24 May 2008 - Richard Thompson with Mary Gauthier, Royal Festival Hall

Double Treat - no, make that Triple Treat

It was good to see Mary Gauthier in London again - this time in her classiest UK venue yet, in support of Richard Thompson at the South Bank concert hall. Mary was in fine form as she gave the Thompson audience a "sampler" set from 'I Drink' and 'Camelot Motel' to the most recent 'Last of the Hobo Kings'. After battling courteously with the lack of feedback in the opening number, Mary wrapped us up in her spell of tales from life on the road and the hurt of post-Katrina New Orleans. Her wry tales between songs are a feature of her performances; tonight there was only time for the back-story to 'Hobo Kings' - which raised much laughter. I think Mary won quite a few converts - if the brisk trade around the cd table was anything to go by - and hopefully she'll be back soon.

Richard Thompson put on a masterful solo performance - as ever making light work of sounding like a full band, rather than a lone guitarist. Only a few songs in, he gallantly abandoned his set-list to play requests - 'Cold Kisses', 'Valerie' etc - although he drew the line at 'My Daddy'. 'Dad's Gonna Kill Me' thrilled again, as did 'Vincent' - but 'Bright Lights' is better sung as a duet. And on it went - preaching to the converted. There were no real surprises until the second encore when he introduced his daughter Kamila for a couple of numbers - her voice very reminiscent of her mother's. Rather like the Wainwright/McGarrigles, the talented Thompson clan is clearly another folk/rock dynasty - look them up at a festival near you this summer.

14 October 2007 – Mary Gauthier, Arts Theatre

A small West End theatre is not the ideal venue for Mary Gauthier. With an act far better suited to bar-rooms and stand-up venues, this seemed a strange choice for Mary’s only London date on her 2007 tour. Comparing with her Bristol gig at St Bonaventure’s Social Club, I am guessing that this was a showcase for industry-type guests. It seemed that the fans were seated from Row G back, with guests to the front or even upstairs. Not that there’s anything wrong with hearing gems from the back catalogue, ‘Drag Queens and Limousines’, ‘Camelot Motel’ and ‘I Drink’ to name a few, but there are songs from her new album ‘Between Daylight and Dark’ that deserved an outing. So the very moving ‘Thanksgiving’ gave way to ‘Christmas in Paradise’ as a selection from Mary’s repertoire of “miserable holiday songs” and so on. Another surprising omission was ‘Soft Place to Land’. But enough carping – we can all think up our dream gig.

Mary’s stories, like her songs, are full of truth and wit, particularly when explaining why she’s “a freak” in Nashville, as she can’t sing the usual he-loved-me-and-left-me songs – “that wouldn’t be honest”, she said with a wink. Lots of powerful songs too, with ‘Mercy Now’ (Iraq) and ‘Can’t Find The Way’ (Katrina) being the most topical.

If Mary’s playing at a dive near you, then don’t miss out – you’re in for a treat.

04 November 2006 – Mary Gauthier, Roundhouse Studio

You couldn’t have had two more contrasting audiences converging on the Roundhouse that night. On the one hand retro-romantic-glam-punk rockers for the Dresden Dolls, on the other – well, er, could’ve been their “older, but we ain’t dead yet” folks for Mary Gauthier.

Thomm Jutz, Mary’s superbly-talented backing musician, came out and settled down to tuning his guitar. Mary soon. Thomm strums. Management pops out of the back door and goes back in. Thomm strums. Still no Mary. Ladies near me getting worried – “Don’t worry”, say I, (thinking Oh God, she’s had a run-in with the punks). Thomm strums. Finally, Mary – phew! But she’s as wired and spooked as hell by something and it’s a couple of songs before she starts to relax enough to speak to us.

Mary’s from the Deep South and Hurricane Katrina hit her and hers badly, the grief and anger plain to see in ‘Momma Louisiana’. There were more stories from Mary’s life on the road and some more new songs too. Lots of them. New album promised sometime - “it’s in the queue” – but the music business may not be playing straight with her – well, we’ll see. Wonderfully self-deprecating, Mary acknowledges she does a great line in “miserable holiday songs” – one of the latest being “Thanksgiving at the Prison” where the fine details of families queuing up to visit their loved ones includes the dignified grandma who is frisked not once, but twice: “When they’re done she wipes their touch off her dress, stands tall and walks in”.

Mary was delighted so many waited afterwards for a meet’n’greet. If she’s passing through a town near you, drop by, open your ears and listen – you won’t be disappointed. Oh yes, and Bob Dylan rates her ‘Mercy Now’ – that must please her.

2005 - Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! etc.

01 March - Rufus Wainwright, Islington Academy
04 April - Willie Nelson and Family ( + Mary Gauthier), Shepherds Bush Empire
16 April - Rufus Wainwright, Shepherds Bush Empire
21 November - Bob Dylan, Brixton Academy
29 November - Rufus Wainwright, Hammersmith Apollo


Rufus, Islington. Having stupidly missed an earlier gig, I grabbed the chance to see this 'one-off' spot, billed as a special preview of 'Want Two'.

First, the venue - supposedly purpose-built for live music - hah! Take a large-ish shopping mall 'Superdrug', rip out the fixtures, put in a bar and stage - you get the idea.

Second, the Rules of Standing. Tall units - no problem anywhere. Average height units - get there well before the doors open and head straight for the front of stage area. Smaller units - (apart from "forget it") as before x 10, head straight for the front, do not pass Go, do not stop at the bar ...

Third, the act. Fighting jet-lag and a cold, Rufus's pared-down set was spoiled for me by the poor sound quality and by the fact that I could hardly see a thing (refer to 2 above). Luckily, there was Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith still to come.

Willie Nelson/Mary Gauthier. When you least expect it, along comes something new and rather wonderful.

Went along to pay my respects to Willie Nelson. Not a die-hard fan, but we were both in London, so what the hell. Support act was 'Mary who?' so, seat taken, a trip to the bar was called for. Then the tour guy announced "some racoon-assed country singer". We don't get than many racoon-asses in London, so was intrigued. The singer in question held the audience's attention from the first note, through the Dylan-esque lyrics to the droll, wry stories of a hard life. Was this a joke? Did the Country folks in Nashville realise they had a gay singer on their hands, singing of the ladies she had loved and lost, just like WN? She knew, we all knew, no-one cared and it was grreat. More, please.

Willie Nelson then showed London how to play a mean gee-tar, moving through dozens of songs in a seamless medley of more Country classics than you realized you knew and only stopping to rest to let his amazing sister show us what she could do on the piano. The Family played a blinder and WN was generous enough to let Mary Gauthier join in with the final songs of the set. We all went home talkin' Texan.

Shepherds Bush Empire. Tatty - yes. Smelly - yes. Good atmosphere - yes. Proper acoustics and sight-lines - yes. Pulling it down for "redevelopment" - yes. Really. I know, I know.

Rufus, Shepherds Bush. Whatever. Rufus with full band, horn section and backing singers (Martha Wainwright no less) put on a really good show. This is pop, pop-opera, pantomime, music-hall and a whole lotta fun. The highlight was 'Oh What a World' where his Rufusness stripped off (slowly) to reveal a rather fetching g-stringed fairy costume with wings and sparkly glow stick wand - to the screaming delight of the front row. (You had to be there ...) The audience didn't want to go home .."I'm so naughty" he drawled wickedly before his third encore. Craazy.

Bob Dylan, Brixton Academy. And now the Rules of Dylan:

• Bob plays where he pleases, be in Cardiff or London.
• Expect set rotation - no promises.
• "Those that are first shall be last ..." The die-hards who queue all day to be 'front standing' do not necessarily get plum spots each time. This was a five-day residency and sometime the chosen ones were let in from the back of the queue.
• Go to the Bob Links section on http://www.expectingrain.com/ for the complete reviews (and show some respect while you're there, please).
• Expect a body-search at Brixton.
• Balcony seats at Brixton are rather good.

Music is meant for places like this. Much better atmosphere = much better gig. Appreciative audience and a bit of Cool Dude interaction – he played a snatch of ‘London Calling’ in honour of the Clash-man who was in that night. Much cheering, so he sang the entire song the following night. The Main Man on keyboards and harmonica throughout – seemed pleased with the evening, though.

Rufus Wainwright, Hammersmith Apollo – early panto.

Warning – this one’s a gusher, so look away now if you’re not a fan.

To Hammersmith for an early Christmas treat – front row seats, too. [The Gods must have been smiling on my booking – rant about internet tickets to come later.] Let’s get the downer over with – already a controversial song, ‘Gay Messiah’ was sung with Rufus/Jesus being crucified. Tacky and tackily obvious, but even worse was the moment when they put a painted mask over his face. Sorry – one level of artifice too many. Can’t see that going down well with Middle America.

Onwards - guest appearance by French & Saunders to “spoil” the Christmas song for Mr Lufa Wetwipe. The rest – this was full on best-of-Rufus-so-far, in extravagant knock’em out mode, from mesmeric piano songs to the camped-up vaudeville of ‘Old Whore’s Diet’ with the band sand-dancing along. Yep, a whole lotta fun.