Richard Thompson 16/9/2015

As with the last RT gig The Rails were the support act and to my mind they are one of the best support acts around. It may be nepotism on RT's part but they write good songs, James Walbourne is an excellent guitarist and Kami Thompson has a voice reminiscent of her mother. They had a couple of new songs since last time and included the superb 'Fair Warning' amongst a number of tracks from that eponymous album. They also came on for RT's first track which was the rollicking 'That's enough'. As last time father and husband competed to be showiest guitarist whilst Kami looked on bemused but that was great for the audience. After that opening song the rest of the trio came on, drummer,Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk. The next two hours or so was vintage Richard Thompson guitar as he showcased some tracks from his new album and mixed in back catalogue stuff from his solo albums plus an odd Richard & Linda Thompson or Fairport song. The new stuff is really good - perhaps his best release for some time and I particularly enjoyed 'Patty Don't You Put Me Down' and near the end 'She Never Could Resist a Winding Road'. Of course 'Guitar Heroes' from the album allowed RT to demonstrate that he can play like Django Rheinhart, Les Paul, James Burton, Chuck Berry and Hank Marvin and is great fun - the amazing thing for me that the whole song is played with just one foot switch action. That is the brilliant thing with RT, there are no guitar techs needed because he can get any sound he wants out of whichever battered old guitar he happens to be playing. Memorable songs from the back catalogue included 'The shame of doing wrong', '!952 Vincent Black Lightning' and 'Did she jump or was she pushed?'. The big finish included 'tear Stained Letter' done with high tempo and last of all perhaps the best of the night 'Fork in the Road' from the new album bonus CD. Cracking guitar, cracking show. Can't wait for next time.