In March 1985 Tina Turner came to the Edinburgh Playhouse on her Private Dancer tour. This was one of the comebacks of the 1980s as just a year or two earlier she had been playing much smaller venues. I went to the concert with my cousin Jenny who had been working out in Bahrain and had seen Tina play there, I think at the Hilton hotel where Jenny was working. After the huge success of the 'Private Dancer' album she was back playing big theatres and arenas and the UK leg of her world tour included four nights at London's Wembley Arena. For the UK dates, support came from Bryan Adams who was also enjoying chart success with his fourth album 'Reckless'. The single Run To You just missed out on making the UK Top Ten and it was one of six singles to be released from the album which seems a little excessive as there were only ten tracks on the album in total. So when Bryan and his band took to the Playhouse stage, there weren't too many empty seats that I could see from where we were sitting in the front circle. But what I remember most from his set was that while the rest of the audience remained in their seats, one solitary long-haired fan in a sleeveless t-shirt made his way to the front of the stalls and punched the air in time to all his favourite Bryan Adams songs. This didn't go unnoticed by the singer who towards the end of his set went to the edge of the stage and shook the guy's hand, thanking him for being there. That must've made that fan's night! I hope he stuck around for Tina's set as Bryan joined her mid-way through for their duet, It's Only Love. Looking at the set list I see that we not only got most of the Private Dancer album and a couple of classic Ike and Tina numbers but also covers of songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, ZZ Top and David Bowie. She's one of the great female vocalists of all time. I'm glad I went to see her.
Here is Tina with Bryan recorded on that tour in Brimingham...
It's been a week now since Dave Swarbrick passed away. I saw him a couple of times in concert, once in 2009 with his band Lazarus at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal and the following year at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow where he shared the stage with Dick Gaughan and the Jason Wilson Band. I also saw him at Cropredy with Fairport when the Liege and Lief line-up were re-united to play that classic album from start to finish. So I've included a few Swarb-related tracks including one from the Swarbtricks album Duncan Wood released in 2013. You can read about that collaboration on this web site http://www.swarbtricks.org/ The rest of the mix is made up of some of my favourite fiddle players all of whom I'm sure will have been influenced by, and may even have played with, the folk fiddle maestro known simply as Swarb. https://www.mixcloud.com/cmbertram/swarb-tribute-fiddle-mix/ Fairport Convention - Sir Patrick Spens Swarb's Lazarus - Kilty Town / The Road to Cashel / Dog Big and Dog Little Carthy, Hardy, Farrell & Young - June is the Coldest Month Gilmore & Roberts - I Don't Want To Say Goodbye Duncan Wood - The Happy Welcome / The Cat Among The Pigeons Fairport Convention - Rosie VAMM - The Burnt Leg Nancy Kerr & James Fagin - Queen of Waters Seth Lakeman - Lady of the Sea Fairport Convention - A Sailor's Life
