Vancouver, October 17, 1997
"Dick and Ted's Excellent Adventure"

Richard and Teddy played last night in Vancouver, at Richard's on Richards (where he also played just over a year ago with the RTBand).

Teddy Thompson opened the show, singing 5 songs by himself. For the record, the laid-back "sensitive singer-songwriter" style that he favours doesn't do much for me - but what I heard from him was pleasant enough. Highlights were one song, which he described as being about his mother, called (I think) "She's a Feeler"; and another one (about which he said "If I ever record an album - not if, when - this will probably be the first single") that featured the line "sitting on the brink of love". His voice, if anything, reminds me a bit of Loudon Wainwright III's. Teddy doesn't really take after Richard in terms of looks - his facial features are more like Linda's. When he signs that recording deal, he could easily be marketed as a folkie heart-throb.

Richard came on about 10 minutes after Teddy finished. He was in very high spirits. He related a story about his first gig in Vancouver, with Fairport (reciting from memory, so not a precise quote): "It was about 1971, we were playing a club down in Gastown [note: old part of Vancouver - similar in look and feel to Seattle's Pioneer Square] - really horrible back then, lots of drunks.... Played several nights in a row, which you did in those days. Anyway, first couple of nights were your typical crowds - 3 people, 6 people, 8 people. Then Friday - alright, the place was packed! But they were all lumberjacks! And they did something I've never seen before or since - they'd jump down from the balcony onto the dance floor! Lots of real men in Canada - run for your lives!"

Teddy joined him about half-way through the set, playing rhythm guitar to dad's lead (both played acoustic throughout - no I didn't recognize the make of the guitars). Again their styles were very different: Richard of course standing back a bit and leaning forward into the mike, while Teddy stood almost under the mike so that he practically had to lean back to sing into it. They worked well together - when one guy standing near the stage got their attention (presumably by his song requests), they huddled together and pantomimed "Him?... Yeah, him!" as if they were planning to "get him" after the show.

Richard did the meet-and-greet after the show, just beside the stage, while sipping what looked like a hot chocolate or a decaff mocha. One guy brought a Jimmy Shands album for him to autograph. After some hesitation, I went down myself - shook his hand, thanked him for the great show, asked him to sign my ticket stub, and asked about Danny. "He's coming along, getting up and about now", he answered. At that point I suddenly got tongue-tied, so, much as I would have liked to chat, to avoid embarrassment I just thanked him again and left.

Set list (again, from memory, so the precise order might be off - if any other list-members were there, feel free to add or correct):

(solo)

(with Teddy)

(Encore - solo)

(with Teddy)

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Erwin Wodarczak
woderwin@unixg.ubc.ca
http://www.interchg.ubc.ca/woderwin/

... and his faithful zebra, Spot!
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