Bert Jansch @ Somerset House, London
Originally published on my old blog.
We paid to see the support acts and got a master class from the headliner
We'd never heard of the headliner. We paid to get in for the support, and left bowing to the master.
Summertime rolled on, and this was another outdoor gig, but with a difference: we had never heard of the main act. We paid to get in because of who was supporting him.
Beth Orton was the primary reason for going in the first place. Ethereal vocals, a good grasp of the fundamentals of great songwriting and an adept acoustic artist. And hey, if the Chemical Brothers choose you to be their voice, you've got something going on. I got a sneaky pic of her on the big screen, sorry Beth.
Bernard Butler played guitar for Suede. Remember them? I had their first album because of the song Animal Nitrate, which I loved when I was growing up, and I could vaguely remember the guitars being not too shabby. Luckily I remembered right. They were pretty cool then, and he's pretty solid now, with some lovely bluesy tones.
And then there was Bert Jansch. Turns out that for a Scottish dude with 25 (yes, 25) albums under his belt, spanning four decades and having influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Neil Young, he can kinda play! Classical, fingerpicking, blues, country - if it gets played on an acoustic guitar, this guy helped write the book. After a stellar performance in a great venue, with brilliant support musicians, I have to say: much respect Mr Jansch.
One of the things I like best about music is that you can take this sort of gamble. Music is a kind of meritocracy - X and Y are good, they rate Z, so Z must rock! - and in this case it was never more true.
Photos from the gig
