Wayne Gillespie comes back from Sydney to play a 40th anniversary tribute to debut album Wayward Son, cherry-picking some of the highlights of a long singer-songwriter career.
He starts quietly, a Folkie at heart, with This Place, New Locations, which opened his second album. Everybody needs a new sensation.
The reference is Lou Reed and many of his songs channel the phrasing of Mr Rock’n’roll Animal (no shit!) but this one is curiously Neil Diamond, out of his classic Bang Original Mono Masters period. Plaintive and emotional, and he plays solo with an acoustic guitar.
The place was packed. The joint did start to rock eventually. Doors did not fly back and any po-leece present were senior management Boomers.
Good many were friends. They were loud and convivial, and not like a good Folkie audience should behave, which was to shut up, already!
The Famous Blue Raincoats file on. Nigel Gavin, virtuoso on strings acoustic and electric and a playing partner since the mid 80’s.
Tony Waine electric bass, Paul Crowther (Split Enz) drums are the solid rhythm engine. David Lines (Professor of Music at Auckland university) keyboards complete a stellar band.
Camille Claudel follows from the Living in Exile album. A lover and muse of Rodin, who was cast into an asylum for the latter half of her life. Don’t let them break your will. High mandolin tones from Gavin does the weeping.
Gillespie was kicking around Auckland in the mid 80’s. My family bought a house just down the road from the iconic Gluepot. The before and afterparty venue for too many, and noise control would have visited a few times.
Being a Boomer myself, I start to feel nostalgic for those different times/ All the poets studied rows of verse/ And those ladies, they just rolled their eyes.
Gillespie was inspired by a Leonard Cohen song in his teens, which started him on this pathway.
He did busk in the streets of Paris. The Luxembourg train station inspired Ten Francs. A man in a (famous) blue raincoat is on his heels, and a ten franc notes floats in the breeze.
Joining him on harmony vocals are Caitlin Smith, who looks radiant and beatific tonight, and a guru of Folk and acoustic music in New Zealand, Chris Priestly. Elevate into heavenly tones.
A shot from the last album Frazz. He inserts a Bananas #2. Jazz tones and strongly Middle Eastern licks. Gavin’s banjo clucks a little, with some shredding.
All out white man Rock on Slow Down. Gavin unleashes Hendrix to Ernie Isley guitar heat. An Americana Road song.
In five songs already and we have a wide palette of styles.
Settle Down has a little Fool to Cry (Rolling Stones) piano from Lines. Melancholia of regret and the melodies are enchanting.
Gillespie is one of this country’s finest songwriters, and just the breadth of styles is captivating.
Papa Wemba (She Dances) is his version of Southern African Pop. It has some of the Soweto swing, and at other times it’s blue-eyed Ska. Eventually it comes to Madonna Soul, and I think Caitlin was adding some Gospel colour.
The quietest song for the evening was a duet, Skin on Skin, with Smith and Gillespie. Once the audience finally shuts up and settles, it is a tender pass on nakedness.
Trembling and vulnerable/ Skin on skin with you. This is not a naked lunch confrontation.
The preceding song Geriatric Blues is positively ribald in comparison. Woke up this morning and you feel alive because there’s pain everywhere. Embrace it as you get older. The bones are brittle but there’s a nice boogie piano. A brief shout-out to Blue Suede Shoes and then T-Rex and Allman Brothers riffs are piled on.
Gillespie make a special mention regards Priestley and his pivotal role in the acoustic music scene in Auckland.
From the original Record Warehouse to Real Groovy Records, with an album produced along the way. To the Folk music clubs of Poles Apart and the Devonport Bunker, and to Café 121 whilst not forgetting the rather cool Java Jive.
Priestley taught Gillespie a claw hammer style to play on guitar, which I thought was confined to banjo and the heavily percussive style of Uncle Dave Macon.
Hearts For has pronounced guitar rings and chimes and sounds like the Byrd’s on their first two albums of Folk Rock.
Gillespie has cast his net wide over the forty years and has shared a stage with Suzanne Vega, Chris Whitley, and closer to home with Dave Dobbyn, Neil Finn and Shona Laing.
Gillespie has also studied a bachelors honours degree in psychology in Australia and has published a paper on the psychology of Rock musicians. A rich field I am sure.
Gavin commented to me a few days later that the energy of this show was special. The band and the backing singers were on fire and the soundman achieved a wonderful mix. I forget his name.
Wayne Gillespie and the Famous Blue Raincoat wrap up the evening with Until Tonight. Great Pop number of which he inserts a little of Iggy Pop’s Passenger.
Rev. Orange Peel
Thanks for the erudite review Rev.O.P -it will be shared!! BTW Camille Claudel was Rodin’s muse /lover/artist in own right not Renoir’s.