Patti - Meltdown - 24 June 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

The US-UK Folk Connections evening at Meltdown was perhaps the longest
night at the Royal Festival Hall yet, running from 7.30 to 11.45 pm
with an interval.  It was curated by Lenny Kaye - Patti said he was a
"sub-curator", and it was supposed to be her night off, but she was
there nonetheless.  The central point of the evening was really the
guitar itself, rather than the song or the performer.  However, there
were no duds in the song-list and any one of the performers would have
deservedly drawn an audience to Meltdown on their own.  The
combination of artists was clearly unique.  Roy Harper pointed out
later (but not so succinctly): "You'll never see a concert like this
again; it would cost millions of dollars to get these people together
in one place."

The first song was Barbara Allen, played by Lenny Kaye on his green
strat.  He dedicated it to Jean Ritchie, the Queen of the Cumberlands,
who was unfortunately too frail to come to England and to the concert.
 Lenny was then joined by Rocky Roberts on slide guitar, and they
played Donovan's Catch the Wind.

Martin Stephenson (ex The Daintees) joined Lenny on stage and
Stephenson sang The Hangman.  Stephenson was in a jokey mood and
pestered Lenny: "I hope I get to meet Patti Smith tonight - I've been
waiting 27 years for this!"  Their second song was Big Sky, with Lenny
doing a Buddy Holly style guitar break.  Stephenson then played Home,
on his own - but reluctant to take himself seriously, asking part way
through "Did that sound like Julian Clary?"

There was a change of pace as a harp was brought on stage for Robin &
Bina Williamson (ex Incredible String Band).  They performed three
songs, the last of which was Tis the Gift to be Simple.

Next was the highly revered Bert Jansch, who came on stage trailing
great expectations. He was fully at ease this evening and played the
guitar like an angel.  He opened with The Lily of the West, then was
joined by Beth Orton.  Orton was delightfully gauche as always, and
commented that Bert was "about to give me lessons" - "on the GUITAR!"
he quipped back.  After a false start, they sang Watch the Stars
together.  This was a delightful duet; a heart-stopping performance.

After Orton had left the stage, Bert was joined by Johnny Marr for the
song Pretty Saro.  Bert was understandably uncertain about the title,
as the following song was the unrelated but similarly named murder
ballad Pretty Polly.  With this song the concert moved beyond mere
entertainment into the realms of art.  Jansch and Marr were two master
craftsmen demonstrating their skills at the highest level.  Pretty
Polly was the high point of the first half of the evening for me - a
truly sublime five minutes.

It was now that I happened to notice that the woman sitting in front
of me had a sketch book and was drawing each of the performers. 
During the previous two songs she'd drawn a small but detailed head
and shoulders portrait of Marr.  I also noticed the two blokes sat on
my left - dead ringers for Lou and Andy - one of whom hummed the
Countdown theme between songs.

Bert Jansch and Johnny Marr left the stage to great applause, then
Marr returned with his band, The Healers.  They started with a lovely
instrumental, before Marr sang the Smiths' song Please, Please,
Please, Let Me Get What I Want, followed by Jackson C Frank's My Name
is Carnival - which Marr said he'd been taught by Bert Jansch.

The last song before the interval was performed by Neil Finn.

Part two began with tumultuous applause as Lenny Kaye and Patti Smith
came on stage (no dresses tonight!).  Patti explained that her
introduction to folk music had been through the records of Joan Baez
and so she had decided to sing two of those songs.  Patti and Lenny
were joined by Spider Stacey (of The Pogues) on whistle.  First Patti
sang a beautiful version of The Trees They Do Grow High (which Eliza
Carthy had sung acapella at the Songs of Innocence concert a week
earlier).  She then picked up her guitar and explained "I like these
songs.  Many have only two or three chords."  After a false start to
Once I Had A Sweetheart, she added "Two or three chords is still too
many."  I'd been wondering earlier in the day what songs Patti might
sing, and had guessed that something by Dylan was likely  but I was
more than happy with the choice of Baez.  So far as I know, Patti has
never sung either of these songs in concert before.

A quick stage rearrangement and then Spider Stacey sang I Dreamed I
Saw Joe Hill Last Night, accompanied by both Lenny and Tony Shanahan
on acoustic guitar.

Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals) and a woman (whose name I missed)
sang a Welsh song (whose title I missed) accompanied by boot stamping
and an electronic bagpipe.  I'm sorry to be vague about this song, as
it would have made me look particularly erudite to report the title in
Welsh.

Next was Robyn Hitchcock accompanied by John Paul Jones (ex Led
Zeppelin) on mandolin (and later on mandolin-cello).  Hitchcock's
humour put the audience at ease as he mused that "Bob Dylan was the
missing link between George Formby and Morrissey".  His first number
was Dylan's I Pity the Poor Immigrant, followed by The Speed of
Things, Martin Carthy's Polly on the Shore and then another Carthy
song, for which Lenny joined them on electric guitar.  The trio of
Hitchcock, Jones and Lenny Kaye looked every bit the supergroup they
were.  We were highly privileged to see this juxtaposition than will
probably never occur again.

Neil Finn returned to sing an acapella version of Wild Mountain Thyme,
encouraging the audience to join in on the chorus.  He was then joined
by Johnny Marr and Tony Shanahan for Throw Your Arms Around Me.

Top of the bill for many of the audience was the marvellous Roy
Harper.  As usual, his songs were interspersed by his rambling musing
on the songs, his life, and whatever else popped into his head.  And
what playing!  How does he do that thing with the bass strings? 
Despite his reputation for grumpiness ("I got told off by Roy Harper
for moving his chair at the soundcheck" said Martin Stephenson), you
can tell he has a heart of gold.

He introduced the first song, Girl from the North Country, with his
story about how "his Bobness" had stolen With God On Our Side from
Dominic Behan.  Harper's retaliation was to "appropriate" Girl from
the North Country and take particular pleasure in releasing it on
record as "trad. arr. Roy Harper".

"This is the biggest folk club I've ever been in." - audience applause
and laughs - "That's what Bert just said to me." - more laughs. 
Harper then played an old song - "I've not played this for 35 years
at least".  This was followed by a poem, and another song I missed the
title of (my familiarity with Roy Harper's songs does not seem to help
me remember the titles of most of them  sorry!).

Harper then explained that the next number was one he'd learned from
Alexis Korner and he invited John Paul Jones back on the stage to
accompany him.  They then played the well-known Short Blues:  "I woke
up this morning. [song ends]".  "Alexis used to play that when the
natives were restless."

After and sweet gentle reading of Francesca, Harper announced
characteristically: "I'd like to finish up with something loud and
obnoxious."  He reminded the audience of the 1968 demonstrations
against the Vietnam War in Grosvenor Square, mentioned the million who
had marched in London last year against the illegal war in Iraq, and
predicted "Two million will arrive next time."  He then gave a
blistering and compelling performance of One Man Rock and Roll Band.

Lenny ushered everyone back on stage for the finale - a group
performance of Lay Me Down, with Lenny, Johnny Marr and Neil Finn each
taking a verse in turn.

That was it - we'd had four hours of marvellous music and amazing
performers.  Roy Harper was right - we'll never see a night quite like
that one again.

Kind regards


Andrew