There’s something deeply satisfying about a live show where nearly everyone knows the words and sings along. And by the time Graham Nash left the stage we had sung ourselves hoarse. Looking around the Royal Balcony and down over the heads in the stalls, it was clear that many of us had known these marvellous choruses for more than 50 years.
This was the last in a series of 11 UK dates on a tour billed as ‘More Evenings of Songs and Stories’. I’d expected almost as much talking as singing, but Nash’s stories were mostly short and to the point, leaving room for 17 numbers in a 1hr 40mins set. The star of the show remained seated throughout, explaining that this was because he’d fallen over and broken a kneecap a few months earlier. “And not because I’m 83 years old,” he added wryly. You have to say that he looks in fantastic shape for a man born in 1942.
From the opener, ‘Wasted on the Way’, to the closing encore, most of the material came from his glory years as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash (and the Neil Young-enhanced CSNY). There were four numbers from his solo albums and only one from his first band the Hollies, who had their own string of hits in the 1960s. Nash told us that his final performance before he left the Hollies took place on December 8, 1968 “on this very stage at the London Palladium”. Two days later he was in California beginning his new musical adventure with David Crosby and Stephen Stills.
The stories ranged far and wide. In mid-sixties Manchester, he and Hollies singer Allan Clarke were pushed by their manager to check out a budding songwriter, the young son of a neighbour who had been pestering him. They thought it would be a waste of time and were astonished when Graham Gouldman — then a 15-year-old schoolboy, later a member of 10cc — played them three numbers that all became hit singles. One of them was ‘Bus Stop’, whose rich three-part harmonies were then perfectly replicated on stage.
At the Canadian border in 1970, Nash was denied re-entry to the US for several hours after Crosby, Stills and Young were waved through. This inspired the angry lyrics of ‘Immigration Man’, originally released on the first Crosby-Nash duo album in 1972 and sung tonight with a passion that showed he is still upset about that snub. In mid-seventies Hawaii, Nash was challenged by a friend (“a low-level drug dealer”, he confessed) to write a new song in the hour before he left to take a flight. The result was ‘Just A Song Before I Go’, one of his most beautiful melodies. He told us: “I’m a songwriter — all I need is a first line,”
Before singing ‘Love The One You’re With’, Nash singled out Stephen Stills as the finest of all his musical partners. He paid tribute to Joni Mitchell, who inspired many of his most heartfelt songs (“I’m so glad she’s still alive today,” he told us) and to the late David Crosby (“I miss him every single day”). He recalled the time when Crosby invited him to go sailing off the Florida coast and what he had expected to be an afternoon jaunt turned into nine weeks at sea, including a whale sighting that inspired two linked songs: Crosby’s ‘Critical Mass’ (played from the recording) with a segue into ‘Wind on the Water’ played live.
Introducing ‘Military Madness’ from his first solo album, Nash explained how the lyrics were inspired by his father’s wartime service and by the Vietnam conflict. He listed the wars still raging around the world, then with a note of defiance added: “And I have to say that in my humble opinion, Israel has been committing a genocide against the Palestinian people.” A wave of applause was spiked by shouts of “No!” with an undercurrent of booing and one loud “Fuck off!” Most people around me stayed silent and I felt disappointed that a deep divide had been summoned out of nowhere. After acknowledging people’s right to boo, Nash launched into the song, adding the name “Trump” to the line: “I hope The Man discovers what’s driving the people wild”.
The only recent number was ‘Love of Mine’ from his 2023 solo album “Now”. He said the song was a way of saying sorry to his wife after he upset her. “Sometimes you just say the wrong thing,” he added.
Technically there were four encores. After ‘Our House’, Nash said: “Thank you and goodnight” and got up to leave. But he and the band turned around after only a few steps across the stage and continued with ‘Teach Your Children’, ‘Find the Cost of Freedom’, ‘Woodstock’ and ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’.
Throughout the show, the thrilling harmony vocals perfected by CSN were expertly recreated thanks to Nash’s amazing three-piece band: Adam Minkoff (guitars, bass, drums and vocals), Zach Djanikian (guitars, bass, mandolin, drums, tenor sax and vocals) and Todd Caldwell (keyboards and vocals). With the first two swapping instruments all night and Caldwell playing most of the bass lines with his left hand, the level of musical ability was jaw-dropping. Minkoff was especially impressive, managing to reproduce Jerry Garcia’s pedal-steel licks from ‘Teach Your Children’ on his Telecaster then nailing both the frantic acoustic strumming and Stephen Still’s soulful vocal lines on ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’.
My partner Florence and I were lucky enough to get a brief chat with Graham backstage afterwards. He said he was just as bowled over by his band’s talent as I was and he was very grateful to a friend in the music business who had strongly recommended the new crew.
The Palladium show opened with stories and songs from 81-year-old Peter Asher. Before becoming a successful music producer (Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Diana Ross, Cher, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr and many more) Asher had hits of his own as part of the duo Peter and Gordon, whose first single ‘World Without Love’ was written by his sister Jane’s boyfriend at the time: Paul McCartney. Paul’s rough 30-second demo of the song was played through the PA and Asher recalled how he had to nag him to finish the song the night before their first recording session at Abbey Road. It went to No. 1 in February 1964.
Asher was backed by Robert Berry on keyboard, bass and vocals with Aubrey Richmond on violin, mandolin and vocals. And thanks to audio isolation technology he could even sing a duet with his old duo buddy Gordon Waller, who died in 2009. The six-song set closed with Nash and Caldwell joining them on stage for ‘World Without Love’. “Sing along if you can,” said Asher. “But if you’re old enough to remember the words you probably can’t remember anything else!”
I was seven when it came out but I knew all the words and I thoroughly enjoyed singing along.
A lovely review Brian, thank you. I was somewhere near you in the Royal Circle (I chose the same seat as I had had to see Bob Dylan there on his last RARW tour) and enjoyed every minute of the wonderful show. I thought Graham handled the boo-ers brilliantly, btw. I got chatting to the younger man sitting next to me (I was old enough to know and be singing the words to all of Peter A’s songs!) and it turned out he was Gordon Waller’s cousin. He spoke a lot about Gordon and Peter and their various friends in high places, some of whom he himself had met during his cousin’s apparently fairly wild days. He was really affected by the technological stuff that allowed Peter to sing alongside his former partner, as well as being as over the moon at Graham’s set as I was. Thank you again.
Thanks for such a kind and interesting comment, Graham.