Music Arcades: Richard Thompson: 1000 Years of Popular Music

Somehow I slipped up and missed the first 1,000 Years of Popular Music tour in 2003 or 2004. I remember it coming to London, for several nights at Sadler's Wells, I think. And right up my street: a large-scale folly, by a grand old folky, with a quirky selection of cover versions and traditional songs.

Some years later I downloaded eleven songs from the show, which I found on emusic. In short order I was captivated by these performances, and they remained on my iPod Shuffle for many months. I remember in particular listening to King Henry and Bonnie St Johnstone while getting my breath back on the train between Bratislava and Vienna. That was the Central European leg of my book tour — indeed the only leg, unless you count ten minutes in Minneapolis — and I'd arrived in mid-November without a proper overcoat, then got lost walking along the side of a dual carriageway in Bratislava in a snow storm. Fortunately I found the station in time to make it to Vienna more or less on time, though by then the snow had turned to slush and I didn't get to see any of the city.

But the emusic collection must have been recorded on a later tour, I think, for it does not have some of the songs in the original set that I was intrigued to hear: The Who's Legal Matter, Abba's Money, Money, Money and Prince's Kiss. So last year I tracked down the original release on Richard Thompson's own website and ordered it from there. Inevitably it's six of one and half a dozen of the other, as this version misses songs that I love on the other like Remember O Thou Man. Never mind. In the end, it's not the concept or the conceit or the gee-whizz-he-can-do-all-those-songs-and-not-even-change-his-guitar that carries the album. It's the characterful and unusual selection of songs — from sea shanties, miners' songs, Gilbert & Sullivan, to things like The Fool (originally be Sanford Clark and written by Lee Hazlewood) that I'd never heard of before. And it's the great performances, including one of Shenandoah that's the perfect complement to Bill Frisell's instrumental version.

So I was very excited when RT announced last summer that he was going to be touring 1,000 Years again. I was slow off the mark getting a ticket and ended up with one at the back of the Barbican (Guy and Annie, Paul and Nic were in the second row, grrrr). And then, come the day of the gig, I was struck down by a stomach bug. It takes a lot to keep me away from a show, especially when I've paid over 30 quid for it, but when 5pm came round I had to acknowledge I was not going to make it without risking collapse. Everyone says it was very good.

Buy direct from Richard Thompson's site