Robert Plant confirmed for Bert Jansch tribute concert

[kenog]

SuperDave,

I think a lot also comes down to ambition - at his time of life, how much incentive is there for him? I do think for anything more that a one off guest appearance, he would have to do quite a bit of practising. There's a difference between a couple of songs at the RAH and doing a full gig.

Even up to 2007, Jimmy didn't play much. But on one night that year he lived up to this and turned away those naysayers and critics. He still has it, but it's just a matter of desire and ambition to do so, whether this or recording any knew material and following through with it!

[SuperDave]

SuperDave,

I think a lot also comes down to ambition - at his time of life, how much incentive is there for him? I do think for anything more that a one off guest appearance, he would have to do quite a bit of practising. There's a difference between a couple of songs at the RAH and doing a full gig.

Agreed Kenog. Most people are retired or close to it at Jimmy's age now. Looks fairly promising from Jimmy's interview at the Classic Rock Rewards regarding what will be included on the box sets. Hoping for live material as well and feel we'll probably get some of that as well. It was said here a few months ago in the Box Sets thread that live material was being remixed. Not sure who provided the info, but may have been our friend James here (Cookie24). either way...I just can't wait! Sounds like the whole project is quite ambitious and Jimmy tends to go all out with these type of things. We'll see and let's hope!!!!

[Cookie0024]

Update on this concert: Eric Clapton and Roy Harper have both pulled out. Eric Clapton due to "unforeseen logistical reasons" and Roy Harper because of his court case.

Also, Bert Jansch's late wife Heather has been sharing my speculation of Jimmy playing live tomorrow night. I mean, with two of the headline performers dropping out, they need SOMEONE to fill in, right?

[Bayougal65]

Update on this concert: Eric Clapton and Roy Harper have both pulled out. Eric Clapton due to "unforeseen logistical reasons" and Roy Harper because of his court case.

Also, Bert Jansch's late wife Heather has been sharing my speculation of Jimmy playing live tomorrow night. I mean, with two of the headline performers dropping out, they need SOMEONE to fill in, right?

I hope you and Heather are right!

Please, keep us in the loop!

[SteveAJones]

Eric Clapton due to "unforeseen logistical reasons"

I did say Eric would steal the show.

[aen27]

Update on this concert: Eric Clapton and Roy Harper have both pulled out. Eric Clapton due to "unforeseen logistical reasons" and Roy Harper because of his court case.

Also, Bert Jansch's late wife Heather has been sharing my speculation of Jimmy playing live tomorrow night. I mean, with two of the headline performers dropping out, they need SOMEONE to fill in, right?

Interesting. Please keep us informed. I agree Eric would steal the show, unless Jimmy does show up.

[DropDown]

Imagine if....just if...don't want to say it to not jinx it....!

[Cookie0024]

No Jimmy Page at this, there was barely any Robert either! Overall a decent night, but some of the old male guitar players were decidedly "past it". One gentleman repeatedly went back and played the same song, a few people walked out.

Robert Plant played Go Your Way with Bernard Butler:

Then he introduced Bonnie Dobson on stage and sang Morning Dew as a duet with her (incomplete video)

[aen27]

Dissappointing, but I am not entirely surprised he didn't.

[ledded1]

No Jimmy Page at this, there was barely any Robert either! Overall a decent night, but some of the old male guitar players were decidedly "past it". One gentleman repeatedly went back and played the same song, a few people walked out.

Robert Plant played Go Your Way with Bernard Butler:

Then he introduced Bonnie Dobson on stage and sang Morning Dew as a duet with her (incomplete video)

The so called past it guitar player was Martin Carthy. It was a bit embarrassing that he in his words " screwed it up" given thathe ha splayed is so many times down the years. I enjoyed the evening.

[truth and beauty]

I was there too, as it happened in a great seat which I got at the last minute. Wrong side of the stage for RP , though would have been a priceless vantage point had JP appeared too. Whatever discouraged him, I think it was a good call.

This concert was a bit of a curate's egg. Some stunning performances, really intense, and it WASN'T only about old people not being able to hack it: Beverley Martyn/Danny Thompson/Bonnie Dobson -WHATTT ? Amazing stuff. Other major troupers like Ralph McTell and Donovan also really held their own. And some younger - Bernard Butler - plus a lot younger - a stunning singer called Lisa Knapp - made fabulous contributions.

But in the nature of that kind of event, there was a balance between those who were invited for perhaps sentimental reasons, and others who were there to be brilliant and intense. I think the balance must have suffered terribly when Roy Harper and Eric Clapton pulled out. It would have been a very different event with their participation. Clapton seems to have pulled out at very short notice; Roy's cancellation must surely have been foreseeable for a while . The only possible ( and debatable) fix would have been to give Robert a bigger role, which obviously didn't happen.

I think it must have been a nightmare for the organisers to lose those two. I wonder what Robert felt about it ? He played his restricted part admirably. He was the uncontested star of the event ( undeniable magnetism and beautiful singing) but he took the gracious part he's played on stage in recent years ( as he's stepped back to give space to Alison Krauss, to Patty Griffin, to some of his African musicians) - such a different presence from the competitive, flamboyant sparring between himself and Page.

If Jimmy had been there, it would have been all about those two. Which would not have been the intention of the concert. Nor, I suspect the intention in those circumstances of either RP or JP .

[Cecil.]

Thanks for posting updates on the show.

[Zepphile]

Very insightful, Thank You T&B. A shame Roy and Eric couldn't attend. (Jimmy too!)

[Disco Duck]

Is it possible that Page wasn't invited to participate in the tribute? IIRC, there was bad blood between he and Bert Jansch over songwriting credits for Black Mountain Side.

[ledded1]

I only managed 3 photos as the staff were not allowing people to take pics.

[ledded1]

[ledded1]

[aen27]

Thank you for all 3, ledded1.

[aen27]

Is it possible that Page wasn't invited to participate in the tribute? IIRC, there was bad blood between he and Bert Jansch over songwriting credits for Black Mountain Side.

Possibly. Also, remember Jana had her gig that night too. It may have been Jimmy went to see her band at the Trobadour.

[SteveAJones]

Young, Plant and friends pay tribute to "Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar"

BY ANGUS MACSWAN

Wed Dec 4, 2013 11:53am EST

(Reuters) - A host of musicians headed by Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant on Tuesday night celebrated the life and work of Bert Jansch, the late Scottish guitarist who influenced generations of players from Neil Young to Johnny Marr with hisstew of blues, folk and jazz.

On a London stage decorated to look like Les Cousins, the Soho folk club where Jansch held court in the 1960s, they played his songs and others that had inspired him, and reminisced about "a magical man, an occasionally shambolic man," in the words of Martin Simpson.

Jansch died in October 2011 of lung cancer at the age of 67 and Tuesday would have been his 70th birthday.

If he never achieved huge popular fame to match his talent, his standing amongst his peers was evident in a Royal Festival Hall line-up that was a virtual Who's Who of British folk, among them Ralph McTell, Donovan and members of Pentangle, the folk-jazz group with whom he found his greatest commercial success.

Neil Young, who once described Jansch as the Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar, was not present in body but appeared on a large screen in a specially-recorded video in which he played "Needle of Death", Jansch's tale of heroin addiction that Young has acknowledged as the inspiration for his own classic "Needle and the Damage Done".

The Canadian told how in his early days as a folksinger in Toronto, he played Jansch's albums endlessly.

The Glasgow-born Jansch cut his teeth in Edinburgh before hitchhiking down to London in the early 1960s and quickly made a name for himself in clubs such as the Troubadour and Les Cousins.

His playing brought together folk, blues and jazz with a muscular, finger-picking style, and also drew in some Middle Eastern and Asian flavours picked up on his travels. He brought out a string of albums such as "Jack Orion" and "Rosemary Lane", that were to be a huge influence on the likes of guitarist Jimmy Page, later to form Led Zeppelin.

He was still recording and touring till shortly before his death - his last performance being with a reformed Pentangle at the Royal Festival Hall in August 2011, three months before he passed away.

"He was what we had - the Americans had Dylan, who picked up Woody Guthrie, we had Bert, who found the hidden music of these islands," McTell told Reuters after the show.

"He was sexy, he was cool. Women found him alluring, men admired him for that. I treasure the friendship I had with him for 40 years."

McTell kicked off the concert with "Angie", an intricate instrumental that was one his best known songs. Donovan recalled hanging out with Jansch in his kitchen. "He taught me his licks, not a great looker but he got all the chicks," he said in short poem written for the occasion.

Another highlight came from bassist Danny Thompson, a former Pentangle member and stalwart of the British folk scene, who played Charlie Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", a song he said Jansch loved.

Pentangle, featuring original members Jacqui McShee, Thompson and drummer Terry Cox, closed off the first half with "Poison", a song that alludes to Jansch's battle with booze. They were accompanied by former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, who worked with Jansch in his later years as a new generation switched on to him.

Martin Carthy, the godfather of British folk, played "Blackwaterside", a traditional Ulster song that Jansch made his own. The song would later became the basis of Led Zeppelin's "Black Mountain Side".

Plant, dressed in black, was a far cry from the rock god who had fronted Zeppelin. He cast a spell with a moving version of "Go Your Way My Love.". Speaking to Reuters later, he acknowledged that Jansch had helped to open a treasure trove of blues for the band as well as inspiring their folkier side.

"We all came to a similar place, but we concentrated on different levels. Bert was digging up stuff, blues from Mississippi, for example. He was a digger for us all," he said.

The show wrapped up with the massed ranks of musicians singing a rollicking "Strolling Down the Highway" which blew away any sense of melancholy.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/04/us-music-jansch-idUSBRE9B30T820131204?feedType=RSS

[SteveAJones]

Also, remember Jana had her gig that night too. It may have been Jimmy went to see her band at the Trobadour.

No confirmation as of yet.

[JTM]

On BBC 4 now "The Genius of Bert Jansch: Folk, Blues and Beyond". Archive footage and performances from the 2013 tribute concert at the Royal Festival Hall London.

[ledded1]

Just reliving the evening on TV.

[ledastray]

While it may be true (as stated earlier in the thread) that Zeppelin increased awareness of Jansch's work, I actually got into Zeppelin (and Pentangle) through Fairport Convention, lured by Sandy Denny's guest spot on the untitled album.

So, thanks for the heads up about this show. I hope to be able to track it down. Would be great to see and hear Robert and Jacqui McShee and all.