…bit early for whisky and beer, but anyway.

First of all, apologies for the broken link on Sigur Ros below, thanks to Rick for pointing this out.

Thinking of the summer, at rbally there is a concert from eleven years ago, the summer of 1995. (Play Bryan Adams chords if you have to).

It was, uh, one of the best years of my life: I left school, passed my driving test, went travelling, had my first job (as a cleaner; anyone who knows me will know there’s a slight irony there : -) ) went to my first Glastonbury, and went to quite a few gigs. One of them was REM at Milton Keynes Bowl.

It’s an indication of the time that the support acts were The Cranberries, Radiohead and Sleeper. Yup, Radiohead were supporting REM (the previous day, the supports had been Blur and Oasis. Those were the days). I still rate REM, even if I thought Around The Sun was disappointing, and I still look forward to Radiohead’s new releases, even if they freak some people out by not copying exactly what they were doing ten years ago. Louise Wener from Sleeper is now a successful author…as for The Cranberries, I’m afraid I stopped caring not long after. Still think the first album is great, though…

Last night, I went to see Richard Thompson again, at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. The man is an absolute legend. Just him and an acoustic guitar, but it was, genuinely, a very electric atmosphere. The tracklisting was:
1.Bathsheba Smiles
2. Angels To Rest
3. Crawl Back (Under My Stone)
4. Cold Kisses
5. Dad’s going camping
6. The Hot’s For The Smarts
7. Persuasion
8. Two Left Feet
9. Outside On the Inside
10. Let It Blow
11. Crazy Man Michael
12. Fairy Queen
13. The Sunset Song
14. Vincent Black Lightning 1952
15. Don’t Sit On My Jimmy Shands

For the encore, he was joined by Judith Owen, currently appearing with her husband Harry Shearer (AKA Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap and Montgomery Burns in The Simpsons; it’s a small world) for
16. One Door Opens
17. See My Friends (1965 Kinks song).

If you have never heard Richard Thompson, may I suggest you go here and download the man’s songs from his own web page, especially 1952 Vincent Black Lightning go and buy his 1991 album Rumour and Sigh.