Regretfully, I had to pass on the opportunity to see Boo Hewerdine play at the Chapel Arts Centre in Bath last Thursday. To console myself, I've found a couple of live performances, an appearance on The Tube and one (home) video.
First up is Boo's full set for the Celtic Connections festival in January 2015. Filmed at the CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts) in Glasgow for the BBC, Boo plays four songs - Patience Of Angels, It's A Small World (written the night before), Dragonflies, Bible Pages and Funny Bones - linked with his dry wit and amusing asides. A lovely way to spend (less than) 20 minutes.
Here's another setlist perennial, Honey Be Good, written and recorded by Boo when he was fronting The Bible. The song originally appeared on The Bible's second album Eureka in 1988. This performance is from the Acoustic Roots festival in Dalton, Lancashire on 15th May 2019.
I'd got on board with The Bible from the start, back when they had an exclamation mark and released their first couple of singles and debut album on Norwich-based Backs Records. The first single I bought was their second single, on shiny black vinyl in a silver sleeve, a tribute to Mahalia Jackson, who at age 15 I'd never heard of before.
That was enough for me to buy the album Walking The Ghost Back Home, which I thought was great. One of those weird dilemmas as a schoolkid though, loving the band but not wishing to add 'The Bible' to the names scrawled over my bag and school books. I'm guessing contemporary fans of The Church may have had the same problem...
To close, here's a relatively recent (2021) video of Boo performing the song It's A Beautiful Night in front of the window of his home in Glasgow and sporting a rather magnificent beard.
The Chapel Arts Centre in Bath seems to be a favoured venue for Boo when he's out and about on tour, so I'm hoping I'll be able to catch him next time around...
If you've enjoyed this short virtual tour, there's plenty more to enjoy (and buy) from this master craftsman over at Bandcamp.
If you need someone to go with I'll come next time :)
ReplyDeleteI keep a sad excel spreadsheet of gigs i have been to. It says that I saw The Bible (!) in 1989 and 1990! Thank goodness I keep a note of these things as I would have told you I once had the 12" of Graceland but never saw them live (obvs did!)..always felt Boo was underrated..
Thanks Mike, noted! I've potentially got 4 gigs coming up in May, so that plus cash flow, family birthdays, etc. etc. meant that April had to be fallow month, in respect of gig going and music purchases. And it was on a Thursday in Bath, which is pretty much the worst day and location in respect of work so it wasn't meant to be. Boo seems to like the venue though as he's played there a few times so maybe next time around...
DeleteI haven't been through it yet but you can probably see the top of Charity Chic's head at some point in the Celtic Connections video.
ReplyDeleteNot guilty.
DeleteThe only time I've seen him was in Birnam in Perthshire.
Thanks for the confirmation, both of you. I was looking for CC's crown without success so it's good to have that cleared up. CC would surely have been up on stage in a flash to be the volunteer human music stand for Boo's second song, so I knew something wasn't quite right.
DeleteI had a ticket to see Boo in Penistone (stop sniggering at the back) last week. Sadly, other commitments prevented my attendance. I've added Honey Be Good to an in car compilation to make up for this.
ReplyDeleteSigh, I have a similarly sub-section of tickets purchased for gigs that I subsequently couldn't attend. Honey Be Good hopefully eased the pain on this occasion, Rol.
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