Roddy Woomble

The wife and me went to The Sage on Gateshead Quayside to see Roddy Woomble on the first night of his English ( as he described it) tour.

It was a good gig. I love Roddy’s voice and, he could sing the telephone directory for all I care, I’d still listen to him singing. The accompanying  acoustic band ( no drums or percussion but you  could hear Woomble's feet stamping out time on the stage) included Gavin Fox who has played bass with Idlewild. As always the acoustics at The Sage were outstanding. The banter was good and he seems a nice guy.

The songs from his latest album The Impossible Song and Other Songs were nice folky stuff and suited Roddy's voice.

But it was the songs from his first solo album My Secret Is My Silence that made the gig for me. In
particular Waverley Steps- a real favourite of mine. I was only slightly disappointed there were no Idlewild songs included in the set. I would loved to have heard Actually, Its Darkness played.

EDIT . A lesson here for all writers. check your facts before publishing. In fact they did play an Idlewild song Take Me Back To The Islands from the last Idlewild album Post Electric Blues. In my defence its not a typical Idlewild song and I thought it was from the Drever, McCusker, Woomble collaboration album.Before The Ruin

The set lasted an hour- I could have done with 20 minutes or so more- the crowd was a mixture of the middle aged beardy types, Idlewild fans and  people  drawn to the folk(ish) revival led by the likes of Mumford and Sons.

All in all a nice night for a first night on tour. If you get a chance to see him , take it.  Here is his website. You can listen to some of his songs and if you like them follow the links to buy his CD for only £6.99 from Amazon. Less than two cappuccinos and  a cake at Starbucks.