the 70`s.
hubert rawlinson says
Sole aim in life is to attack barons with shovels.
Actually a peace loving Rawlinson that’s me.
Can’t find programme, I’ve seen it recently but it’s not where it was.
Baron Harkonnen says
That`s good hubert, no need for me to worry about the internet equivalent of a shovel, whatever that may be.
Going back to the `July Wakes Festival`, I now seem to remember Steve G joining John P, it`s amazing when you concentrate. That`s as far as it goes though, I`ll have to talk in depth to my mate.
SteveT says
Actually John Prine name checked Steve Goodman last night and said that Steve would let him play what sounded like the complicated guitar parts but they actually weren’t.
Also neglected to mention the guitarist in his band Jason Wilber who was really very good. He has his own albums out which I will check on.
Kaisfatdad says
On the way home, a friend who knows JPs work far better than me, commented on how many of the song in the set were from his very first album.
He seems to have been revisiting it a lot lately.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/24/john-prine-songs-music-review-nashville-first-album-concert
Jorrox says
He always does a lot from his 1st album. I’ve known him to do more. There was no Illegal Smile last night, nor Spanish Pipedream.
Jorrox says
Glasgow last night. His voice isn’t an issue for me – it was never about him being a great singer. But he’s looking a lot older (and heavier) since his last tour. I blame his new wife – I assume she’s a good cook!
I always want him to talk about Airdrie Hill (as in Paradise) when in Scotland but he’s never done that as far as I know.
Carl says
In London he made a comment about the steroids he has to take, which would explain his increased girth.
Johnny Bubbles says
In defence of Fiona Prine, I think they’ve been married over 25 years. So any weight gain on JP’s part may not be entirely her fault! I’d imagine his medication has a lot to do with it.
I see Sturgill Simpson joined him in Glasgow last night. We had Jason Isbell for much of the Dublin show. I hope Sturguill got a better reaction that Isbell did in Dublin. Many Prine fans clearly had no idea who he was and didn’t enjoy losing precious moments of Prine stage time to a ‘nobody’. If they only knew!
Jorrox says
I had no idea who Mr Simpson is/was. The younger fella with me was over the moon. Simpson added nothing to the gig at all. I’ve heard of Isbell, but never heard a note. I wouldn’t want to lose a second of John Prine to either of them. or to anyone born after say 1960 for that matter.
I assumed Mrs P was a brand new wife. She looked about 30 from where I was.