2013 Gigs

We always like to have a good gig (or three) to look forward to but this year we excelled ourselves.  (Well, it’s now or never, more than ever, as Bob Dylan said at the Albert Hall gig.)

The Be Good Tanyas were missing Samantha Parton, but were still mesmerising.  Chris Wood was playing a lovely semi-acoustic guitar, and he had a keyboard player with a Hammond organ style sound.  Very good.

Bruce was good as usual, and gave all he had for three hours or so.  Wembley is very big!

Although we nearly got lost on the way to the Neil Young gig (Kate confused the Sat Nav by giving it the wrong postcode, much to Peter Loudon’s amusement) the gig, and the sound, was great.

At the Junction 2 we saw Mike Heron.  He was backed by Trembling Bells, who are big fans of the String Band.  They did some Robin Williamson songs on their own - Maya!

The Cambridge Folk Festival was fun and surprisingly relaxing.  It’s always a treat to see Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine - we weren’t disappointed.  There was lots of good stuff - we enjoyed Martin Simpson’s new stuff - mostly English, and Bella Hardy did a fantastic set.

In October we saw Al Stewart again.  And he did ‘In Brooklyn’ - so nostalgic.  Then, the day before we went on holiday to Italy, we went to “Bright Phoebus Revisited” at the Barbican, and met John and Holly.  That was amazing - all the Watersons and Jarvis Cocker! Note to self: remember never to plan a gig on the eve of a 7.05 flight the next morning.

Sigur Rós at Wembley Arena had an amazing light show, and the sound was good too.  Lasers, flashing lights, smoke - all the works!

When you go to see Bob Dylan you have to be prepared for anything, but this time he was very entertaining.  Only a few old songs, but the new ones sounded good, and he was having a great time.

To round off the year we saw John Renbourn in Edale - he can still play!  And he did ‘Lord Franklin’.  Finally the Bert Jansch celebration concert. Maybe a bit of a disappointment, as not all the songs were Bert Jansch songs, but there were many good things -Danny Thompson, Wizz Jones, Martin Simpson. And also some lovely old film of Bert recording and of Pentangle touring.  Also (how could I forget) Neil Young had sent a video of him recording “Needle Of Death” in a very retro disc cutting booth.  Totally Neil!