RALPH,
ALBERT & SYDNEY
End of Tour Report
By
John Beresford
“There’s music all around us in this conundrum of
time…”
Reflections on and beyond Ralph McTell's 'National Tour'.
Folk
music’s all about people, really. That's
why it's called 'folk'. Its
timeless appeal unites performer and listener in a unique way. Ralph says in an interview elsewhere on this website,
“…when I say ‘we had a good show’ I do not mean the royal we, me and the
guitar. I mean we had a good show.” The
artiste and his audience are one. So,
having run out of superlatives for the man and his music, it's time to honour
some of the people we met as my journeys up and down the country coincided with
Ralph's eight times in the year or so since he set off on his 'National Tour' in
autumn 2001...
The Purcell Room, South Bank Centre,
London, 7 December 2001
Angie thought it indulgent of me to want to see Ralph twice in as many
months. She was right, of course.
I collected family friend Alan and set off for Oxford to meet daughters
Ruth and Jane and Jane's friend, Nancy. With
the promise of sleeping bags on student flat couches we took the 'Oxford Tube'
coach to Victoria and had a ride on the London Eye on the way to the Festival
Hall.
As I took my seat I noticed that the man next to me was holding a copy of the
newly re-released 'Alphabet Zoo' CD. Dave
Cook had learned 'Duster the dog' from the TV show and played it to his
children. He mentioned quizzically
that the dog on the 'D-is-for-dog' track on the CD was called 'Digger' and I
explained that Ralph and Duster hadn't got on too well and Ralph had written
'Digger' especially for the CD.
Sorry to disappoint you, Dave, but thanks for confirming the existence of
another unrecorded Ralph McTell track!
The concert started and I was thrilled that Ralph included several songs that
had featured on Andy Langran's website poll for the next 'Song for Six Strings'
release. Ralph dedicated 'After
rain' to "Stuart Gentry and his virtual friend, John".
I had emailed Ralph to request a song for Stuart, a long-term fan who had
recently died. Stuart had posted a message
on the website guestbook asking if anyone could sell him a copy of Ralph's
'Complete Alphabet Zoo' . Knowing
it to be out of print and wanting more copies myself, I alerted Leola to the
forming queue and asked if they planned to reissue it. "No",
came the answer, so I arranged for Ruth to send her copy to Stuart. As it
turned out, Stuart had suffered a heart attack and was in hospital when his
daughter delivered the package. We conversed briefly by email before he
died. Now Leola had reissued
Alphabet Zoo 'by popular demand', my concert neighbour Dave had bought one - and
Ralph kindly signed the copy I bought after the show to replace the one my
daughter had given away.
The Met, Bury, Greater Manchester, 18
April 2002
The Met is my local venue. It has a
fine reputation for supporting folk 'n' roots music. We don't go often enough.
It never occurred to me that they might book Ralph.
Imagine then my delight when we went to see The Strawbs in January and
Alan showed me a leaflet saying that Ralph would be here in April.
Being on home ground, we took Angie's parents, and Jane came up from Oxford for
her last social weekend before her Part 1 Finals.
My in-laws loved the concert. Oma
- we all call Angie's mum Oma - was really taken with 'Lost boys', and
Grandad was smitten with 'England'. Jane fell for the 12-string guitar.
Angie said Ralph just keeps on getting more relaxed and confident.
I agree.
We had chatted to a fellow over a pint before the show who hadn't seen Ralph
since the early seventies and who said his favourite song was 'Nettle wine'.
This reminded me of the occasion when Jane came home from school asking
if Ralph had written a song called 'Nettle wine'.
The class had sung it on 'Time and Tune' and, though she had then only
heard Ralph singing songs from Alphabet Zoo and Tickle on the Tum, Jane knew
Ralph must have written it. The
fellow whose favourite song it was called out for it several times during the
concert until Ralph graciously obliged.
As we got up to leave, Grandad turned to me and said, “Do you think Ralph sees
himself primarily as a poet?” I
had never thought about it - I just love the songs and tunes - but I was sure
Ralph would be delighted with Grandad's perception.
The Lowry, Salford Quays, Greater
Manchester, 11 May 2002
The Lowry Centre is a spectacular new arts complex built in the old
Manchester Ship Canal docks. There
are several galleries and two theatres. The Quays Theatre is ultra-modern
yet strangely reminiscent of the old music halls, with conventional stalls and
tiered galleries. We were in 'the gods' but the acoustic was fine.
We took some friends who had never seen Ralph before - but of course they knew
'Streets', so when Ralph finished his long and hilarious intro and said
"Let's sing it", we did - with gusto. By the third verse
everyone else seemed to have caught on and Ralph called for "Just the
ladies" on the last chorus and said "Thank you" afterwards and
sang it again. Magic.
Rod plays a 12-string and has been known to don a harmonica harness and serenade
us at the church Christmas party. He
had spotted Ralph's new 12-string on its stand from way up in the gods before
any of the rest of us had even taken our bearings.
Terri had not been to a concert of any kind for many years, and then it
would more likely have been to see the Jimi Hendrix Experience than one man with
an acoustic guitar. A few weeks
later when I collected her on the way to the Sunday meeting, the car stereo was
playing a radio recording of Ralph from the 'Silver Celebration' tour.
"I know who that is", said Terri as she got into the car.
A month or so earlier I had visited Andy in South Wales.
He had commented that Ralph's set at Pontardawe was noticeable for the
absence of the songs he'd been expecting - no 'Clare', 'Peppers' or 'Jesus
wept'. I realized that's what had made the National
Tour so special - Ralph turning out spectacular sets of less familiar
material, and varying them over the tour. An amazing artiste and
performer.
Cropredy Festival, Cropredy, Oxfordshire, 10
August 2002
Seventeen thousand people stood or sat in the mud as Ralph provided a natural
break for Fairport Convention during their XXXVth anniversary set at this
friendliest of festivals. Hire a
tent, pray for sunshine and join us at Cropredy 2003.
The Jazz Café,
Camden, London, 24 September 2002.
It's great having daughters in Oxford and London.
It means I have ready-made excuses to see my favourite singers at 'big'
venues. And this particular week I 'had' to go up to town twice.
Let me explain...
Kate had just started at King's College, London, and had asked me to bring some
more stuff when next I was working nearby.
Tuesday was convenient, and I’d seen on the internet that Ralph was on
at the Jazz Café. So I booked a
table. After all, a student has to
eat.
Then I saw the news about the tube strike and realized I'd have to take the car
in. I collected Jane from Oxford on
Monday to navigate so I would know where to go and park on Tuesday - and we took
the opportunity to see Bert Jansch who just happened to be that night’s
artiste. Jane didn't know his work,
and loved it - especially what she called the
'club' version of 'Lilly of the West', which we knew from Steve Knightley's
singing. We stood to the left of
the stage in what we thought was a good position until Bert appeared and the
hordes rushed in front of us to block the view.
No problem, we're a tall clan. Much
though I like Bert's style, his guests - vocalist
Hope Sandoval, guitarists Johnny Hodge and Bernard Butler, and drummer Makoto
Sakamoto - improved the show dramatically.
Maybe that's why he invited them. We
left at eleven o’clock to get Jane back to Oxford.
On Tuesday I drove in and parked up and met Kate at Camden Town tube station at
seven o’clock – the strike was due to start at eight.
We had a table booked for seven-thirty and Ralph wasn't due on stage till
gone nine. I was amazed to see
they'd put tables right in front of the stage - the previous night they'd been
pushed back out of sight. That was
the first warning that they hadn't sold many tickets. The second was that the
balcony restaurant didn't fill up. The
food was good - if pricey - and no hurry to eat it. I loved the show - as always.
Kate and I were signing along to the chorousy bits, and especially when
Ralph choked on 'Streets', which he'd dedicated to Iris Bentley (whose daughter
Maria was in the audience). I've
long believed Ralph should insist on more audience participation, and we duly
obliged when he invited us to join in on 'Clare'. And what a good set.
We spoke to the folk near us, who had not seen Ralph for many years and
were glad they came.
We waited afterwards to see Ralph and had a little natter about his
grandchildren and if he thought the tube strike had affected the turn-out to
which he said, "No, it's just London!"
I guess he feels it's a case of the prophet not being recognised in his
own country. Or maybe it was the
absence of advance publicity - the Newsletter arrived after the tour started and
in any case didn’t mention the Jazz Café.
I wanted to stay and talk, but he had other guests waiting.
Ralph pointed out Nanna and Bob Davenport standing nearby, but it would
have been rude to break into his personal party.
As we started down the stairs, Ralph called over the balustrade,
"Where will we see you next?" "Liverpool,"
I called back, "then the Queen Elizabeth Hall".
My cheesy grin must have lasted a good hour as we got lost several times
before finally finding our way to Waterloo Bridge and over to the college flats
on the South Bank.
How convenient! Next up was Show of Hands at the Purcell Room in November,
then Ralph at QEH in December…
Queen Elizabeth Hall, South
Bank Centre, London, 12 December 2002
Another wonderful night full of songs 'that will linger forever in our ears'
(and Ralph didn't even sing 'Hard Times') and of wonderful people, some of whom
I had till now known only as names on the website and some of whom I had not
known at all but had known me in the same way.
I had driven down to Oxford to collect Jane.
We took the 'Oxford Tube' and met Kate on The Strand for a quick meal
before crossing Waterloo Bridge to the South Bank. There's such romance in those
names that I was all excited like a little boy going to the Big City for the
first time. Kate had essays to finish for the morning (I remember that one
well!) so she left Jane and me at the end of the bridge and down we went to the
concert halls.
I had emailed a few 'virtual friends' suggesting a rendezvous at seven o'clock
in the QEH foyer bar. We were a minute or two early so made for the merchandise
stall first. Before we got there, a man jumped up and greeted Jane like an old
friend - it turns out Andy Farquarson knows Jane from having met her with Nancy
at Fairport and kindred gigs. We
were off to a good start so turned back to the bar.
The first to show was Dave Cook, whom I had sat next to in The Purcell
Room last year. Dave had a
front-row seat this time and took some photos that now adorn the review he wrote
for the website.
Then Mike Cohen arrived with Tom Mates, from whom Mike had just bought the twin
of Ralph's 12-string guitar. I had met Mike once before whilst working near
Bristol. We'd kept in email contact
but it was so good to see him again. When
we went into the hall, Mike's seat was right in front of ours!
He passed me a pen with the instruction to note the set list. Jane had a few
giggles as her sad Dad predicted each song from Ralph's introductory patter.
Ralph had forewarned me that he would not be coming out to see the fans after
the show and had kindly invited me backstage 'for two minutes'.
So we followed Mike and Tom to the Green Room.
We stood in the crowded room waiting for Ralph to unwind and nattered to
Tom and his wife about University interviews and making a living out of luthiery.
Eventually Ralph made his way round the room and we had our 'two
minutes'. Someone mentioned Ralph's
piano playing and I commented on how it had improved.
For the second time in as many meetings Ralph's expression contorted in
hurt puzzlement. This time I dug myself out the hole by saying I was comparing
it with a very long time ago. With
obvious relief Ralph turned to Jane and said "I met you at the Jazz Café"
and Jane said that had been her sister Kate.
Mike made off to find Donard (who was minding the 12-string) and as he
left he introduced us to Keith who was standing by the door with Mags and Linda.
They were so complimentary about the website articles and I said I was
concerned folk would find them pretentious and they said I was not to worry and
should keep it up.
So we left the QEH near midnight in the warmth of so many friendships that kept
us dry despite the rain as we found our way to Victoria and hummed 'That'll do
Babe' on the 'Tube' back to Oxford.