Richard Thompson, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester: 2/2/06

We travelled up to Sandbach on Friday afternoon to see Sonia’s aunt Julia and her husband Jo. They kindly put us up for the night Jo did the driving into Manchester.

The evening started with a bit of sleb spotting at Wagamama restaurant. While we were eating Matt Lucas and David Walliams (Little Britain) wandered in. Waited to be seated without a fuss and then enjoyed a quiet meal while about half the people in the place recognised them.

We made the Bridgewater Hall in time for a quick drink and settled down to watch Jeb Loy Nichols play a half hour support slot. Sonia was very pleased to see him as she has been a fan since she first saw him play at Cambridge Folk festival a few years ago. Our seats were in the gods but the view was good and the acoustics close to perfect.

Richard Thompson came on to thunderous applause and was joined on stage by Danny Thompson who played double bass. They worked well together, complementing each other’s playing. Richard Thompson was in fine voice, chatting between songs and reminding the audience that “product is available in the foyer”.

The set included songs from the new album “Front Parlour Ballads” as well as old favourites. Thompson’s back catalogue is so large that I recognised about half the songs. “Hots For Smarts” was a new one on me, as was the song that the BBC banned in 1974 about licking ice cream. ”They said it had a subtext…it did” was his explanation for the ban.

With just two of them on stage, many songs were stripped back to their essentials. “Vincent Black Lightning 1952” made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

My only disappointment was that, despite being on stage for two hours including 3 encores, he didn’t play “Beeswing”. A minor grumble for a great gig in a great venue.

The drive back to Sandbach meant we got back to Julia’s and Jo’s close to midnight. We slept well, and after a breakfast of bacon cobs, gave Julia a lift to Nottingham Station so she could travel to Peterborough to see her daughter Nina.

Julia’s business has a website, and I promised a mention. So click here to visit it.