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17 Nov 05 - 05:09 AM (#1607068) Subject: Ken Nicol tonight in Buxton From: Big Al Whittle Steeleyes guitarist solo gig - anybody going, apart from me. big al whittle |
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17 Nov 05 - 05:37 PM (#1607575) Subject: RE: Ken Nicol tonight in Buxton From: DebC Please give my regards to Chris Rockcliffe. It'll be a great show I am sure. Debra Cowan |
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18 Nov 05 - 04:28 AM (#1607940) Subject: RE: Ken Nicol tonight in Buxton From: Big Al Whittle sorry I went straight from an afternoon gig in Nottingham - and didn't check to see if any messages had been added to this thread. so I didn't get to pass your message ioon. Incredible venue. the Palace Hotel in Buxton. Buxton is a town high in the Peak District, and as such the locals reckon it is always 10 degrees chillier than the rest of Derbyshire. On the way home, the outside temperature thing on my car read minus four dgrees . The hotel itself is I think built to look a bit like Winter palace in Moscow. Huge high ceilings - I half expected Audrey Hepburn as Natasha and Henry Fonda to come waltzing past me! Next time anybody attends there - smuggle a few cans in. I wish I had. A double vodka and lime caost £6.75! I was freezing, by the time I had bought a few coffees it had more than doubled the cost of the night out. Someone carrying a coke sidled past me and muttered, you get pissed here for about fifty quid! Ken played beautifully of course. I'd never seen him play a full gig and he has all the moves. His touch on the guiatr is elegance personified - moving effrtlessly from a simple picking pattern to rich complexity. He had three guitars - one tuned in standard, one in DADGAD, one in C tuning; a ukelele, and a five string banjo. These last two instruments he plays in an unconventionally brilliant style. I admired the way also he had the technical side of his operation well sussed. A floorswitch made sure there were were no ugly noises from the PA as he switched between instruments. Although he plays great ragtime and writes songs. The heartstopping moment of the evening for me was his tribute to Eric Roche - The water is Wide. I will be attending acoustic avalon tomorrow - its exactly a year since I saw Eric play for the first time and he played his heart out onstage, dancing around the stage with the sheer joy of living. One of the last things Eric played that day was a piece called Prayer, which he dedicated 'for all we are about to receive and all we must in time lose'. I was on the front row, I had just lost my Dad, and it must have visibly shaken me - because he mentioned it to me when he signed the DVD I bought afterwards. I'm sorry I have blethered on - I had not meant to write a review - I have neither the skill nor the objectivity for such an enterprise. Perhaps I should mention the support act duo last night- whose name I don't note, but were very good musicians and to me were rather in the mould of Swarbrick andd Carthy - they did at one point Oh Fine Ale Thou Art My Darling, giving it a tricky rhythm rather like Swarb and Martin did with Byker Hill. highly commendable! vairy interesting....as they used to say on the laugh in show! |