June 2001

by Paul Castle

Contents:

UK News :
- Martin & Bob's 60th Birthday Celebrations
- UK Connections - Shawn Colvin
- Roy Harper's 60th Birthday Concert
London Gigs
Best of the Rest of the UK Gigs
UK Festivals

May has been a great month for 60th birthday celebrations (with more on the way this month - see below). First Martin Carthy celebrated his, with an all-star cast of thousands turning out for a sell-out concert in Oxford -see details on his website. Probably the highlight (of many) for me was seeing Dave Swarbrick, who got the biggest cheer of the night, joining Martin to play a couple of tunes. As it said in the concert programme, "Reports of his death were much exaggerated."

Highlights of the evening will be broadcast on Mike Harding’s BBC Radio 2 show on Wednesday 6th June 8-9pm GMT (listen on the web) and two tracks from the concert will be added to the special CD-R that goes with the new Free Reed boxed set, "The Carthy Chronicles" - see details.

Also, see Andrew Calhoun's four star review of the Carthy boxed set on the folkmusic.about.com site.

The UK Bob Dylan Convention also turned out to be a lot of fun, with non-stop video screenings of concert and rehearsal footage and a fascinating session by guest speaker, César Diaz, full of amusing anecdotes from his five years on the road with Dylan, both as his guitar/amp tech and guitarist. Later that evening César joined UK band 'Bullfrog Jones' to play a storming set of Dylan covers that had the packed audience screaming for more. The Convention organiser, Dave Dingle of 'My Back Pages' has a vast array of Dylan-related publications and videos available by mail order for details contact him by e-mail mbp@tinyworld.co.uk or by post at
P.O. Box 30, Lancaster LA1 2GH, England.

UK Connections - Shawn Colvin

US singer songwriter Shawn Colvin is currently touring the UK, having arrived in York at the end of last month to play a solo acoustic set at a concert to launch the new BBC Radio 2 Folk website, before setting off around the country with fellow songwriter and friend Mary Chapin Carpenter. Before she left, I phoned her in the US for a chat about her UK experiences over the years.

Her very first visit overseas, she told me, was as a back-up singer on Suzanne Vega's European tour in 1987. Having sung on her massive hit 'Luka', she got a call to join the band for the European leg of her 'Solitude Standing' tour that year. "An incredible experience", she said, "playing at Wembley, which I probably will never get the chance to do again." Whilst in London they stayed at The Royal Garden Hotel and she spent much of her free time exploring Kensington Church Street and the surrounding area - and even going to The Mean Fiddler in Harlesden to see Paul Brady one night, and being thrilled when Mark Knopfler, from Dire Straits, joined him on stage. Paul Brady, she said, was a major influence on her guitar style, as was Richard Thompson.

Returning to the States, she started work on her debut album, 'Steady On', writing 'The Dead of the Night' which, she said, was inspired by that first visit to London. She returned again in 1990 on a UK promotional tour for the album (which won a Grammy for 'Best Contemporary Folk Recording'), playing at that year's Reading Festival and London gigs at The London School of Economics, The Mean Fiddler Acoustic Room and a music industry showcase at Ronnie Scott's, she remembers, before returning later in the year to support Blue Nile, - a particular joy for her, she told me, as she'd listened to their first album ‘A Walk Across The Rooftops’ continuously throughout her first UK visit on the Suzanne Vega tour. "For a band who so rarely play gigs", she said, "you can imagine what playing in their home town of Glasgow on the final night of the tour was like!"

The following year Shawn supported The Richard Thompson Band on their US tour, before replacing Christine Collister in the band, playing guitar and singing back-ups on the following brief UK tour, whilst also singing what have been described as "two riveting duets" with Richard on his songs - "Waltzing's for Dreamers", she remembers, and another one, the title of which she forgets, singing the words down the phone, and saying it had appeared on the 'Hard Cash' album (which turned out to be 'Oh I Swear'). Although she forgets exactly where, she also remembers playing at a seaside festival on that tour and sitting looking out to sea, writing the opening verses of her song 'Polaroids' - from her 'Fat City' album. (This, I discover later, with a little help from a few people on the Richard Thompson Discussion List, turns out to be have been at Southsea, near Portsmouth, in August 1991).

Since then, she has toured regularly in her own right, most notably for me, as it was the first time I saw her, playing the Jazz Cafe in 1994 with Larry Klein, (who produced her second album 'Fat City') on bass, along with Steuart Smith (currently touring Europe with The Eagles) on guitar. It was a sensational gig!

Welcome back, Shawn. I hope you have a brilliant tour and good luck with the new album ('Whole New You' - see London Gigs section).

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'Across the Pond' Feature - Roy Harper

Renowned UK songwriter Roy Harper is celebrating his 60th birthday this month, with a concert at The Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. Sold out for many months now, confirmed guests due to be joining him on stage include composer David Bedford, (who is arranging parts for and conducting a 10 piece string section), 'Plainsong' founder Andy Roberts, Jeff Martin from Canadian band 'The Tea Party' (who, last year, appeared on Roy's highly acclaimed all-acoustic album, 'The Green Man'), ex- Pentangle guitarist John Renbourn, Roy's son Nick Harper, and uilleann piper Troy Donockley (who has recently been touring with Maddy Prior).

Whilst other promised 'surprise' guests can't be confirmed, one can't help speculating - over the years Roy has been associated with various members of Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin (who, in 1970, included the tribute 'Hats off to Harper' on Led Zeppelin III, written by life-long friend Jimmy Page), as well as guitarist Chris Spedding (currently on tour with Roxy Music), Kate Bush (who has claimed Harper as one of her major inspirations), Peter Gabriel (who covered his song 'Another Day'), Paul McCartney (who, along with Linda, sang on his classic 'One of those Days in England' from Roy's 1976 'Bullinamingvase' album , and even The Grimethorpe Colliery Band (who appeared on his 1975 album, HQ, on another of his classics, 'When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease', "a reflection on summers past, present and future, and the essence of England encapsulated in a cricket match" described as "perhaps the best song ever written about the feeling of Englishness."

For details of his career up to 1998, see this biography on the 'Stormcock' site, which also includes details on how to join his discussion list.

Still making albums and regularly touring the UK, often with his son, Nick Harper , who has carved out his own highly successful music career in recent years, Roy has just released 'East Of The Sun' - A Collection Of Love Songs, and will be off on another major UK tour in September and October. Happy Birthday, Roy - from 'Across the Pond'

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Plenty coming up in June, with some great festivals, including Tommy Makem's International Festival of Song in Armagh, Ireland (see UK Festivals section below). Also, please check out the UK gig previews - on their way across the pond this month we have Neil Young, The Eagles, Mary Gauthier, Little Feat, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Suzanne Vega, Laura Cantrell, Cherish the Ladies, and Duck Baker, plus bluesmen Michael Jerome Brown, Bob Brozman, Woody Mann, Chris Thomas King, and Hubert Sumlin, amongst others.

Wherever you're bound this month have a great time.

Paul pdcmusic@freeuk.com

PS. If you would like to receive 'Across the Pond' as a plain text e-mail newsletter, please let me know.

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