Subject: RE: Davey Graham: what a waste
From:
GUEST,Mark Pavey
Date: 04 Nov 07 - 09:33 AM
Someone; or a group of people from Worcester is trying to cause trouble here. We did 13 dates in total, some were better shows than others admittedly, but all shows were of a standard I felt comfortable with.
For £17.50 over 13 evenings across the country we offered John Smith (who supported John Martyn on his last tour), my best efforts and 45 minutes of Davy Graham playing whatever he felt like on that night. That was it; a reasonable offering. People came.
Having travelled with Davy all that day before Worcester I know for 100% that the only thing Davy had to drink that day was one glass of Chianti with a large meal in Pizza Express an hour and a half before his appearance. The person who claimed to smell alcohol is talking a load of rubbish. During Davy's second piece, which I believe was Capricho Arabe, 5 audience members stood up from the front row and rudely left the building. This upset Davy considerably, and for some reason he mis-timed the length of his set. Having timed his performance as I always do, he left the stage after playing for 38 minutes. Given that this evening was poorly attended and we were heading north for the main part of the tour, I didn't give Davy a hard time about it.
Both Davy and I am tired of middle aged, miserable, middle classed, ravaged types attending our concerts expecting the worse and who are incapable of enjoying what is still relevant, proficient and and moving work. Our audiences at present are split between the cheerful majority and the appalled minority. I would very much like it if those people who have been causing trouble find some other artist to watch. Having been shackled to an indifferent folk label/tag for so long, Davy is finally breaking free of that hangover. It is natural that in order to gain some new fans, he is losing some old ones.
It is not 1966, Davy is not 28, he has made great efforts over the past three years, from being in pretty poor shape into pretty good shape. I know because I made the effort three years ago to help him get something back that he had lost. We are both works in progress, both of us being far from perfect specimens.
6,500 miles later, I am pretty tired and pretty pleased about what we did, I drove all that way in a 1.4 Seat Leon and managed a decent set most nights. We met some great people on the road, but some people just don't get it. Not my problem. Not Davy's problem.
BTW we don't have a deal with Fledgling so no royalties are paid.
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sj
