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.
