|
|
|
Robyn Hitchcock
Concert appearance: Sat., 6 Dec. 1997
Princess Charlotte
Leicester, England UK
Set list:
Cheese Alarm
Lysander
Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom
My Wife and My Dead Wife
Madonna of the Wasps
Jewels for Sophia
Elizabeth Jade
Queen Elvis
I'm Only You
I Something You
Raymond Chandler Evening
Freeze
Only the Stones Remain encore
Alright, Yeah
I Saw Nick Drake
Beautiful Queen
A maiden posting to Fegmaniax with my maiden gig review too - we'll see
how we get on. The ink on the set list I scribbled down has run, which is
a great start - all bug reports welcomed.
The Charlotte pub - a deservedly popular live venue in central Leicester
with gigs virtually seven days a week - was pretty busy for Robyn last
night - enough people there to give it some atmosphere but not so much
that it was uncomfortably cramped/hot - the venue's a reasonable size
anyway. Tucked in a corner was the ongoing Robyn Hitchcock Summer Sale(!)
selling assorted vinyl/CDs/tapes for 5 pounds and T-shirts (Man With A
Woman's Shadow, Respect, Robyn at Camden Jongleurs/Dingwalls) for 10
pounds plus the new Homer acoustic CD and a Homer Superkeen T-shirt. It
was doing a roaring trade - I picked up the Give It To The Thoth Boys
live oddities cassette and the Sequel My Wife And My Dead Wife CD single.
Doors opened at 2030 and at 2105 Tim and Jake from Homer appeared to
rattle their way acoustically through Stay By My Side, Back from
Disneyland, Indestructible, Superkeen, Do You Want To Be Single?, Save Me
For Happiness and the new single There There There. Good stuff, but I
got the impression they aren't quite as versatile at doing acoustic work
as Robyn - the two ballads were a bit tortuous and only earned polite
applause from the crowd whereas the 'livelier' stuff was well cheered, so
maybe others in the audience agreed.
After a ten-minute interval Robyn came on stage at about 2145 in a black
shirt with large white circles on it (changed, for the encores, to a red
one with purple apples on it - it was that one that earned a "Nice shirt,
Robyn!" from the audience...) Set list was;
The Cheese Alarm
Beautiful Queen (introduced by the story of a monoplane flying over a
chessboard cutting the infrared beams emitted by the knights and so
causing a toilet to flush in Kettering)
Serpent At The Gates of Wisdom ('God above and all *her* angels')
My Wife And My Dead Wife
(enter Tim)
Madonna Of The Wasps
Jewels for Sophia (minus the reference to Tony Blair in the lyrics)
Elizabeth Jade (*definitely* 'popper' on this occasion)
Queen Elvis
(exit Tim)
I'm Only You
I Something You
(RH dons electric guitar)
Raymond Chandler Evening
Freeze
Only The Stones Remain
Encores: (the first three with Tim and Jake, and all acoustic I think)
Alright Yeah
Nick Drake
Beautiful Queen (again)
I Often Dream of Trains
I tried to keep count of which ones were with the Baby Jesus guitar pick
and which were with the Hail Mary but failed hopelessly....
As you can probably tell from the fact that there were four encores, it
was a cracking show, and very well received. If Robyn hadn't had to be
out of the place by 2300 I think he could have been kept there half the
night. It was my first RH gig for quite a few years - I always seem to be
abroad when he's playing in the UK - so I can't compare to his other
recent shows but as far I - and apparently Leicester - were concerned he
was on top form. It was just wonderful in any case to hear all these
newer songs (Sophia, Elizabeth Jade etc) that all you fortunate Stateside
Fegs have been talking about on here for months! :-) He said he hoped to
see us all again next year - I'll certainly be there if he does.
-Jeremy-
If you have an addition or correction, please send an e-mail message about it to Bayard Catron.
If you ever see an error message or a bad link, please send an e-mail message about that to John Hedges.