|
The Robin
2 and Stockport Town Hall
What a great couple of days I had last week! First we drove down to Wolverhampton, got lost on the way as usual, arrived about 2pm and checked into the hotel. Spent the afternoon shopping there, then caught the bus to the venue, set off a bit too early really but because it was a standing venue I wanted to make sure we were near the front. When we got to the Robin club, it was a bit confusing, we didn't know where to queue up, so we went into the small bar at the side of the main doors, and asked in there where we should go. Apparently you have to go through the bar to get to the stage, but we stood in the bar for a while and had a drink, and who should we see in there but Hal himself...He was talking to a group of people so I didn't go over and bother him, we finished our drinks and went through to get to the front of the queue. I was pleased to see that there were actually seats put out, normally it's all standing there. I was talking to a very nice lady who was already waiting, it was her birthday and her son had brought her to see Hal as a birthday present. What a lovely son she has. I hope I didn't spoil her day chewing her ear off about Hal! The doors opened at half past seven. The doormen searched our bags on the way in, I thought they might be looking for our cameras but they were making sure we weren't taking in our own drinks. Managed to get seats on the second row, and fortunately no one sat right in front of me so I had a great view of the stage. I had mentioned to the birthday lady that I was looking for Marie Crichton, who I had chatted to briefly online, and she came over and pointed her out to me, so I went over to chat to her. What a lovely person she is. Marie interviewed Hal on her show on Radio Shropshire on the Monday night. Then the support act came on so I went back to my seat. I had heard the name Brendan Quinn before, but not his music and I was pleasantly surprised. He has a great voice and though he said he wasn't used to being on stage on his own with just his guitar, he did a great job. Most of the songs he sang I had never heard before, apart from the Dolly Parton one, and he also sang a song by Neil Diamond, apparently Brendan tours the country doing a tribute show to Neil. I found a short video clip here. I wouldn't mind seeing that show, it looks great. Ten minutes or so after Brendan had finished his set, Hal and the band just wandered onto the stage, no announcement or anything, and went straight into the song he is probably best known for in the UK, 'Past The Point of Rescue'. Hal said what a great honour is was to play at the Robin, to walk into a music club with all these remarkable posters on the walls, that some of the best music ever played has been played in this room. We had a real treat when Hal sang Continental Farewell because he doesn't always do that one in the UK. He said it is the sickest song he has ever written and that it was probably a bit too early in the evening to play it, but he was probably way ahead of us. He said he was embarrassed to play it in public but he thought we were all friends now so were we ready to try it? We sure were! Hal gets out a cigarette, lights it up and smokes through the whole song. It's very funny, if you have never seen Hal perform it before, shout out a request next time you go see him! Later on, Hal brought out Brendan Quinn on stage for a duet of Crying Time, an old standard written by Buck Owens. It was a great moment., Hal introduced his band members (The Staggering Prophets!), Kenny Grimes on Lead Guitar, Nico Leophonte on Drums and Keith 'Bluewater' Carper on Bass Guitar. Hal said that he and Keith were celebrating 25 years of playing music together, and that they looked exactly the same as they did the day they started! From the new album, Hal sang Travelin' Teardrop Blues, which he said was kind of based on time he spent in Santa Fe in New Mexico, in an Adobe Casita, a beautiful building with thick walls, and during that time he had become infatuated with the American West and the desert. Hal finished the show with another of his biggest hits 'Stay Forever', and then came back on for an encore, singing a song called 'The Maker', (which has not been recorded yet by Hal, I think it was written by Daniel Lanois), and finally Small Town Saturday Night. Hal had been on stage for about 90 minutes and had performed 17 songs in all. Here is the full set list:
After the show I met up with Marie again and we waited around to see if Hal would do a meet and greet, and we were lucky that night. We got our cds signed and had a photo taken with him. Had a wonderful time, and I still had Stockport to look forward to!
The next morning we set off for Stockport, got lost again on the way there, but arrived at the hotel just after lunchtime. Went for a walk into the city centre just so we knew where Stockport Town Hall was, what an impressive building it is. (Hal said later that evening "This is some beer joint we are playing in tonight!") We went inside just to check Hal was going to be there that night and which door to queue at (better to be safe than sorry I always say!). We went back to the hotel for a while and set off back into town at half past six, thinking there would be plenty of time, but when we arrived at the Town Hall, there was already a long queue forming. I was slightly concerned as I like to sit near the front, but luckily we managed to nab seats on the second row so we had a brilliant view of the stage. This time Hal was introduced on stage with 'Raised by wolves and bound for glory, the 71st member of the Grand Ole Opry, Mr Hal Ketchum'. He started off with a song from his Sure Love album, Daddy's Oldsmobile, then it was straight into his well known hit Past The Point of Rescue. "Have you all been behaving yourselves?" Hal shouted from the stage, "No" we shouted back, "have you?" "Well", he said, "I am actually half way to completing my first halo, I just need to pass one test." "What's that?" someone shouted. "Ah that's the test", smiled Hal. Half way through Awaiting Redemption, Hal introduced his band, The Staggering Prophets. He was just about to bring Brendan Quinn on stage for the duet of Crying Time when there was a clanging kind of noise coming from the back of the hall. "Is there a goat loose in here?" he said, "What was that, you heard it didn't you, it wasn't just me was it?! Oh Lord, somebody please speak up!" It was quite funny but I guess you had to be there! Someone shouted out for Hal to sing Old Soldiers, he just said "Okay" and went on with what he was singing...then someone else shouted out "Softer Than A Whisper", Hal said "What was that, Spider Bit The Baby? If I Killed Her When I Met Her I'd Be Out By Now?!!" He then just went on to sing Tonight We Just Might Fall In Love Again. Hal sang The Alamo, written by Gary Burr and told the story about how it came to be written, (slipped in "I'm not much but I'm all I think about") and a new song he had just written himself 7 days earlier about his grandfather John called Yesterday's Gone. He talked about the way he rings his answering machine to record bit of melodies and lyrics he comes up with while on the road, and how his wife Gina loathes it when she comes home from taking the kids to school and there are six or seven messages from him that she has to save. Keith said he should put an 'I Love You' in there once in a while! The show ended with the ever popular Small Town Saturday Night, and then for the encore, Hal sang Stay Forever and one of my favourites, Long Way Down. The audience wouldn't let him go though, so he came back and sang Trail of Tears, with the hand whistling he does, and then finally Sure Love. It was a wonderful show, the crowd were going wild for him. I wish it had gone on longer, but we did get 21 songs, four more than the previous night. Here is the full set list:
On the way out, I managed to get my original tickets back, you have to hand them in when you arrive, and could pick up two to replace them when you left, but I really wanted my originals back as I had number one and number two, so thank you to the lady at the desk who helped to sort through the pile and find them for me. I took quite a few photos over the two nights, and have put most of them on my WEBSHOTS photo album if you want to take a look. My camera also takes video clips, and below is one I took of the song Continental Farewell, and also the duet of Crying Time with Brendan Quinn.
|
