- Sid Griffin: Rosie
O'Grady's, Camden, London - 14/11/1999
- A Sunday late afternoon in November wouldn't seem
to be the best time to play a gig but this Irish
bar in Camden was positively packed when I
arrived at 6pm. True to form Sid's appearance was
delayed whilst The Kalamazoos put on a short but
well received set.
-
- Sid opened his hour long acoustic set with the
Long Ryders standard Capturing The Flag and
despite a slightly flawed lyric, this was a good
start. Everywhere was up next, a song which seems
to have a permanent #2 place in Sid's solo set
these days. This too was well received, despire
further lyrical slip-ups from Sid. Next up a song
unfamiliar to me which went unannounced. It may
have been called Crucify The Lord and had a
fairly simple lyric around the Christian theme
and may even have been a Baptist hymn. This was
followed by three other recently new tracks. A
Dry Eye In The House came across better than at
its' first hearing at the 12 Bar Club, as did
Permanent Twilight, despite another musical
hiccup from Sid, which promises to be a future
favourite. Only Lost In This World sounded like
it might take another couple of plays before I'm
comfortable with it.
-
- Sid then replaced his 12 string acoustic for his
mandolin and was joined 'on stage' by Pat
McGarvey on banjo (for the first time in my
experience). Following one of Sid's song related
stories "about a dead guy" the pair put
on a brilliant performance of He Was A Friend Of
Mine which got one of the best reactions of the
evening. They then raced through Older Guys and
Sweet Mental Revenge, the latter sounding great
on just banjo and mandolin. This was followed by
Draft Morning with superb vocals from both Sid
and Pat, though I think this was less suited to
the mandolin/banjo arrangement.
-
- Sid then switched back to 12 string for a very
well polished version of Everything which sounded
wonderful. The set closed with a plug for the
annual Chris Hillman birthday show and the
appropriate I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better which
was brilliant and nicely closed the show. The MC
quickly acknowledged the crowd's cheers and
insisted Sid and Pat do one more. They obliged
with Irene, Goodnight once more encouraging
audience participation for the singalong chorus,
though sadly with a less than enthusiastic
response. However the crowd were more than
satisfied with the show and as admission was
free, could have no complaints about value for
money. Less than half the songs in the set were
Sid Griffin originals which I always find
slightly disappointing but the entertainment
value was high as usual, and the set was well
received all round.
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