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Australasian Tour 2001.
Sunday 18 February 2001.
Stage 3- Botanic Park . Womadelaide .
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2001 Tour dates New Zealand
Australia
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The Sunday show was even more fun and far more intimate, as stage three is comparatively small and generally draws smaller crowds than stage 2. Sunday was HOT . Temps peaked at 39c in the shade in the late afternoon and it was humid to boot. By the time RT hit the stage at 7 pm , things had cooled a little bit and the stage and its frontage were in the shade, but it was still a tad warm for this sort of thing . This did not prevent RT from delivering a warm, amusing and spirited set with just as much as attack as he had on Saturday. Opening with a jocular" I'll play some non energetic music so you don't have to jump around and get even hotter than you are " he then made us think twice about his intentions by adding a typical Thompson after thought "or shall I ? "followed by that shy little smile that the man can flash so spontaneously .This sort of minor point might seem unimportant to anyone other than the rabid fan, but I find these little asides one of RT's most appealing aspects. I almost like his stage banter as much as his music.
To give the lie to the opening statement he then immediately jumped into a pretty spirited rendition of " Mr Rebound" , the first of two new songs not previously featured at WomAdelaide .The crowd of perhaps a thousand or fifteen hundred souls , composed of a good mix of seasoned fans - many of whom had been present on Saturday- and a fair sprinkling of new chums as well -thought this was a pretty impressive opening gambit and despite the heat gave a very good round of applause.
"I Misunderstood" followed . There was a minor mis-key during this one , which could have been due to the heat ,or it might have been a deliberate statement . It did not detract from my enjoyment of the number and it didn't seem to throw RT , I imagine that he realises that he is only human, everyone makes mistakes. This number was was followed swiftly by a top notch " I Feel So Good "which was appended by another stage announcement from his nibs
" Thank you very much, under the shade of the old Aricarraia Norfolkiii whatever they are ..."( a reference to the Hoop Pines that fringe stage three and were providing much needed shade by this time of day)" I played all the good ones yesterday, now wore down to the crap. (much audience laughter ) These are all old ones I played last time .( a short pause as an audience member requests Al Bowlley )" Ah you bunch of old conservatives ."
Then Richard revealed his political colours, which makes me warm to him considerably , as I loath and despise John Howard .
" You'll not be voting for old watsisname will you ? Old Howard , ( noises of disapproval from crowd at the mention of the name ) you're not THAT conservative" .
After these pleasantries, " Waltzing For Dreamers" , was as usual , delightful - ( and it was nice to see that the extremely respectful crowd did not chatter during the quiet numbers , which fortunately was a feature of both days shows. This was unlike the stage one set in 1997 where a goodly portion of the crowd made a lot of noise where I was sitting . In fact this refined behaviour was a feature of the whole festival, the audiences were more respectful and were there to enjoy the music, not just party.) After "Waltzing" Richard moved straight into " Turning of the Tide" , which featured the usual dextrous fingering and was greeted with some whoops from the crowd.
A crying baby during the break after TOT Tide prompted the response of - " whos that ! " from on-stage followed by " This is off my last album about missing the bus and walking home. This is in London in the 60s. (A audience member then regaled Richard with a story of their adventures after missing a bus to which he rejoined acidly " did you ?, oh out in Adelaide , how interesting . I went on one of your very fine trams today, built in 1931 you know- I checked " , which fascinating fact then caused him to perform a miss cue on the guitar , to which RT wildly over reacted comically and exclaimed " oh shit"
Richard treated us to a tender and polished version of Beeswing - the end of which was greeted by lots of cheers - a popular number for this audience. Then it was party time :
" One of the grand old men of Scottish music died in the last couple of months ago. Mr Jimmy Shands , a wonderful accordion player . I have a wee song about Jimmy here that I'd love you to join in , if you can just raise the energy ,if you fan your hats in time that would be great " . A lot of crowd laughter at this and the audience enthusiastically joined in after the first verse and continued to do so, but there was a rather truncated "lets polka" instrumental break. .Richard actually stopped singing and let the audience carry the chorus the last time around and he awarded us with " - ah you guys , fabulous. ah Jimmy, Jimmy. You guys are so sensitive, its those accents though , tricky."
Obviously our efforts had put him in an expansive mood, as he then asked
" Anything you want to hear ? , Bright Lights ?woooh !. Does it matter if I don't remember the words or the tune ? I mean I'm playing to like millions of people here, it could be so embarrassing if I don't remember the words ,there's at least 500, 000, like three Woodstock's , its so wow man , I mean - no !.
I'll do this one "
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After all that he did begin to play"Bright Lights" ,but unfortunately , when he reached " if you've got the cash then you're doing all right "one of his strings broke,with a resounding DOIIINGGG -prompting a loud "oh, shhhhhhhugar ".Nevertheless, he continued to sing without guitar accompaniment and many in the audience joined in as he fished a packet of strings from his shirt pocket. However, the packet proved to have only five strings and a replacement string could not be found immediately, so despite the crowd continuing to sing and clap along -which proved to be most touching -when we reached" there's a silver band" he gave up and announced " I tell you what , if I go off now I can come back for the encore " With this he dashed off stage and was seen to change the string in the wings -when one was finally produced by a flunky . As he came back on-stage he shouted over his shoulder " You're fired" But he wasn't serious , it was all in good jest. - I hope !
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As Richard continued to tune up he mused ." I mean you'd think a big star like me would have more then one guitar, an entourage, " and in reference to a continuation of Bright Lights " did we finish that one ? Yes we did really." which provoked groans of disappointment from the audience , who had thoroughly enjoyed the sing along and were hoping for a re-run . The tuning up process gave the audience an opportunity to have a chat and there were a few questions as to why he did not bring the band to Australia, which brought this response " well if you paid four times the price " which strangely provoked some cheers ! Richard then gave us a strategy to follow " petition Womad and say we have to have the band whatever it costs". However he was on dangerous ground when he replied to a suggestion he use Australian musicians "What, Australian musicians ? , I'm struggling to think of a real Australian musician "which provoked a few mock (and genuine ) howls from the crowd" I mean Neil Finn is from New Zealand isn't he -ho, ho ho." He appeared to jocularly consider the options " There's those geezers from Midnight wotsit ,Men at wotsit . AC/DC , ahhh, I mean I can relate to those lads ,they got a bit of class , a bit of taste , a very good line in shorts . I think they're wearing my old school uniform." After which lengthy peroration his guitar was finally in tune and he began \an energetic version of " Valerie' , which ended with "thanks very much, have a great festival" and a quick trip offstage before a return to sustained strong applause .There were quite a few shouted requests from the crowd -including a highly unlikely", Meet on the Ledge "and a more likely " Al Bowlley" But Richard opted to render a perfectly timed ' Dimming of the Day ' -which was as perfect a way to round off what had been two great, if rather short sets -as I can possibly imagine .
It had been a thoroughly satisfying weekend of Richard Thompson music and after an absence of four years , it was great to see the man yet again in an Australian setting- especially as one as nice as Womad. The only complaint could be that the sets were so short ( and both under ran by a few minutes ) as it did not really allow Richard to stretch out like he does in a two hour show. The broken string did at least allow him to have a chat with the audience , which gave us more of the feel of a longer show, although we lost a full version of Bright Lights as a consequence. Overall though , one has to admit that any Richard Thompson , in any setting and for however short a time , is better then none and its to be hoped that he returns soon to these shores , as those of us who are in the know will welcome him with open arms when he sees fit to visit the land of Oz once again .
An audience tape exists of this show, quality excellent.
2001 Australian tour reviews/interviews and photographs
Richard Thompson photo gallery.
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