Richard Thompson

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Karen Miller reports

is often referred to a 鈥渇olk artist鈥�, and while it鈥檚 true that there are definite folk influences in his voice, music and subject matter, anyone who went along to the show last night expecting an evening of gentle entertainment would have been in for a surprise.

Richard Thompson knows how to rock and plays the most feral, brutal and savage electric guitar you鈥檙e ever likely to hear 鈥� a complete contrast to the polite, quietly-spoken, posh Englishman who jokes between songs. It鈥檚 hard to believe this was a man who, in his early days, was painfully shy!

Not only is he one of the best guitar players I鈥檝e ever seen play, but he can sing too. The sound in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall was clear with the guitar nicely up front in the solos. The Richard Thompson band were impressive as well. Michael Jerome, the drummer rocked on a very minimal kit. The fiddle of Joel Zifkin wasn鈥檛 utilised as much as it could have been, but 鈥渦tility player鈥� Pete Zorn was kept busy on backing vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, clarinet and saxophone.

There were no support artists and the first half of the gig featured tracks exclusively from Richard鈥檚 2010 release Dream Attic 鈥� murder ballads, an anti-Wall Street song The Money Shuffles, songs of loss (A Brother Slips Away) and more. My personal favourite was a ballad entitled Stumbled On.

After the break we were treated to songs from Richard鈥檚 career, but sadly, none of the ones I鈥檇 been hoping for. I鈥檇 have liked to have heard Shoot Out The Lights, Crawl Back or even Bathsheba Smiles, but we did hear Wall of Death, Tear-Stained Letter and The Angels Took My Racehorse Away.

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