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Richard Thompson’s 75th Birthday Bash

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Venue:

The Royal Albert Hall, London

Date: 08/06/2024

When Richard Thompson’s 70th birthday show was held at the Royal Albert Hall 5 years ago it was a sellout. His 75th, coming at the end of a 2 week UK tour, had less pent-up demand, and whereas as David Gilmour made his first UK stage appearance in years in 2019 the likes of Squeeze and Crowded House, of whom more later, among the special guests this time round proved less of a draw. All this meant our tickets at the very back and centre of the Rausing Circle were upgraded free of charge to box seats, two floors down but just as central.

It was a show of two halves, or rather one third then the other two thirds. The opening section was a truncated version of touring set, 7 songs over 50 minutes or so. I’ll post the set list in the comments. Those 7 songs managed to cram in 3 from the new album, a couple I haven’t heard him play for years (Guns are the Tongues and Sandy Denny’s John the Gun) and some special guests. Hard On Me, with Richard’s grandson Zak Hobbes taking the first solo and Richard and son-in-law James a Walbourne trading ferocious guitar licks to finish, was immense.

Following the interval the sight of a double bass lying in the stage got hopes up, and sure enough applause rang through the hall as 85 year old Danny Thompson was helped on to the stage and out of retirement before the rest of the band joined him. There followed an acoustic section, featuring a guest appearance from Ralph McTell, where Danny played for several numbers along with Michael Doucet of Beausoleil on fiddle and John Etheridge of Soft Machine on guitar. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Richard forget his own lyrics before, but the second verse of Waltzing’s For Dreamers eluded him.

Once Danny left the stage Michael remained for a rousing Woman or a Man? (One I never thought I would hear Richard play) and an incendiary Le Gig Francaise. Then Mrs RT Zara Phillips got her shot in the spotlight for her own song and Richard’s salmon Strat was back on for director Ovidio Salazar’s Machine Gun Jimi, a salute to members of the 1960s ‘27 Club’. A Thompson family arrangement of I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight was a rousing treat, before daughter Kami taking a lead vocal on A Heart Needs a Home. It brought a tear to my eye to see Linda cross the stage to kiss Richard on both cheeks at the end of Bright Lights in what felt like a very public act of reconciliation.

Up next were the main guest slots. It’s always a joy to see Squeeze, and I had never seen Crowded House before despite being a huge fan in the 90s. That said, I could have lived without the the 4th Squeeze song, and the third Crowded House song (and, to be completely honest, the second Ralph McTell song earlier). At too many points it felt like Richard was the the guest rather than the host at his own party, trying to find room for some of his own distinctive playing in the bands’ established arrangements. Take Me I’m Yours and Sister Madly gave him more solo space to shine, but a section of 8 songs where the closest to one of his was a Joni Mitchell number that Fairport recorded for their first album was being too generous.

We were into the home stretch now, with a big band arrangement of Tear Stained Letter before the inevitable Meet on the Ledge sent the happy audience out into the Kensington night. I’ve seen Richard Thompson dozens of times, both solo and with bands, and although it’s always a thrill to hear him play something different some more of his own wonderful back catalogue would was in order and a show which was all about the celebration of him.

The audience:

We all seemed to have fun, and it was the sort of crowd where the names Beauseil and Soft Machine would elicit knowing nods rather than blank looks.

It made me think..

The man’s extraordinary, playing with fire and energy for 3 hours at the age of 75 at the end of a two week tour.

10

Comments

      • I was listening to Richard and Linda (Kami was speaking for her) about the making of Bright Lights and Richard mentioned he thinks he sings better now than then, I’d be quite happy if he did a re-recording with Kami singing her mother’s vocals.

    • I saw the RT Band tour at The Glasshouse in Gateshead on Thursday 30th May. On the morning of the previous day Mrs B and I went to our local Post Office cafe for the first time since we’ve lived in the village. We were the only customers and had a very nice breakfast during which it started to monsoon down. A fairly mature gent came in out of the rain and ordered a cup of tea. As this is the North West and it’s a legal requirement we struck up conversation. He asked me was I was up to later on. I told him I had a band and we had a gig that evening. He asked me a bit about that and then told me he’d spent his life in brass bands. I asked if he’d been in any of the famous ones and he replied Manchester CWS. That immediately rang a bell with me as they are credited on the sleevenotes as playing on the title track of Richard & Linda’s fab waxing I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. I asked him about it. He didn’t recognise the Artists name but when I told him the title of the song he immediately said that yes, he was one of 6 band members who played on it at Strawberry Studios, Stockport and did the whole thing in half an hour. He also told me that the guy in charge of the session who brought in a crate of beer and then said “Right, let’s get this done” was Roy Wood, regularly seen on TOTP with a flower on this forehead. I realised afterwards that he might have confused his name with John Wood who engineered the album, but you never know. He told me that he normally played euphonium but on this occasion he played a bass horn. He also said only 2 of the 6 players are still with us. I was really chuffed to meet someone who’d played on that song and he was really chuffed to be recognised for it.

  3. I wish I was there for this gig after the slight disappointment of the Birmingham show. Good but not his best.
    By the way at the Birmingham gig he did repeat a verse of Turning of the tide. Don’t know whether it was accidental or deliberate but it was noticeable and a little bit jarring.

  4. As it was a purely acoustic undertaking, thought RT might use his 2019-tour to mix things up a bit. Sadly there was minimal change – IIRC one song – on the Dublin and Galway shows I was lucky enough to catch.

    Given the speed at which the “dimming of the day” is fast approaching for all of us, I’ve learned to treasure every chance to see acts like RT. While would have gone to a Dublin or Galway date like a shot, he sadly skipped Ireland this time around

  5. Great review Gatz. Agree that some of the guests might better have been better employed on less of their own material but the ever collegiate Richard looked to be having a grand time marshalling everyone to trade licks or take a spot. All were in great spirits. The fact that Danny Thompson looks like he might now not win a fist fight is particularly good news for those who might inadvertently cross him. As Jaycee says, worth seeing all of these folk as they progress into older age, genuine musicians with much to still give.

    • Actually there was one. In the opening section he was wearing a smart, dark coloured frock coat which was changed for the jacket in the video above for the ‘and guests’ section.

  7. I was there too. I loved it. Much more so than the gig 5 years ago. I know most on here loved that show and I didn’t comment on the thread at the time to avoid seeming a curmudgeon. I hope no-one will mind if I now say that I thought there were too many performers who were either no longer capable of performing well or else who just simply performed badly on the night. I had the same feeling about that show as Gatz had about Saturday’s – that RT seemed like a bit of a guest at his own party – with the additional frustration that he was being sidelined by sub-standard performers. On Saturday, I didn’t mind so much because the guests were so much better. Difford and Tilbrook were very good (when I see Squeeze later this year I suspect I’ll be wishing the rest of their band were as good as Mattacks, Hobbs, Thompson, Prodaniuk and the others) and Crowded House were really excellent.

    Highlights for me were Waltzing for Dreamers, memory lapse or no memory lapse (and what a joy to see Danny again!), Bright Lights, A Heart Needs A Home and the very defiant version of Meet On The Ledge at the end. But the whole show was great. I love Kami’s voice and do wish that The Rails would do some more gigs.

    That was the second time in 4 days I heard Tear Stained Letter live. Albert Lee did it at the Half Moon on Wednesday. His was good too but not quite as memorable as RT’s. Albert is now 80. Let’s hope we can look forward to another excellent show for RT in 5 years.

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