Just for the record ...

Davy Graham's concert at The Sage Gateshead last night wasn't quite a sell-out, but it attracted a substantial audience. The applause at the end of his set, and the buzz around the CD sales desk afterwards, suggest that most listeners didn't feel let down. Davy himself gave no signs of being ill, or intoxicated. His speech was clear and coherent, and what he had to say was relevant and witty. As for his playing … well, I've heard him play better, but last night he was still worth hearing.

The audacious - and apparently effortless - fluency of his early records seems beyond his reach at present. But we can scarcely expect a sixty-something veteran to recapture the virtuosity and assurance he had in his twenties – particularly while he's still recovering from decades of self-neglect. The TV documentary "Blame it on my youth" and the more recent radio programme "Whatever Happened to Davy Graham?" reveal that Davy went through a long and distressing period during which he hardly ever touched a guitar. There is a very painful moment in "Blame it on my youth" when he tries to play something on a borrowed instrument, showing just how much technique he has lost. Davy has come a long way from there. He still has some way to go before becoming "The Compleat Guitarist" once again, but he's clearly working at it.

Last night, there were moments when I felt he was actually trying too hard. Sometimes he seemed to hesitate, as if trying to make quite sure of hitting the correct note. At other times, he seemed to snatch at the next chord, as if afraid it might escape him. And neither of the instruments he played did him many favours. The classical guitar he started out with had a fairly undistinguished tone. The steel-string he moved on to seemed better at first – but as Davy rushed from one altered tuning to another, its sound gradually deteriorated. I'd have gladly lost one number from the set, if he'd used the time gained thereby to tune the box more accurately for the remainder of them. But maybe the guitar, rather than the player, was at fault. These things do happen.

Anyhow, Davy is on the road again. I hope that this tour has been a positive experience for him, and that his recovery continues after it has finished. If so, his next tour could be really exciting.

Wassail!