About a year ago Marisa borrowed my iPod and played it on random, looking for some new songs. She came across Loudon Wainwright III and fell in love with his song ‘Primrose Hill‘. “If he comes around can we go and see him?” “Of course we can!”. so as soon as I knew about this gig, I booked us and Mike + Gerry tickets and got them for the 3rd row. It was a short hop on the new Metro from Chorlton to the City centre and though we thought we were early, Lucy Wainwright was already halfway through her set. They’re strict about not letting you in during a song at the Bridgewater Hall so we ended up having a drink and a chat, watching Lucy on a TV screen in the bar. It was our first time at the there and whilst it looked very much like the Lowery centre, it felt a bit sterile.
Loudon came on at 8.30 and did a 2 hour set that included many new songs (‘Man with a dog in the city’ ‘I remember sex’) as well as some from the early 70’s (‘Red Guitar’ ‘The man who couldn’t cry’). He’s started to do monologues from his fathers articles for ‘Time Magazine’ which were great. You can see where he gets his love of words from. Tales of buying a Saville row suit and memories of his dog after having it put down could easily have been lyrics from Loudons songs.
Lucy joined him for a few songs (great harmonies) and for the encore he did Marisas Favourite ‘Primrose Hill’ and one of my favourites ‘Father and a son‘ which I always associate with John Peel – it always made him cry when he played it.
“When I was your age I thought I hated my dad and the feeling was a mutual one that we had. We’d argue with each other day and night – I was always wrong and he was always right”
Loudon seems to do a different set every night but here’s a recent one that contained some of the songs he did tonight
Bob the Chiropodist