Three loud cheers for omArmrest, and a slightly muted one for the preservation of your supposed innocence, dere
Gx
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I tried very hard to get him to come and be a music-guest at an SF convention, but he was unable to make it in the end; his agent sent Isaac Guillory instead.
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Thanks, joe.
He came to my university in the 70s. Iāve a few favourites; The Castleford Ladiesā Magical Circle is one.
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I love the The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington.
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I recall him doing a Thakrayesque version of Freeās āMy Brother Jakeā. Free were my favourite rock group and so this was quite a thrill. Iāve looked & he seems not to have recorded it.
OM-Armsrest had quite a thing going on at the club for 8 or 9 years. Obviously largely Northern biased but Mike Harding was a twice a year event, which will fill the place to the gunnels. What evolved into The Houghton Weavers were the house band for quite a time.
The likes of Ewan McColl, Harvey Andrews, Jaquie & Bridie, The Oldham Tinkers, Bernard Wrigley. On a once only he got Martin Carthy. He also got about 4 songs, before she stomped off due to audience indifference, from a capable but ill-placed Glaswegian singer who however was a Jazz singer at the time ā¦ Barbara Dixon.
He claimed to have booked a guy who then cancelled as his work began to take off ā¦ Paul Simon. I was never sure if that was accurate tbf. but it was z good tale.
I last saw Mike Harding in a restaurant in Kos town in the mid 80ās. Probably 10 years after heād last collapsed at our house. He was holding fort with a group of about 8 people. Iām not the sort to disturb someone but we nodded across the room. I wondered if that was simply politeness or he had an āI know I know youā moment. They finished & he very positively waved over to us as they left. When I went to pay half an hour later I was amazed to be told that by bill had been paid.
Iād have had Metaxaās if Iād known.
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Hereās my favourite JT song:
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That must have been a terrible disappointmentā¦
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Most of the audience had never heard of him. So: not once he started playing.
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And any aspiring guitarists in the audience, instead of being impressed (as they should be by JT) were thoroughly demoralisedā¦
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ā¦and talking of geetarishsts, check out this chap!
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Too right, Joe!
We did actually have several competent guitarists in the audience, who were quite simply blown away.
He found us a bit surprising too; he turned up and the first question he was asked was whether he wanted to eat before or after the gig and what heād like to have, and what heād be drinking and when (it helps to have been on the jazz circuit a bit: the only person who ever seemed to realise that the band might need to eat, drink or piss as I recall was of all people Auberon Waugh when we played for his sonās twenty-firster. Private jacks for the band and all the champagne they could use if they liked to have that rather than beer), and when we went out and ate with him it was an amazing experience. He stayed a friend until he died, and remembered my name even when I turned up at a gig of his for the first time about two years after I had been very briefly his āemployerā. Quite a man, as well as one hell of a guitarist.
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Hear, hear!
A wonderful player, and totally unassuming. Much missed.
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Iād forgotten this one - very apposite at the moment:
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A moment of quiet seasonal reflectionā¦
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ā¦hereās one of my favourites which I often play at this time of the year:
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Anyone for an alternative alternative setting?
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ā¦yer beat me to it, dere! Have a merry Yule! (BTW check out
ā¦ah!
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I last heard that being sung very beautifully in Yorkshire pub by about five drunken louts I wouldnāt have expected to sing anything but pop-songs and out of tune at that, Joe. Thank you.
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This is whatās currently stuck in my tiny birdly brain:
I think they do this song rather better than the original artists. Well, the original artists are white boys from Utah (not that thereās anything wrong with that), and WT are Dutch nutters.
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āBlackening the summer skies
with flaming wings and countless eyes
please take pity on us all, Joleneā
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