Loudon Wainwright

Subject: Loudon Wainwright
From: akenaton
Date: 18 Sep 05 - 03:27 PM

2 hours of Loudon on BBC4 Fri 23rd 9:00pm--11:00pm.
Repeated Sat 24th 12:00pm--2:00am.

Dont miss it, a concert in London's Bush Hall (no relation), followed by the famous BBC sessions.

Loudon's writing is brilliant,incisive,emotive..."The whole ensemble".   For all those who like to see a performers innards on display...Ake

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: Brakn
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 05:29 AM

excellent

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: akenaton
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 08:34 AM

Glad to see someone enjoyed the show Brakn.

I missed the fist half hour and would have liked to have heard some of Loudons newer songs. I like his quieter more contemplative stuff like "Dreaming"   "White wino's"..ect ...Ake

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 11:51 AM

Sorry to miss this one. LW is one of my faves.
Has anyone heard the one about how he "...visited Hank Williams grave the day Fred Rogers died."? About a cartrip he was taking when he heard the news on the radio about "Mr. Rogers". Wainwright can write 'em like I want to listen to.       Tw

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 04:30 AM

Stayed up till 2 AM watching this and enjoyed it too, there was a clip of a young and very hirsuite Aly Bain in the second programme. Not used to being up so late, but I suppose it will give me practice for the Getaway!
Giok

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: GUEST,Henry
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 06:20 AM

What a wonderful concert! An hour has never passed so quickly. Loudon grabs your attention and never lets go.

And then an hour of clips from BBC shows. Some magical moments!

One of the great performers - how he revels in having an audience. My cheeks ached from laughter at the end. Nobody ever complained about that after one of Bob's concerts. Let's see if he can make us smile this week.

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 08:23 AM

Guest Henry... I found that the 2hrs passed too quickly as well.

How many other performers could entertain you fopr that period of time, without guests or gimmicks.

Loudon only touched on a small part of his reportoire in his appearance...There are so many gems still for the public to hear.

I watched the programme twice, and still found it riveting.
Folk music lives!!!

Loudons material is unusual, in that it contains pain and humour in equal quantities...A heady addictive mix.
Son Rufus, whom I've seen twice in concert has inherited that same magnetism...A truly magnificent writer and performer

I'm a bit disappointed in the work of Martha, who most observers believe will turn out a better writer than Loudon or Rufus...Ake

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 08:29 AM

Giok....That was an interesting clip...Thought I recognised Willie Hunter as well as Aly.
And the dark haired girl was surely Kate McGarrigle.

And what the hell was TV pundit Donnie McLeod doing there?....Ake

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 09:01 AM

Well I just caught a glimpse of a caption something like Sing with MacLeod or some such, so I assume he was the programme host. Still with the silly comb-over hair style of course.;~)
Giok

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 11:14 AM

How many other performers could entertain you . . . without guests

Er, that session was a joint one with Dick Gaughan who had a number of onstage guests in his set which preceded the LW3 bit (including Martin Simpson, Mike McGoldrick and Andy Cutting, I think - it was way back in May). And BBC4 have not yet seen fit to transmit that section yet. The front-of-house sound @ Bush Hall was (as usual) truly appalling and since it was so much better during Saturday's transmission I can only assume that the fleet of BBC trucks successfully blocking the Shepherds Bush traffic system were concentrating on mixing for that purpose only. During DG's set most of the invited audience appeared to be there solely for LW3 and didn't seem aware of who DG was or be bothered to listen. Out in the bar for the first three of LW's set, it was plainly obvious someone was now actually taking the trouble to mix the FOH sound but those of us who'd come primarily for DG legged it anyway.

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 01:43 PM

Hi Countess..I thought that the Bush Hall gig was a solo concert, but even so Loudon Wainwright was on our screens for two hours and it seemed like 30 minutes.....Says a lot for his ability as a performer.

I thought the sound quality excellent, and much better than the June Tabor concert last year.

I'm a big fan of Dick Gaughan....both his ideas and his music, so I'll look forward to BBC screening the remainder of the concert in due course...Ake

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: Brían
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 04:33 PM

I saw Loudon in a small venue in Portland, Maine called Raoul's Roadside Attraction(RIP) about 12 years ago. He made me laugh until the tears ran down my shirt and theen cry with lines like"Drinks before dinner, drinks with dinner, after dinner drinks and a rather odd song about the sea being the mother and the land being the father. Neither is like the other. They wave to each other. Very succinct.

B

Subject: RE: Loudon Wainwright
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 08:08 PM

Hello Ake, the transmission sound quality for LW3 @ Bush Hall was good . . . but then they've had almost five months to remix it. There's no word that I can extract on when (or whether) the DG set is going out.

Are you talking about the JT session @ LSO St Lukes? Front-of-house sound was excellent at that, as it always is at such an acoustically brilliant venue but Bush Hall is very problematical. It was the same story for the Oysterband Big Session but the broadcast mix was fine.

Overall, I had the impression that far more attention was being paid to sound quality in LW3's second half than in DG's first.   Martin Simpson contributed slide guitar on some of DG's set but he really needn't have bothered. It will be interesting to hear whether this is rescued and made audible in the final mix. I also suspect there was something wrong with the monitor sound as Mike McGoldrick was uncharacteristically out of time and fluffed a couple of entrances.