Friday 14 May 2010

IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS, FUNKY BANJO, THE SWIMMING SONG, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT

7 comments:

mongoose said...

Ahhh, I saw one of LW's funky banjo era gigs at the Euston Somewhere (Shaw Theatre?) in about 1985 or 86. We had not a care in the world. Great days. Voted Labour that year because of the Great She-Devil (in the Fulham by-election).

richard said...

Seen a LW3 gig in Belfast, was a while back now, best night's craic, one talented guy.

call me ishmael said...

Best then to avoid the BBC4 Documentary about him; the usual thing, him talking about himself, intermixed with concert footage, I found him unendearing, other than to himself, of course, although I have enjoyed his shows and a lot of his records. I blame that John Peel.

lilith said...

Lush, thank you.

call me ishmael said...

Lush not a word normally associated with the grinning one, but right. Sounds much more majestic, Lilith, than the subject matter would indicate; sounds like two banjos and at least one fiddle. One or two beats-to-the-bar bass and solid as a rock snare drum, like they were all marching towards Napoleon's fearsome ranks.

Do you or mr elby know who it is?

mongoose said...

That lot used Somebody Tannenbaum a lot on banjo and Somebody (David?) Mansfield on mandolin. There's a live version somewhere with the three of them doing it. On "Career Moves", I think. Don't seem to have that. Maybe it's only on plastic and it's in the roof.

call me ishmael said...

Ah, Mansfield, the wunderkind, one time sidesman to Browne, Dylan and now Brown again, see Ishmael passim, that explains things, proper musicians.