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Hors d’oeuvre Andrea Ferguson
Main Course Richard Langridge, Pete Gostelow, Bob ‘Easy’ Reid Arnie Weavers, The Shantymen with Toby Harris and Nest Richard Bircumshaw, Mike Steele, Sam Harrison
Dessert Steve Jackson
Once again there’s a good turnout, as Andrea gets us off to a brisk start with “Caleb Meyer”. She continues with “Long Gone” before Easy joins her for “Summertime”. Having been round the block a couple of times, you could hardly describe Richard Langridge and Pete Gostelow as ‘new faces’ and although they’ve appeared at Steve Jackson’s The Write Note before, it’s the first time we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming them here at the GEOM. Although Richard was born in London, he has been an ‘honorary’ Yellowbelly since 1980. Possessing a Diploma in Fine Arts, Richard is a professional artist but still manages to find the time in indulge in his third love which is music. Living in Wragby, he can regularly be seen at the Turnor Arms OM (hence the Steve Jackson link). and has already released four Cd’s, the latest, ‘All In Good Time’, being on his own record label, Old Black Dog Records. Given that his second album, ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’, contains no less than nine original compositions, it seems a little surprising that Richard plumps for three covers, the first being Don McLean’s “Crossroads”. “The Girl From The Highland Fair” follows before Richard rounds off with Mike Silver’s “Not A Matter Of Pride”. Hopefully Richard enjoyed his time here at the GEOM so much that he’ll want to pop in again sometime and maybe bring along his musical partner, vocalist/violinist Kathryn O’Connor, to treat us to some of his original work. It’s not often that you will come across someone playing the blues on an 8 string mandolin, but Pete Gostelow does it almost to perfection. He begins with the traditional slow blues, “Sitting On Top Of The World”, following up with the more rocky “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” before he rounds off an excellent spot with a Ry Cooder influenced “Honky Tonk Women”. Easy then follows with his own “Fear Of Flying” and “Help Me” before Arnie takes to the ‘stage’. First of all, apologies to Arnie for the incorrect spelling of his surname in previous reviews. He begins with a new composition, “Decision” before following up with his familiar “Apart From Their Hearts”. Both of these songs, incidentally, feature on the CD, ably produced by Sam Harrison that he has just released. Copies are available for the bargain price of £1! Arnie then takes us to the break with another original, “The Icon”. The Shantymen open the second half with an instrumental featuring John on slide steel guitar, Steve on bodrhan and Toby on congas. They continue with “Galveston Flood (Mighty Storm)” before Steve takes over the congas and Toby switches to tambourine as they finish off with “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”, with Nest helping out on the vocals. Richard begins with his too rarely performed “Travis” which despite a couple of minor blips sounds as beautiful as ever. What were we saying the other week about Richard becoming boss of “Blue Motel”? Tonight he gives us an exquisite, note perfect interpretation of this Artie Traun tune before rounding off with his own “Just Another Day”. Richard at his best tonight, methinks. That’s a pretty hard act to follow but Mike seems well up for it tonight as he treats us to a superb rendition of Tom Russell’s “St. Olav’s Gate”. Given that it doesn’t contain a single weak track, ‘Blue’ is surprisingly not Joni Mitchell’s best selling album, ‘Court And Spark’ holds that particular accolade. Nethertheless, for those of us of a certain age, Joni was our blood, our water and our spiritual guru in our blossoming youth. Although he doesn’t play an Appalachian dulcimer, Mike turns back the pages with a much appreciated rendition of “Carey”. Mike finishes off a very impressive and enjoyable performance with Frankie Ford’s bopper, “Sea Cruise”. Sam starts with a fine cover of Robbie Williams “I Come Undone” before continuing with “Kiddo”. He then finishes off another enjoyable spot with his own 12 bar blues, “Directional Man”. Our last act is the admirable Steve Jackson. He begins with his own composition “You” with Andrea helping out on vocals and then brings the curtain down with “Love Hurts” and “Mama Don’t Allow”. Many thanks to our host, Andrea, to our ever patience sound engineer, Paul, to Tracy for the delicious sandwiches, to Pete and Kathryn for keeping us well watered and of course to all the performers who have graced us with another fabulous night’s entertainment. Bravo! |
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