- The Coal Porters
- 12 Bar Club, London 4
May 2000
- This gig was arranged at fairly short notice to
coincide with the visit from the USA of Sid's
parents, who duly sat at a front table and
appeared quite genuinely to enjoy the experience.
The set up was the now familiar bluegrass show of
Hillman, Parsons and McGuinn related tunes on
acoustic instruments. The band line-up was the
same as the one that played the Watermans Arts
Centre in Brentford, with H on dobro and Chris
Morgan from The Positively Testcard on stand up
bass.
-
- The set kicked off with Christine's Tune with
Sid, Pat and Neil sharing the vocal duties as
usual to great effect. They followed this once
again with I Am A Pilgrim with Pat taking the
lead. After this, Sid stopped to check whether
the so und was "too loud". After a
highly entertaining exchange between mother and
son, it was decided to turn the volume down just
a notch, and the set continued. The next song was
My Uncle which was probably one of the best songs
of the night, followed by a rare version of Cody
Cody.
-
- Following another of Sid's humorous yarns about
the time The Long Ryders played McCabes in LA,
all three vocalists took their turn on another
marvellous rendition of Bob Dylan's When The Ship
Comes In, which is quickly becoming a live
favourite for me at this sort of show. After
Pat's great vocals on Git It On Brother, Sid
introduced the only original song of the night I
Tell Her All The Time. Hilariously, with the only
Coal Porters song, they managed to foul up the
intro and had to kick it off again! No such
problems on the wonderful He Was A Friend Of Mine
which again stood out as one of the night's
highlights. With two more blasts from the Byrds'
past in Time Between and Satisfied Mind (with Pat
again shining on vocals) the band continued to
please the crowd.
-
- Neil Robert Herd took lead vocals once more for
the band's version of Lost Highway, before an
excellent excursion through Summer Wind. To
finish off the set the band performed another
underrated Byrds' classic The Girl With No Name,
before finishing off with Older Guys and the
superb Fallen Eagle. With the band having to give
way for other live music, there was no time for
an encore tonight but the generous audience at
the 12 Bar Club were satisfied.
-
- With greater concentration on Western Electric in
the coming months this was likely to be the last
show of this kind for some time. Sid was not
unnerved by the appearance of his parents in the
audience with his wit was as sharp as usual.
Despite some problems with a dodgy mike the band
didn't disappoint. Throughout the set both H and
Chris Morgan gave fine support both musically and
vocally to the three front guys who shared the
vocals to great effect. The band have worked hard
to make these bluegrass gigs a success. They now
have to do the same with the Western Electric
set.
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