Richard Thompson
HISTORIC CLASSIC CONCERT
Live at Nottingham Rock City 1986
The Store For Music
A Lot of ‘Bang for Your Buck’ From a Genre Bending Maestro That Never Falls Below Spellbinding.
This is weird.
Back in 2020 I reviewed a similarly titled double-album on RMHQ; and in a sealed box in my garage I have a Bootleg of a Richard Thompson gig at Nottingham from November 1986 and all three have completely different track listings with a couple of songs not appearing on all three albums. Did Richard have a residency at the venue that week?
So; with no further ado …. I will tell you about this album, ignoring the other two.
Following an intro from a compere (who sounds uncannily like Johnnie Walker) the band set the tone with a rip-roaring version of Fire In the Engine Room which will leave any new listeners dumbfounded when they hear Thompsons 100mph yet delicately intricate electric guitar playing for the first time.
Following the quirky You Don’t Say Christine Collister steps forward to take lead on what I can only describe as a Folk Noir opus with Warm Love Gone Cold, which doesn’t appear to be on either of the other two Live albums.
Just as you catch your breath, the band move seamlessly into the majestic Wall of Death which literally crackles with excitement.
I’ve never really been a big fan of Folk Rock; but Richard Thompson has always managed to transcend the Folk half of that title while never diving too far into the latter half; neatly blending the two for people like what I am; with the likes of Valerie and She Twists the Knife Again both reading like Folk Songs, but the arrangements are pure Rock and Roll, if a bit on the intense side which at that time totally alluded ‘real’ Rock bands of that era.
The first CD ends with the quintessentially beautiful Jenny My Love; a soft and temperate love song that I have no recollection of elsewhere.
The second CD opens with For Shame of Doing Wrong (I Wish I Was a Fool Again) which is a typical Thomson song of this period; shamelessly heartbreaking with a clever arrangement that has you swaying and tapping your toes while sniffing back tears all at the same time.
As you sit engrossed, it’s easy to forget what a wonderful interpreter of songs that Richard has always been; regularly taking ‘hidden songs’ and sprinkling them with his very own musical magic dust; which is the only way that I can describe Sandy Denny’s John The Gun, Barbara Morgan’s *Skull & Crossbones and Clive Gregson’s Open Fire which closes the album.
Baring in mind there are 21 songs here and two come in at 10 minutes plus long and nothing less than 4 minutes; you get a lot of ‘bang for your buck’ especially as the quality never falls below spellbinding.
Which brings me to selecting a Favourite Song …. which hasn’t been easy at all.
Withered and Died and Shoot Out The Lights have been constant favourites in any format over the years; as has *Tear Stained Letter and the tragically beautiful Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed on CD1; but I’m going for two songs I didn’t recognise at all before hearing them here; such is the articulate and thoughtful way Richard Thompson performs; both Love Is a Faithless Country and the stunning duet with Clive Collister, Summer Rain took my breath away the first time I played them and even this morning they sound as contemporary as any other songs I’ve received in the last four weeks.
The most important thing with this release is that it hasn’t aged a day over the last 37 years; with the band and especially Richard Thompson himself sounding like these songs were recorded last Saturday night; and you wouldn’t guess that the songs here are even older …. how cool is that?
*Tear Stained Letter is attributed to ‘Johnny Cash’ and Skull and Crossbones to ‘Johnny Shine’ on the inner sleeve; when they should be Richard Thompson surely?
Released January 26th 2024
https://www.richardthompson-music.com/
The Rocking Magpie 
Johnny Cash did a different song called Tear Stained Letter. Not sure who this outfit is releasing this or where they got the tapes from; they get a lot of details wrong, including the year the concert was performed (1985, not 1986; it was from the same tour as the currently available Faithless set). There’s no mention of it on RT’s website or his FB page.
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Having bought and listened to this it does appear to be a show late in the Crowded Room tour as there are a couple of songs that later appeared on Daring Adventures, namely Jennie, Long Dead Love and Valerie (the version of Jennie is rather slow and drags on a bit). The quality control is poor; no CD metadata, track names mislabelled and two songs wrongly credited; I looked up the Johnny Shines connection and he recorded a different song called Skull and Crossbones Blues. This song is by Barbara Morgan and Thompson took out lines that wouldn’t make sense coming from a man.
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The bootleg I mention has Richard asking ‘if anyone is going upstairs to see Crowded House afterwards’ -so I think you’re correct, I doubt we will ever know the truth.
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