RAW

Back to my birthplace Bristol for a legend of the live circuit, Rita Lynch. I've belatedly and retrospectively tried to keep a record of the gigs that I've been to but it's fair to say that there are many that have been lost to the mists of time, especially the pay-on-the-door, ad-hoc stumbles into a pub or club to catch some live music, substances coursing through your body and nothing but the moment to live for.

On that basis, I may well have seen Rita Lynch live on stage even more often than Julian Cope, who I've seen a lot. Add to the list Rita's annual appearances at the Ashton Court Festival and I'm likely to be easily into double figures. Sadly, no crumpled, faded tickets, memories of setlists or who I was with to jog the memory.

Yet Rita Lynch is unforgettable, a force of nature and writer of some of the most caustic, visceral, real songs you've never heard. This month's Bandcamp Friday was my prompt to make up for lost time and buy five of Rita's back catalogue albums. Everything else I bought at the same time has had to be put to one side as I lost myself again in Rita's music. 

 

An Iffypedia quote describes Rita Lynch as "P.J. Harvey meets At The Drive-In". It's an easy comparison particularly because Rita and Polly were ploughing a similar musical furrow in the late 80s/early 90s. However, there's so much more than that and so much that cannot be described as anything but Rita herself, no comparison.

Amongst my purchases was what, as far as I can tell, was Rita's last album, 2018's Backwards. A poke around You Tube unearthed a video for It's Good To See You, filmed at the Star And Garter pub in Montpelier, a familar haunt back in the day.

 

The most recent recording I've been able to find is a single, Waves, released in July 2020 but presumably filmed pre-lockdown on Clevedon bandstand, on the seafront, a short walk from the pier in one direction and the miniature railway in the other (or at least, it was when I last visited). It's a beautiful, acoustic-and-violin driven thing and quite a different from what you'll hear on today's selection.

 

Happily, there's a fair bit of Rita Lynch performing live available on YouTube, including Tied To You taken from a Visual Radio Arts soundcheck in July 2017 and a wonderful in-crowd snippet from Rita's gig at The Plough Inn in Easton from June of this year. It doesn't matter how big or small the stage is, Rita totally owns it. What a legend.

Being Saturday, I've gone for a 10-song selection from my 5-album purchase to shake your bones and rattle your brain cells, songs to dance to and think about, themes that are sadly all-too relevant in the present day. All done in just over 30 minutes so that you press repeat and start all over again.

 

When I'll pulling together songs for a Dubhed Selection, I'll stick the longlist of songs into folder or playlist called RAW, playing around with sequences, deciding which songs make the cut and which are saved for another time. I did the same for today's Rita Lynch selection and whilst the title is usually taken from a line in one of the featured songs, I couldn't think of a better name for this one than RAW.

1) On The Dole (2011)

2) Tearaway (2014)

3) If This Is Love (2008)

4) Imitation (2014)

5) D.U. (2010) 

6) Hey You (2018)

7) Judas Kiss (2010)

8) Glad You Got Away (2011)

9) He'll Be Far From You (2008)

10) Wild And Free (2018)

2008: Good Advice: 3, 9

2010: What Am I?: 5, 7

2011: Crack On: 1, 8

2014: Anti Social: 2, 4

2018: Backwards: 6, 10

RAW (30:59)