Saying a fond farewell to Stackridge

Originally I was happy to see Stackridge twice on their farewell tour but the arguments mounted for seeing them a third and final time. The argument could be summarised as "what would be the reason for not going?". So I went.

I had already been to the two London concerts, at the Half Moon and the Borderline, so the third concert meant a little more travelling - to Farncombe (never heard of it) which seemed to be close to Guildford (heard of that). There were not many trains between there are Surbiton, only one or two an hour each way, but that was enough to make the travel possible.

Having decided to go, I bought my ticket, which was just as well as the place sold-out, and that was impressive for a venue in the middle of nowhere that takes 350 people.

The advice was to arrive early, with the doors opening at 6:45pm, but the unhelpful train times meant that I could not get there until 7:30pm and by then all the seats were taken and jealously protected. That meant that I ended up standing right at the back when every other time that I had seen Stackridge I had been standing at the front.

In the end my position worked well. Standing meant that I could easily see over all the people sitting in front of me (which I could not have done had I been sitting in the middle somewhere) and the balance of the sound was perfect (the mixing desk was just in front of me, that is the lights in the picture above). Standing also meant that I could sway a bit to the music, always a good thing to do.

The set was, as far as I can tell, identical to other concerts on this tour, as expected and wanted. Standing further back helped me to appreciate the quality of the sound and there was a lot of quality to appreciate. The acoustics were spot on too and while I am not a fan of church architecture aesthetically I do like what it does to sound.

The concert was fantastic and even the little bit of talking behind me could not spoil that. Stackridge played for almost two sublime hours.

I had another motive for attending this concert and that was to try and meet the band. I had not done that before, nor had I tried too, and this would be my last opportunity to say "thank you" in person. This time the train timetable helped and I had half an hour after the show before I had to make the short trip back to the station. In that time I was lucky enough to swap a few words with Glenn Tommey (keyboards), Andy Cresswell-Davis (lead guitar), James Warren (bass), and Clare Lindley(violin), only Eddie John (drums) escaped me.

Those words were mostly me saying thanks and how much I liked the current combination of set and line-up. In return I heard that the band were also very happy with the way the tour was going and that most of them would carry on playing in some form after Stackridge stopped and that some of them would be playing together. That is definitely something to look out for in 2016.

It was a sad occasion to see Stackridge for the last time but they left on a high-note, I had the opportunity to say a proper farewell and I have the memories of many wonderful concerts.

Stackridge at the Borderline, the middle of the end

This was billed as the only London date in Stackridge's farewell tour, The Final Bow, so of course I went. I also went to their gig in Putney which might be a bit surprised to learn is not in London.

Stackridge had the good sense to hold the gig on a Friday so that I could work at home first and not be encumbered by a suit and bag in the evening.

It also meant that I could be reasonably sure of getting there early enough to claim a space near the front. Even so, I left home quite early as I was still haunted by the memory of arriving late to one of their concerts when there was an incident on the railway delaying all trains. Another advantage of leaving early was that I could use the contingency time to walk the last leg rather than taking the tube all the way.

Despite being there quite early the venue was already filling up and much of the area next to the stage had been claimed. I quickly got a pint of Beck's Vier, my usual tipple at the Borderline, and took one of the remaining spaces at the front.

Stackridge also had the good sense to spread set-lists across the stage for us to photograph. I expected the set to be the same as it had been in Putney (it was) and I just took a photo of the set-list for my future information, i.e. to post here.

Before the main act we had singer-songwriter Steve Rodgers. Stackridge must have liked him as he played a long set, as he had at Putney. Then he had been solo and I was not that impressed but at the Borderline he had a three-piece band with him and I liked the sound a lot more. I was never going to rush out and buy his CD but he entertained me more than a lot of support bands had.

Then, around 9pm, Stackridge came on stage to a lot of cheering from what looked like a sold-out audience.

What followed was what had become typical Stackridge. The set was well balanced between songs that were long or short and slow or rocky.

It is hard to pick any favourites out when they are all good but just looking at the set-list again got me singing Syracuse the Elephant to myself all lunchtime. Part of that may be because it was the first Stackridge songs I ever (knowingly) heard. That was at university in 1975, the song is from the 1972 album Friendliness, and it obviously made a big impression on me as I can still remember that moment.

It was also clear that Stackridge were enjoying playing the songs as much as we enjoyed listening to them and there was a good rapport between us and them, helped by having a full room with no physical gap between performers and audience.

The evening was not entirely perfect as the strict curfew and the long support act meant that Something About the Beatles (SAT Beatles on the set-list) was dropped. A small disappointment in a great evening.

The cheering at the end was even longer and louder than usual as, I presume, that many of us knew that would be the last time that we would see them play live, though a few of us started to hatch plans to see them again on The Final Bow tour.

Stackridge at the Half Moon, the beginning of the end

Stackridge were one of the few bands that I made a point of seeing at every opportunity and a concert just down the road at the Half Moon in Putney was a good opportunity.

The good news of the concert was twinged with the disappointment that this was announced as their farewell tour. Even more reason to go and see them then.

Seeing them was non-trivial as I had to work in Leatherhead that day but I managed to escape early enough to go home, drop the bag and swap the suit for something more casual.

The Half Moon is a pub with a music venue stuck on the side, there's little connection between the two other than you have to go through one to get to the other. In passing through the one I helped myself to a pint of beer.

Somehow I managed to get there before the music room opened and a little queue developed by the door. I was close enough to the front of it to get a place next to the stage when the door was released. The stage at the Half Moon was across one corner which gave it a lot of space at the front and not much at the back. The downside of that was that Stackridge spread themselves along the front, as they had to, so those on the far right and left sides were some way away from me and were almost side-on to me. I could live with that.

This was my first experience of the new tour and, as always, I was interested to see how the band sounded and what songs they chose to play. I was delighted with both.

The line-up had settled down in the last few years to a five-piece band of Andy Cresswell-Davis on, guitars,  James Warren on bass, Glenn Tommey on keyboards, Eddie John on drums and Clare Lindley on violin. Other instruments were played at times including a trombone (evidence right) and far too many ukuleles than any band has a right to deploy (evidence below).

The mix of instruments were just right for the folksy and progy sound that, for me, defines Stackridge. A sound firmly routed in the early seventies and proudly so.

The set-list had settled down too, presumably because the line-up had. We all have our favourites and it was good to see some of mine included, they are listed here as God Speed and Spaceships.

I liked all of the other songs too, though I have to admit that while most fans seemed to put Dora first I would put it last, but even last in that list is pretty good.

Several of the songs, especially the newer ones like Red Squirrel, I only knew from seeing Stackridge live and I had seen them live often enough to learn and love these songs too.

Everything went as well as expected. The band played well and with obvious delight (evidence above) a set of fabulous songs that got everybody singing, cheering, swaying, clapping and, above all, smiling. It was a wonderful concert by a band in top form.

It ended all too soon, i.e. after a couple of hours, and we were forced back into the pub which had gone through a transformation in the meantime with the arrival of a disco, lots of young people and bouncers on the door to keep things orderly. I found a quietish corner for a quick pint before heading back to Putney station and a train home.

There was a reason that Stackridge were one of the few bands that I made a point of seeing at every opportunity and they proved why again at the Half Moon. A faultless evening.

Stackridge at The Borderline (October 2014)

Stackridge are something of an oddity in my concert going in that they are one of the very few bands that I go to see whenever I can but I have very little of their recorded material and so there is much that they play live that I either do not know at all or only vaguely from previous concerts.

The reason that I keep going to see them despite not being that familiar with their music is because they put on such great performances.

This time they were back at the Borderline where I last saw them almost exactly a year previously.

The layout at the Borderline is a little quirky with the auditorium curing round to the left and up some steps to the main bar. The stage thrusts out a little and I usually find myself right at the front to the left of the centre, just where the stage starts to bend. This is not necessarily always the best place to stand and I go there out of habit as much as anything.

This time it meant that I was right in front of main-man James Warren. The rest of the line-up was as the previous year, which is a little unusual for a band whose line-up has changed as much as theirs has. The line-up was James Warren, Clare Lindley and Andy Cresswell-Davis across the front, and Glenn Tommey and Eddie John at the back.

I said last year that they were comfortable together and another year of playing together had made them more so. This was an assured performance with each person playing their parts and confident that the others would too.

Their sound was firmly folk-prog for most of the time and that is a sound that I like.

While the music was fine I found the lighting frustrating, as it often is at the Borderline. There was too much back-lighting  for most of the time, hence the white line through James' head above, and then most of the pictures came out purple as if washed with my socks.

I had no complaints about the sound though. The music was excellent and the sound system did it justice.

Reinforcing the folk-prog feel there was the welcome return of two of my favourites from their early years, God Speed The Plough (73) and Purple Spaceships Over Yatton (72). With such great songs in the set I did not even mind the massed ukulele number!

James seemed to be surprised to be playing songs that were over forty years old and claimed to be seven when he wrote them. That fooled nobody as we all there listening to those songs forty years ago too.

Stackridge mixed the set up nicely with everything from long instrumentals to short quirky pieces and quite a few changes in instruments too, and not just the ukuleles. It all made for a well balanced and entertaining set that went down so well that Stackridge were forced to do two encores, despite the impending curfew which enables the Borderline to change into its night-time form.

As long as Stackridge continue to entertain as well as this, I'll be there to see them.

Stackridge at The Borderline (October 2013)

From a casually aware name in the 70's Stackridge have become one of the few bands that I see regularly, though having been unable to see them at the Boom Boom Club earlier in the year this was my first chance since December 2012.

After last year's disaster with the travel I set off in good time and was there around 8pm, not long after the support act started. The place was still filling up and I was easily able to get a place right at the front next to the stage.

I quite liked the support's first two numbers but they were far too folky for my taste.

Stackridge came on stage around 8:30 and were immediately comfortable with each other and with us. The current line-up of five had been in place a little while now and that shows.

The Borderline stage is a reasonable size, I've seen Space Ritual squeeze a dozen people on to it, so each member had plenty of space to play with. Their line-up of choice was James Warren, Clare Lindley and Andy Cresswell-Davis across the front, and Glenn Tommey and Eddie John at the back.

I deliberately omitted the instruments from the line-up as Stackridge is something of a multi-instrumental team with even the drummer joining in on the ukulele for one song - Clare and Andy played theirs several times. And it was good to see Glenn come out from behind his keyboards to play the trombone.

A lot of the songs had been in place for some time too, even the so-called new ones, and that made for a familiar and comfortable evening, which is exactly what everybody wanted.

That's not to say that Stackridge were lazy or just going through the motions, far from it. It felt like wearing a best suit which always fits and always looks good.


Their sound was still pleasingly folk-prog, helped significantly by Clare's violin, and that is what I had gone to hear. I am not that familiar with their repertoire as I only hear it once or twice a year, so it is the general sound and feel that I appreciate, and I appreciated it that night a lot.

I was especially pleased to see God Speed the Plough included though.

Stackridge played for all but two hours (the Borderline's 10:30pm curfew was a significant constraint) and managed to make the most of that by spending as little time as possible off stage before coming back on twice more for the encores that we demanded. They played three extra songs not shown on the set list; Fundamentally Yours and Boots 'N' Shoes for the first encore before returning again to end the show with the crowd pleaser Dora, The Female Explorer.

With concerts like this it is easy to see why Stackridge have such a loyal following, despite the many changes over the many years, and why I seem to be becoming one of them.

Stackridge at The Borderline (December 2012)

I am a relatively recent convert to Stackridge, after a little dabbling in the late 70s while at university, and am making up for lost time by catching them in concert whenever they come close.

If my blog is to believed this was the fifth time that I had seen Stackridge in about four and a half years.

The Borderline should have been easy to get too but for the second time I arrived with the headline act already on stage. This time the excuse was somebody  hit by a train at Earlsfield which, somehow, also screwed by the Richmond/Waterloo line horribly and I got there about an hour later than anticipated.

As with the gig in Sutton in May, this was the new line-up, new sound and new set of songs, some of which are still reassuringly old. The main difference is that the two violins at the back are now one violin at the front and the guitar (and ukulele) duties are shuffled.

James Warren is still the main man and he does most of the talking now that Mutter Slater has gone.

Also there from recent versions of the band are Andy Cresswell-Davis on lead guitars, Glenn Tommey on keyboards and Eddie John on drums. Joining them and taking the front spot is Clare Lindley on violin.

The sound they make has a strong progressive heart, even in their new songs,  with folksy trimmings. In other words they sound much like they always did if slightly less heavy given that they are one guitar down on their peak.

Their appeal is very old school, surprisingly. Whereas bands like Hawkwind can attract the young and the female, the Stackridge audience was almost exclusively fiftysomething men in black leather jackets. I suspect that the few young people who were there came with their dads.


Those dads had a great time, as did we all, and every song was enthusiastically welcomed at the start and cheered at the end. All too soon it was over, especially for those of us who missed the start, and the venues brutal curfew ended the show.

There was an unannounced chance to mix with the band afterwards as they came in to the bar area via the back door but, for once, I had nothing particular to say so did not interrupt them to say it.

The new Stackridge have settled in nicely and everything about the performance was comfortable and assured. And that is enough for me to carry on seeing them.

I like the new Stackridge line-up

There is nothing like keeping a diary (which is what this blog is mostly) to measure the passage of time.

Through this I am shocked to discover that I had not seen Stackridge live since November 2009 and had not been to the Boom Boom Club since February 2010.

I corrected both errors when Stackridge returned to the Boom Boom Club at the end of April.

There was an immediate shock when they came on stage with the familiar big, bald and bouncy figure of Mike Slater replaced by the more demure and more hirsute Clare Lindley commanding the central position.

Also missing was bassist Jim Walter which meant a reshuffling of the guitar duties.

Still there were (L-R) James Warren (bass), Glenn Tommey (keys), Eddie John (drums) and Andy Cresswell-Davis (guitars and ukulele).

The immediate benefit of the changes was that, with only five people on stage they are all clearly visible to the packed house. No idea why so many seats were put out but Pete Feenstra did the decent thing and got them all to bunch up to make more room for those of us who prefer to stand.

The music changed too.

The lead violin and acoustic guitars gave it more of an folksy feel, even a little Irish Jiggy at times, and this was reflected in the song selection that favoured the short bouncy number over the longer slower ones.

Missing were some of my proggy favourites like Purple Spaceships Over Yatton and God Speed the Plough.

Other classics were selected, such as The Road to Venezuela and (of course) Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime, and these went down a storm, as did the whole set.

I made the occasional trip back to the bar to replenish my glass of Wainwrights and was amazed at how quiet everybody was. I've heard more people talking at the English National Opera.

I did not know even the old songs that well but that was no barrier to enjoyment of what was an excellent concert. Sadly drummer issues (apparently) meant that they were a little late on stage and the strict curfew meant no time for an encore despite the large clamouring for one.

Stackridge back at the 100 Club

Stackridge put on a good show and they do not get up to London that often so when they do I am likely to be there.

Apparently it is just over a year since I last saw them play, that time at the Boom Boom Club in Sutton. so a return to the 100 Club was long over due.

Other people had the same idea and the place was packed when we arrived during the support act (the less said about them the better).

Luckily many of them succumbed to the lure of the bar when the support finished and I was able to get my usual, but unexpected, place right at the front. I elected to stand right of centre (not that I had that much choice this time due to the large crowd) and that gave me a different view of the band from previous gigs.

The were some changes from previous gigs, a new violinist and some new songs, but both blended in seamlessly and while I missed God Speed the Plough we still got Purple Spaceships over Yatton so all was well in the world.

The full crowd also served to trap the band on stage who were unable to leave between set and encore and were then not allowed to escape until the planned ending, Do the Stanley, was followed by Dora the Female Explorer.

Stackridge entertain joyously and enthusiastically, and nobody can ask for more than that.

A fun night with Stackridge at the Boom Boom Club

I am a recent convert to Stackridge, even though they have been around for almost forty years, but the concert I saw at the 100 Club in May was enough to convince me to see them again when they played the more local, but harder to get to, Boom Boom Club in Sutton.

The venue is more used to hosting Sutton FC supporters in an after match drink to solace yet another deserved defeat and it is pushed to a few limits to host live bands, particularly one with eight members on stage. My main gripes are that the ceiling is too low and the lighting system is designed more for birthday parties. I blame both for the poor quality of the photograph!

The set was slightly different from that which I saw earlier.

They played many of their old classics, including the progressive tracks like God Speed the Plough and Purple Spaceships Over Yatton, but there were several changes including a new song, Boots and Shoes, which we were told would be on a new Stackridge album early next year.

At the 100 Club they announced the songs but here they did not, perhaps assuming, rightly, that they were playing to an audience of mostly diehard Stackridge fans. Luckily I was able to pick a set list up at the end to get some clue as to what they played, though I know that they deviated from it a little, e.g. they played three songs over the two encors whereas the set list only showed one.

I deliberately lifted Andy Davis' set list as he had rewritten it in large capitals using interesting abreviations, e.g. Purple Spaceships Over Yatton is just PURP, God Speed the Plough is just GOD but Syracuse the Elephant is SYRACUSE. I also noticed that James Warren's set list had Fish in a Glass as Fish up the Arse! These are fun guys.

Indeed fun was a major component of the evening with all of the band smiling, laughing and whispering to each other. This showed a band that thinks as one and they played as one as well. With eight performers on stage and some complex songs to play there was plenty of scope for error but they made it all look as easy to do as it was fun to do.

The music started not long after 9pm and bounced merrily along until the 11pm curfew, treating us to over twenty songs along the way. It was with a happy heart and some tunes in my head that I left darkest Sutton to catch the 213 bus back home.

Purple Spaceships Over Yatton

Stackridge were a band that I was aware off in the 70s but I head little of their music, mainly because there was just so much good music around in a wide spectrum covering blues, folk, prog, glam and heavy metal, that getting noticed was very difficult.

But somehow Stackridge managed to survive through my lack of attention and produced several albums that were worthy of a review in NME.

The band has been through a few changes since then but are now back on the road as a richly textured eight piece band (six old blokes and two young women, how did that happen?!) and I was tempted to see them live at the 100 Club in London. I'm so glad I went.

They played a long set, just over two hours plus a small break, which included a variety of styles, which is not surprising given the number of songwriters in the band and the number of years that they have been writing those songs.

A large part of the set was familiar sounding early 70s folk-tinged progressive rock, think of Barclay James Harvest and Jethro Tull, that was easy to sway along to even though none of it was familiar. I particularly liked two long instrumentals that they did, Purple Spaceships Over Yatton and God Speed the Plough.

I was less impressed with their "fun" songs, such as Dora the Female Explorer and Galloping Gaucho, but these were relatively short and small diversions from the main feast and were quickly forgiven.

In the few hours since the concert I've added Stackridge as a friend on MySpace, bought one of their classic albums from Amazon and made a note of their local gig in October. It may have taken 25 years for me to discover Stackridge but I am quickly making up the lost time!