When Richard Clapton play a Festival we get the concentrated Best of show. When he performs his own shows we get the deeper dive into a remarkable 50+ year career.
Richard’s first album ‘Prussian Blue’ dates back to 1973 and so does his setlist. The rare ‘I Wanna Be A Survivor’ was back in the set and later in the show ‘Oceans of the Heart’, another level down into the more recent (only 31 year old album) ‘Distant Thunder’ made an appearance at Memo Music Hall in Melbourne on Sunday. ‘Feeling Alright Tonight’, a song a remember playing a lot on Wollongong radio when it was first released, is also a song I don’t think I’ve heard live from Richard in decades.
This was a great show. For starters, it was an afternoon show, which I thought only thrilled old people like me, but it also thrilled “young” people like the guys in his band, who were mostly Melbourne based and who had young families to head home to.
Richard’s new music output is spread apart in the 20th century with just three albums of new and original songs this century. The last two, ‘The House of Orange’ (2016) and ‘Harlequin Nights’ (2012) are well worth discovering (if you are unaware) or rediscovering (if you haven’t listened for a while). Two from ‘The House of Orange’ opened the show.
A Clapton show builds. The, what was once called ‘West Coast’, more laidback songs, started off the set but when we reach ‘’I Am An Island’ we are in full tilt Crazy Horse mode.
Richard Clapton setlist, Memo Music Hall, Melbourne, 14 April 2024
Something About You (from The House of Orange, 2016)
Liberty Bell (from The House of Orange, 2016)
Capricorn Dancer (from Highway One soundtrack, 1977)
I Wanna Be A Survivor (from Prussian Blue, 1973)
Get Back to the Shelter (from Dark Spaces, 1980)
Feeling Alright Tonight (from Solidarity, 1984)
Ace of Hearts (from Hearts on the Nightline, 1979)
Dancing with the Vampires (from Dancing With The Vampires, 2012)
The Universal (from The Great Escape, 1982)
Glory Road (from Glory Road, 1987)
Deep Water (from Goodbye Tiger, 1977)
Oceans of the Heart (from Distant Thunder, 1993)
Distant Thunder (from Distant Thunder, 1993)
I Am An Island (from The Great Escape, 1982)
Girls on the Avenue (from Girls on the Avenue, 1975)
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