As I digest Richard Dawson’s excellent latest album, End of The Middle, I found myself reflecting on the presence and impact his music has had in my life over, (surprisingly!) the last decade. Since first hearing a track from The Magic Bridge on Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone in c. 2014, Richard’s distinctive voice and guitar has been a constant presence. Regular releases have punctuated these years in which children have become young adults, family have been through career changes, illnesses and bereavements, and a pandemic has been and gone. Conversely, these years have largely been a stable, middle aged, decade for me, with daily, monthly, annual patterns playing out again and again. Perhaps this is why his work has assumed such a level of significance for me – a series of timely punctuations – each one unique and often vastly different from the last, yet always unmistakably the work of the same man taking his next step along a course running parallel with my own.

In a recent Bandcamp interview Richard talks through each of his solo albums (though not his collaborations and side projects – more on that to follow….). However it is when I think about the many occasions I have seen Richard perform live that I realise what an important presence this music has been for me over this period.

A biography of another favourite musician was entitled Different Every Time – a title equally apt for Richard Dawson. Each of these experiences has been unique and none has been a straightforward gig. For his London gigs Richard has a loyal relationship with promoter Upset The Rhythm, who have clearly played a big part in creating the optimal conditions for Richard to do what he does.

The chronicle of my experience of these live performances cover some interesting times, and also some very special London venues, – an element which, along with always interesting support acts, has played a big big part in this journey.

Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club – May 2015

The release of Nothing Important came shortly after that first Freak Zone discovery, and I took the first possible opportunity to see Richard live. I’d been to the working men’s club once before, for a project with Guildhall School students, but this was my first gig experience there. The gentrification of the East End was well underway by this time, but the working men’s club seemed then to still be important to the community that it was based in, but to have found a successful way to capitalise on the changing demographic. In more recent years BGWMC has carved out a niche as a queer venue, hosting mainly cabaret and drag – it is good to see it live on though like so many grassroots venues currently faces an uncertain future. I’d be interested to dig further into this, but that’s a post for another day.

On this night in 2015 the club served as a suitably no frills venue for my first Richard Dawson show. Richard (as has often been the case) was in the main performance space in the build up to the show and watched the support acts. As the venue filled up I was surprised to witness the London Sacred Harp group. A tradition I had only vaguely been aware of, Sacred Harp is not normally ‘performed’ but singing this music is a communal and participatory act. Seated in rectangle format, not on stage but in the middle of the floor space, the group sang from the traditional texts – I had a chance to look at the unique notation, but, clearly this is a tradition it takes some time to get to know. In this context half an hour of unacommpanied part singing felt like a very different start to a gig. At first I did wonder whether we’d gatecrashed the groups usual meeting place and the promoter had had to do a compromise deal but I am quite sure this was a deliberate, and very creative decision. I infer that both Richard and Chris from Upset the rhythm are, as am I, particularly interested in ‘unusual’ vocals, and definitely supportive of grassroots music of all types.

I got up close, in a packed room, for Richard’s set. I think the entirety of the Nothing Important album was performed – an early shout out for the lengthy song The Vile Stuff was met with Richard saying ‘I was building up to that, it’s my big finish’ – which it duly proved to be. This epic had quickly become a signature piece, and, at this stage in its lifespan sounded as revelatory and unique as it did on the album. Companion piece Nothing Important was also played.

I think it was soon after this album that I read that Richard had both consciously cut down on drinking, and had singing lessons for the sake of his voice. Good decisions both, but at this stage the vocals were absolutely raw, powerful, deliberately unrefined, with a focus on clarity of storytelling. This was particularly evident in a’capella numbers – not least Poor Old Horse (a similar performance seen below).

The Dome Tuffnell Park – 2016

I wanted to take the next possible opportunity to see Richard, and I guess this must have been it. I had never been to Tuffnell Park before, and remember arriving ridiculously early to discover that there really isn’t that much there. Surely there is a pub? but my memory is of being one of the first in the venue, and skulking round the edges with a beer. I don’t mind at all going to gigs on my own, and increasingly seem to go to things where a large proportion of the audience is men of my age, also on their own. When things got going there was again an interesting vocal based support act. Currently I can’t find anything online about this gig – my memory is that she was potentially a middle eastern singer, who used some extended vocal techniques, but that could have been something else. Anyway it was well received, and at one point I realised Richard was standing in the crowd not far from me, also clearly enjoying it.

This gig was, as will be the theme of this piece, different from the last. Richard was still playing solo, with his acoustic guitar and Orange Amp generating that distinctive sound of his early albums. A consistent buzz from the amp was put down to proximity to the tube which runs underneath – it’s not unfair to say that this phase of Richard’s career was certainly not about hi-fi and pristine sound, and I don’t remember that distracting at all.

“How to start a gig”, Richard mused, and his decision on this occasion was, amazingly to leave the stage and join us in the crowd and sing an a’capella number. That’s the moment that sticks in my mind from this gig – I can’t think of any other artist who would do that.

Nothing important was over a year old by this time. It may have been a disappointment for many that The Vile Stuff wasn’t performed – but for me this was when I started to understand more about Richard’s attitude to live performance (certainly at this stage in his career). There were no set lists and, being alone on stage, he could shape the performance and respond to the particular energy in the room. A live performance is something of that particular moment, it will never be repeated, and, if it is a bit rough round the edges that is just how it is. At the encore Richard said “ok more – Singing, Guitar, or both at once?” – I can’t actually remember what the conclusion was but this came to mind reading the recent bandcamp article I posted earlier, in which he says “The idea of splitting the guitar from the voice felt perverse. What’s the most unenjoyable thing we can do?”

In the event the set list looked back a lot to the songs from The Magic Bridge – I remember being completely absorbed by the title track, by the story telling of Grandad’s Deathbed Hallucinations, and especially moved by Black Dog in The Sky.

Rough Trade East – Peasant Album Launch – June 2017

In one of my vinyl buying phases I had already pre-ordered peasant and had a chance to hear it a couple of times, but album purchase was a condition of entry and so I picked up my CD and a beer at the counter of Rough Trade East. In the event this was a very quiet affair – In stores were still relatively low key, and I think in this instance the shop remained open to all. Slowly about 30 people assembled in front of the small stage. With little ceremony Richard appeared and played through a few songs from Peasant. Still playing acoustic guitar (I think amplified) and with no other frills it is clear that these are more tightly structured songs than some of their predecessors. It’s also the first time I realise how deeply Richard must immerse himself in research and reading around his subjects – it wouldn’t surprise me to learn he had been through the process of steeping wool in a cauldron of pummelled gall-nuts afloat in urine, just to see what happens before he wrote a song about making a blanket. Which of course isn’t really a song about making a blanket at all. Peasant is clearly going to take several listens and may never fully divulge all its secrets.

Richard ends the gig by stepping off the stage, the small audience surround him as he sings The Ghost of a Tree looking exhausted after building towards its foot stomping climax before hanging around to chat and sign CDs – the trancendent aptly giving way to the demands of commerce and capitalism and the need to actually sell some of these records set in a semi fictional medieval kingdom .

Islington Assembly Hall – Dec 2017

I meet Dad at King’s Cross after work and we decide to walk to Islington up Pentonville Road. Perhaps a little further than we thought but stop for a pie and pint somewhere along the way. It’s nearly Christmas but I think we’re probably both more excited by the proposition of a full band show from Richard. This will be a departure from the solo gigs – the spontaneity I talked about earlier is at risk of being lost, but it will be really interesting to see how Richard interacts with other musicians, and the mysterious medieval world of Peasant and its characters has been firmly lodged in my mind for the last few months.

Having not been able to secure seats upstairs we take the next best option of leaning on the barrier – front row positions secure throughout another interesting support slot, and watching Richard and various band members pottering around on stage checking cables – we may be moving up the chain of venues but this is still a grassroots endeavour.

“How to start a gig” Richard muses again, before perhaps surprisingly launching into A Parent’s Address to His Firstborn Son – at this stage nearly a decade old and, with the very limited copies of A Glass Trunk long out of stock everywhere, most likely unfamiliar to many audience who have joined the journey more recently.

The advertised band includes my first sighting of Rhodri Davies on amplified Harp. Rhodri is an interesting musician in many guises and I’ve since enjoyed exploring his own, often experimental work, as well as his side projects with Richard. There are also a number of friends forming a backing choir – needless to say this provides the means for a stunning perfomance of some highlights from Peasant – particularly Ogre, with its repeated choral “When the sun is dying” underpinning some of Richards most pyrotechnic vocals. Other highlights include a band version of Wooden Bag – another gem I often forget forget about, and a return to the live set for The Vile Stuff – definitely much appreciated by the crowd.

Dad and I go our separate ways for this Christmas, but it’s a special gig I’m glad we both saw.

The Courtyard Theatre – Hen Ogledd – November 2018

Autumn rolls around again. Despite this article I’m not an obsessive, I may have listened to Peasant a few times this year, but Richard hasn’t released anything for a while. I’m thinking about the gigs I’ve seen and realised I haven’t seen him touring or playing anywhere for a while. And then the next quite unexpected punctuation point arrives….

After that first contact on 6 music (thanks again Stuart Maconie) I had dug back quite a long way and been lucky enough to snap up some of Richard’s earliest work which was released in small quantities on vinyl before he became ‘popular’. Despite his plea to “Just call Magic Bridge the first album”, people will be aware of the existence of “Richard Dawson Sings Songs and Plays Guitar” – it would be great to say its a lost masterpiece – and it does have some ‘nice’ songs on it, but 10 years before he first came to my attention Richard was a very different sort of singer, and guitarist.

More interesting were the two albums Dawson:Davies, and Hen Ogledd. Both of these were freeform improvisations by Richard and the aforementioned Rhodri Davies. This is very different music, abstract, atonal, avant garde and largely created in the moment and both well worth a listen when you are in the right mood. I later discovered that another album Bronze, was also released under the name Hen Ogledd. Both of these are now easily available on Bandcamp.

So the 2018 announcement of a new Hen Ogledd album was interesting – and I assumed it would be another experimental excursion – a break after a more high profile album and the full band tour.

In the event Mogic was a long way from that free improv experimentation. This new Hen Ogledd line up included Richard and Rhodri along with Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington. And they did songs…..

The material on Mogic (And its follow up 2020’s Free Humans) broadly divides into songs sung by each of the members, and the soundworld is quite different from anything on any of RIchard’s albums. This is very much a band – not just Richard’s project – Rhodri mainly plays his harp – amplified with effects that often sound almost but not really quite like electric guitar, and Dawn and Sally precide over an array of synths, drum machines and electronics. Richard mainly plays bass.

So the tail end of 2018 did bring a Richard Dawson live experience, but in a whole different format. The Courtyard theatre is a flexible space, quite hidden away on Hackney’s Pitfield Street. At the time I was cycling past it every day without really realising what it was, but, descending the stairs found a very civilised bar space (which perhaps was not yet used to the beer requirements of a gig, rather than a studio theatre crowd), and a small performance club type space (which presumably often contains seating).

It was quiet early on, which was fortunate because – quite like at Bethnal Green – a memorable support act opened proceedings (I presume upset the Rhythm were once again at work here, curating another special night). In recent years traditional English Folk dance has had something a renaissance, with Morris dancing attracting younger participants, and its stuffy image being shattered by Morris sides such as the all female Boss Morris. I think this change was not really on my radar back in 2018, and it was something of a surprise that an all female Rapper side took to the floor at the start of the evening.

For the main event Hen Ogledd performed all of the recently released Mogic. I often think of Richard’s vocal style as fearless – it has to be committed to as if ever he were to hold back or hesitate the whole thing would fall apart. I think his vocals in Problem Child really embody this approach.

But this really was about an ensemble – I really liked the way synths and effects were used organically in the same way you might think of acoustic instruments (there’s nothing mechanical or soulless about this music), and Tiny Witch Hunter has to be one of the most exciting, different, pop singles of the last decade. A number one hit in any sane popworld.

The Moth Club – November 2019

Another new venue for me, and not unlike Bethnal Green Working Men’s club, this trade hall in the heart of Hackney has become something of a hip destination (and again, now, is inevitably facing an uncertain future due to development in the area). I’ve since visited for events promoted by Broadside Hacks folk club and it seems to have become a key venue for this burgeoning scene.

The 2020 album had bought Richard’s work to a wider audience. Though he had long been championed on 6 music, Jogging bought a fuller band instrumentation, tighter structure, ‘of the moment’ lyrics, and garnered much more radio play, and the subsequent album’s chronicle of contemporary concerns gave curious listeners more hooks and catchy couplets than anyone knew what to do with. Needless to say The Moth Club was packed. This was something of a valedictory gig – Richard dedicating jogging to his label and all who had helped bring this new (still modest – there’s no arena tours on the horizon) level of profile. Bass and drums completed the lineup – the closest to a conventional band we’d ever seen Richard playing with. As well as most of 2020 the gig stands out for a heartfelt or hilarious(take your pick) claiming of Eternal Flame as avant garde masterpiece. We leave happy – a different experience again, I’m glad I saw him perform The Vile Stuff back in 2015, but we now live in different times.

Hiatus – 2020

I was poised for two gigs which it turned out were not meant to be. Both would have been different once again, and interesting. The Barbican’s Delight Is Right, in May 2020 promised a day of music curated by Richard, including a set from himself, and a collaboration with Finnish metal band Circle. I am sure that other curiosities would have popped up throughout the day – we will have to imagine what they would have been.

I would also have been lucky enough to witness Richard’s Glastonbury debut – he was nestled down the 2020 line up poster somewhere under Taylor Swift. 2020 was certainly the right album to take to festival stages – I wonder if the trio we saw at the moth club would have been enlarged for this setting. Or maybe he would have done something completely different. Again, we will never know.

The Barbican – October 2020

We remove our masks as we emerge from Liverpool Street station, and sit in the cold on the tables outside The Railway Tavern. We order on an app and our beers are bought to us. How lucky we are – we are having a beer at a pub and going to a gig. At the Barbican masked stewards direct us to the Circle level where we sit separated by a safe number of seats from the other humans. Our preordered bottles of beer have been placed on our seats in a firmly sealed plastic bag. The audience of around 200 are confined to this level, separated from the artist downstairs. A larger audience will join us online, and the stalls level and stage have been transformed into a TV studio. This could be the future of live music for some time, there is no knowing when we will return to crowded clubs and theatres.

Richard performs alone, the type of intimate set we saw back in Bethnal Green, but of course missing the immediacy of close up audience contact. As ever there are songs I haven’t seen performed before – the 10 minute a’capella Joe The Quilt Maker lands particularly well in these peculiar circumstances, and the beautiful “We Picked Apples….” sticks in my mind. Bangers from the 2020 album are stripped back and feel like dispatches from a different world. I wonder now how much this weird interval contributed to the dystopian visions of The Ruby Cord – released a couple of years later – for all we knew, as we opened our ziplocked sterile beer bags, we were well on the path to all the achievements of our species existing only as a museum piece.

This performance is now available on YouTube

La Scala – Richard Dawson and Circle Feb 2022

Heavy Metal Dawson. I was quite surprised by how ‘Richard Dawsony’ the collaborative album Henki was – the characteristic twists and turns of the melodys were clearly his and one suspects he was behind the big botanical concept and at least most of the lyrics. But this was very much a band show, and perhaps a glimpse of a path Richard could have taken in another world. The music is riff heavy, with great guitar work. Circle deliberately poke fun at some of the more excessive traits of rock – at one point assembling in a pyramid format, guitars pointed in all directions looking like The Darkness, if not quite Spinal Tap. Everyone is clearly having a great time on stage, and that is defintely the case on all the levels of The Scala. It’s not my favourite venue, but suits this gig well. This was also the gig when I was introduced to the King Charles I – a pub in the heart of King’s Cross run as a community venture – and definitely worth a visit whether waiting for a train or a rock gig about plants.

The Barbican – The Ruby Cord Tour

It’s maybe not the best beginners introduction, I tell my friend who, despite being unconvinced by what he’s heard so far has gamely come along to what must be one of Richard’s biggest gigs yet. Dad has already bowed out. This is The Ruby Cord tour – and we expect to hear at least most of the recently released album. It seems almost definite that the show will start with The Hermit, the 40 minute long ‘single’ which trailed the album. And so it does. The opening shuffling brushed drums and quite abstract guitar set the scene for some 10 minutes before Richard opens his mouth. He is seated throughout the main part of the show, and, is completely immersed in this latest strange world he has created -this time set in some dystopian future. The piece progresses through its various sections, much as it does on the record. The repeated choral “Tiny cobbles….” refrain at the climax is transcendent and, live, this long track seems to fly by. Rhodri is present on harp, along with both Dawn and Sally, all in a much more ‘acoustic’ guise than in Hen Ogledd.

The rest of The Ruby Cord, I believe, is not at all opaque – The Museum, and Tip of an Arrow, for example take us into worlds instantly recognisable from mainstream sci-fi or gaming, the strong structures are tight, and the riffs and hooks stick in the mind for hours after the music has stopped. I am sure that a producer one day will pick up on one of Richard’s songs and hand it to the pop artist of the moment – a hit is invevitable.

Following most of the album being played live, the gig ends with a song from Peasant, Richard standing for the first time, hunched over the guitar and it becomes clear that these Ruby Cord shows really do mark the end of this ‘loose trilogy’ of part, present and future concepts. I leave feeling that whatever comes next will surely be different yet again…..

The live show from Bristol was released on DVD:

Cafe Oto – March 2024

Having seen Richard playing a sold out 2,000 seat Barbican hall I thought the days of small, upclose gigs might be over, but here we are at the intimate cafe Oto – “a surprisingly intimidating venue” Richard tells us. I can understand that – we are literally in his face – there is no stage to speak of – and it really is a cafe. The lucky ones sit around tables just yards from the performance area – some are sitting on the windowsills – most of us stand at the back. It is like I imagine the Greenwich Village folk clubs would have been when Dylan burst on the scene.

It’s a long way from the Barbican, and we get no The Hermit tonight, but this one off gig, not tied to any particular tour or album release gives Richard a chance to dig through the catalogue. There’s an incendiary guitar solo towards the end of the set, Richard head banging throughout and ending in a characteristic hunched over position as the last chord dies away. Before that we get The Scientist from Peasant, The Museum from The Ruby Chord, and a number of new songs from the as yet untitled forthcoming album – Polytunnel was certain present pretty much in its final form, but, listening now to End of the Middle, I can’t remember which of the other new songs are played. A truly special evening, and currently, the most recent of my experiences of Richard Dawson live – finishing as I started with an intimate solo set.

Cafe Oto 2024

December 2024, with Richard’s ‘bid for the Christmas No. 1’ on play, I eagerly book to revisit Rough Trade East for the valentine’s day launch of End of The Middle. By now I can’t imagine there is any possibility that Richard will play to a half empty shop. Rough Trade live events are as much a core part of the business as selling records – with prebooking always essential, the store closing early, and queues forming along Brick Lane. In the event, circumstances intervene and I realise I will never make it from the office in Essex in time. I reluctantly give up my ticket (shout out to Dice and their fan to fan resale facility). There is no question of me not making it to Clapham Grand in April however – when I am sure the full tour for End of the Middle will bring yet another different incarnation of the Richard Dawson live experience. See you there.