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Robyn Hitchcock Homer
Concert appearance: Thu., 5 Sep. 1996
Roadhouse
Manchester, England UK
Set list:
Antwoman
De Chirico Street
The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)
My Wife and My Dead Wife
Beautiful Girl
I Am Not Me
Acid Bird
The Cars She Used to Drive
Alright, Yeah
Beautiful Queen
If You Were a Priest
Queen of Eyes "Mucky"
Oceanside
Heaven
I Got a Message For You
The Devil's Radio
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it Takes a Train to Cry (Bob Dylan)
The night started off with another excellent set from Homer, I prefer the
fully equipped version to the minimalist drumless version seen at the 12-Bar.
This was the best performance I've ever seen from Robyn. He was really into
it and played several classics as well as a couple of extended monologues.
It began in the same way as the recent 12-Bar gigs with Robyn playing solo
acoustic. He started with ANTWOMAN, the only completely new song in the set.
Not much melody to my ears, but perhaps it will grow on me. Then onto
DE CHIRICO ST. 'This is one Hendrix wrote before he even died. He was that
prolific' and into THE WIND CRIES MARY. 'This is the song missing from
Frank Sinatra's duets album' followed by a bit of a monologue then, to my
surprise, MY WIFE AND MY DEAD WIFE then straight into BEAUTIFUL GIRL.
Around this time my wife fainted due to a combination of the heat and having
donated a pint of blood a few hours earlier, so I was a little distracted at
this point.
Robyn switched here to his electric guitar and into I AM NOT ME. He then
introduced the members of Homer to the audience and they launched into a
selection of Robyn's greatest works. First we had ACID BIRD then
THE CARS SHE USED TO DRIVE.
I've never seen Robyn with the Egyptians, only heard various live stuff
eg GTLTHO, so I don't know how well it would compare but at the time it seemed
very good. It makes a change for me to see Robyn with bass and drums behind
him.
'This may be released as a single. It's one of the most normal things I've
ever heard let alone written.' and a monologue about roast potatoes into
ALRIGHT, YEAH straight into BEAUTIFUL QUEEN followed by IF YOU WERE A PRIEST.
At this point Robyn got fed up with his amp and switched back to the acoustic.
Still with Homer into QUEEN OF EYES (definitely Mucky :-) ). The last song
in the main set was OCEANSIDE.
After a short interval back came Robyn solo and acoustic and played HEAVEN then
an extended version of I GOT A MESSAGE FOR YOU. Back came Homer and we had
THE DEVIL'S RADIO and the evening was finished off with a song that I am
completely at a loss to identify. A blues song, not one of Robyn's I think,
lyrics included 'I ride on the mail train baby.....' 'I've been up all night
leaning on the windowsill, well' 'and if I die on top of a hill, Lord if I
don't make it you know my baby will.' That must be enough for someone to be
able to identify it.
I missed the trousers, but the shirts were white and black check with a
circular pattern on it and for the encore a yellow shirt with green lizards.
I would heartily recommend anyone who can get to one of the shows with Homer
to do so, they really add to Robyn's performance. It's a shame the 12-Bar
stage is too small for the drum kit as it makes a big difference.
PS My wife recovered quite quickly.
--
Rob Collingwood
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