The first thing Sid Griffin told the audience as the Long Ryders took to the stage was: “We love The Fleece; we’ve played here four maybe five times and it’s always a great night.” With the reason behind this tour being to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ‘Native Sons’, that album made up the core of the set, starting with ‘Final Wild Sons’ all the way through to ‘I Had A Dream’. The band were playing like they were on their first tour and out to make a name for themselves. Earlier, walking into Thomas Street, we had encountered Sid Griffin ranting into his phone about the latest from Trump and Musk, clearly fired up and ready to go.
After a good but not incendiary show here last year they worked through ‘Native Sons’ book ending it with some of their other greatest hits. ‘Gunslinger Man’ opened the show and with a particularly good version of ‘September November Sometime’ leading into ‘Final Wild Sons’ we were off for the main event.
Highlights? My favourites from the album have always been ‘Run Dusty Run’ and ‘Tell It to the Judge on Sunday,’ and they didn’t disappoint. But overall, it was the band themselves, forty plus years into their career and still attacking each song like it was their only chance to impress which made the evening. Stephen McCarthy is a truly great guitar player, Sid Griffin was throwing shapes and engaging the crowd with the songs. The double drums of Greg Sowders and Simon Hancock were locked tight and Old 97s’ bass player Murry Hammond, who stepped in after Tom Stevens’ passing played like he’d been there for decades.
With ‘Native Sons’ despatched we had ‘I Want You Bad’ and ‘State of My Union’ to close out the set. The encore started with a version of that old Jefferson Airplane nugget, ‘White Rabbit’ followed by ‘Lights of Downtown’ and ‘Looking for Lewis and Clark’ which was greeted with the usual enthusiastic shouts of the title back at the band.
Support came from the always good value Morton Valence, in full band mode. A stipulation of joining the tour I was told on talking to Ann and Hacker after their set. That necessitated kidnapping their bass player from a Denmark Street music shop, but it was worth it, and they lived up to the best quote I’ve seen about them, “one of the most intriguing bands on these shores.” Their tongue in cheek song titles and occasionally sardonic delivery can obscure just how good their songwriting is. Set highlights included ‘These Were the Things I Was Thinking of and Then You Fell Out of the Sky,’ ‘It Isn’t Easy Being An Angel’ and ‘Hey Misty’ where they were joined by Stephen McCarthy. Ann Gilpin’s Marxophone (small zither with a keyboard) added a unique touch to the sound, and they had decorated the stage with bunting featuring the band name, just in case you were in any doubt.
Given that the audience were probably mostly the same people who had been down at The Granary for the Long Ryders in 1985, the level of energy in the room was quite something. They warmed quickly to Morton Valence and were loud in their appreciation of the headliners. Roll on the next tour and I’ll be back shouting out “Looking for Lewis and Clark” along with the rest.
