![]() This very solid audience tape captures Neil and the MGs’ very first full show - they had famously stolen the show for a few songs at the previous fall’s Bob Dylan tribute in NYC. A few weeks back, the “Timeline Concert of the Moment” was a great summer of ‘93 show featuring Neil backed by the legendary Booker T. & the MGs - Warfield Theater, San Francisco, California, June 9, 1993 Robyn Hitchcock | Web | Patreon | Bandcamp robyn hitchcock the soft boys summer of robyn And the train rolls on, serving mysterious drinks and calling at mythical Southern Region stations, somewhere between Basingstoke and Reading. In my dream, it’s still summer light but the leaves fall in sheets, leaving the trees prematurely bald. Then (in the Northern Hemisphere) the hag of winter descends and strews its ruins across the landscape, where lies the wreckage of the crashed Madonna, her fuselage frosting in a ploughed field. The last afternoons of summertime, before the clocks go back and the old year dies. Robyn Says: My song “I Often Dream Of Trains” is set at exactly this time of year, in this light, at this time of day. He’s joined by the mighty Morris Windsor and the also mighty Kimberley Rew for several songs, including a few rarely played numbers from that Live at Portland Arms album, “We Like Bananas” and “Give Me A Spanner, Ralph.” The peak, however, is a note-perfect rendition of “Queen of Eyes.” Will I ever get tired of that song? All signs point to no! The evening is rounded off by an Americana encore, with covers of classics Dylan, Parsons and Frizzell. “The Lizard” is another winner, with some very ghostly delay on the guitar and vocals.įor the second set, Robyn gives it back to the Soft Boys - or two of them at least. In its solo acoustic guise, the tune’s British folk leanings are thrown even more into relief. More than enough, really! The first set is highlighted by a favorite song of mine that we somehow haven’t encountered so far in our Summer of Robyn journey - “Luminous Rose” off of Globe of Frogs. “Everything’s a retrospective now,” he reports.īut though the songs lean towards the autumnal, there’s still plenty of life left in Hitchcock. At this Hallow’s Eve Eve show, Robyn plays two sets drawn from pretty much all periods of his career. The Portland Arms pub in Cambridge was where a young Robyn Hitchcock cut his teeth as a performer back in the mid-1970s, and it’s the site of a classic Soft Boys recording. ![]() In my end is my beginning - it’s 2018 and we’re back to the starting point. Robyn Hitchcock - Portland Arms, Cambridge, United Kingdom, October 30, 2018 Robyn Hitchcock | Web | Patreon | Bandcamp robyn hitchcock summer of robyn My songs are often sad … my chatter is inane. Onstage I sometimes talk a lot, word solos. I’m a cooling ingot of rage … quiet and generally polite. Robyn Says: I am now a troubadour in my mid-60s … white-haired, with a Fylde acoustic guitar, drawing on a quiverful of songs that go back to 1979. Robyn himself brings it all to a grand conclusion with a supremely rowdy “I Am The Walrus.” Goo goo g'joob! The night comes to an end with a celebration of everyone’s favorite band - Throbbing Gristle! Just kidding, it’s Beatles Karaoke time, with Sean Nelson, Emma Swift, Lily Hiatt and Tristen all adding their vocal talents. On the other end of the spectrum, “Freeze” is positively vicious, as Hitchcock and Hughen get into some wicked guitar duels at the end. I’m particularly impressed with the gorgeous reading of “Winchester,” with the Fabs swelling softly behind Robyn, adding note-perfect harmonies at the same time. Maybe Robyn should just have 10 bands going all over the country … I humbly volunteer for his Rocky Mountain region group.Īnyway, the Nashville Fabs consist of Wilco’s Pat Sansone on bass, Ryan Brewer on drums and Jim Hughen on guitar - the same lineup that appears on Hitchcock’s excellent 2019 single “Sunday Never Comes / Take Off Your Bandages.” Both of those tunes get played here alongside a winning selection of old and new faves. To celebrate, check out a marvelous tape of the man in his adopted hometown of Nashville, Tennessee - with a brand-new band! First came the LA Squires, now we’ve got the Nashville Fabs. Robyn Hitchcock - Mercy Lounge, Nashville, Tennessee, December 6, 2019Ī belated happy b-day to Robyn Hitchcock, who turned 69 years young yesterday.
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