1 ‘James Alley Blues’, Richard ‘Rabbit’ Brown
2 ‘Washington DC Hospital Centre Blues’, Skip James
3 ‘Jelly Bean Blues’, Ma Rainey
4 ‘See See Rider Blues’, Ma Rainey
5 ‘Young Woman’s Blues’, Bessie Smith
6 ‘Poor Me’, Charles Patton
7 ‘Black Girl’, Leadbelly
8 ‘Levee Camp Moan Blues’, Texas Alexander
9 ‘Last Fair Deal Gone Down’, Robert Johnson
10 ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’, Hank Williams, Sr
11 ‘Idiot Wind’, Bob Dylan
Richard Eyre’s 9 Favourite Theatre Productions
One of the world’s most respected directors for both stage and screen, Richard Eyre has had a long and distinguished career in the British theatre. For nine years he was artistic director of the National Theatre, with overall responsibility for a succession of award-winning productions of shows as different as Guys and Dolls and The Oedipus Trilogy. Richard Eyre, who was knighted in 1997, is also a film director whose 2001 movie Iris, about the novelist Iris Murdoch, was much acclaimed.
At the time I saw these productions I thought that they were inspirational and exemplary – perfect syntheses of writing, acting and design. They were truly theatrical, in the sense of exploiting the theatreness of theatre.
1 WEST SIDE STORY (1959) by William Shakespeare, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein; directed by Jerome Robbins Hit me like a thunderbolt – the music, choreography, the energy and the beauty. I had no idea theatre was capable of such things.
2 THE WARS OF THE ROSES (1963) by William Shakespeare; directed by Peter Hall Made me see that Shakespeare could be contemporary and historical, funny and humane, entertaining and educational.
3 CORIOLANUS (1965) by William Shakespeare, adapted by Brecht; directed by Bertolt Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble Brilliantly lucid and distilled – everything to the point and the point was political but not polemical.
4 SAVED (1965) by Edward Bond; directed by Bill Gaskill Like a knife thrust: violent, painful, ascetic, spare – and beautiful.
5 THE CHANGING ROOM (1971) by David Storey; directed by Lindsay Anderson Ensemble detail and harmony: a celebration of beauty, sport, manual labour which now seems as remote as the pre-Raphaelite movement.
6 SUMMERFOLK (1975) by Maxim Gorki; directed by Peter Stein Exquisite, poetic.
7 THE MAHABHARATA (1985) by Anon; directed by Peter Brook The elements of the production were the elements of life – earth, fire, air and water; it had the brilliance and bravura that could have been attention-seeking were it not obviously the consequence of trying to find the most expressive way of telling the story.
8 THE DRAGON’S TRILOGY (1987) written and directed by Robert Lepage A perfect blend of art and architecture, music, dance, light, dialogue and movement; the writing – and the meaning – was in the whole event.
9 FUENTE OVEJUNA (1989) by Lope de Vega; directed by Declan Donellan A sinuous energy, truth and freshness that defined what every production of every classic should aim for.
Ian Rankin’s 7 Great Gigs
Leading exponent of a new sub-genre of crime fiction, dubbed ‘tartan noir’ by some critics, Ian Rankin is one of Scotland’s most successful writers, both critically and commercially. He has published more than a dozen novels set in the parts of Edinburgh the tourists don’t see and featuring the maverick and likeable Inspector Rebus. His fiction has won many awards including, most recently, the Edgar Award for Best Novel presented by the Mystery Writers of America. His latest Rebus novel is Fleshmarket Close (2004).
1 THE SKIDS I was just the right age for punk – 17 in 1977. Of course, growing up in a traditional coal-mining community, it didn’t do to stand out, so we punks tended to congregate in each other’s bedrooms, listening to records and the John Peel show on Radio 1. Then a club opened at the Station Hotel in nearby Kirkcaldy. It happened every Sunday night and was called the Pogo-A-Gogo. Basically, it was the hotel’s upstairs ballroom, with a bar serving fizzy lager. But there were also occasional live gigs. By this time, Fife had a punk band of its own – The Skids. The guitarist, Stuart Adamson, had been to the same school as me. There was no stage, band and audience becoming one, writhing on the floor or bouncing to the music. I’d sneak my punk clothes (a boiler-suit spattered with bleach) out of the house and change at a friend’s, then his dad would drive us to Kirkcaldy. Great nights, and my first really great gig.
2 BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST It had taken some persuading, but my parents finally agreed that I could accompany a friend to Edinburgh at the age of 16 to see Barclay James Harvest. I’d then have to stay the night at his house, as there was no way to get home. A huge adventure. I’d never heard any BJH albums (and, indeed, have never owned any since). It was also my first visit to the Usher Hall, a posh cavern of a place. Were Barclay James Harvest any good? Frankly, no, but that didn’t matter. They had dry ice and a light-show and amps turned up to the requisite 11. Tom Robinson was in the support band and I came home with a programme, poster and badge. They say you never forget the first time …
3 HAWKWIND … SORT OF Though BJH was my first gig, I’d been lying to pals at school. As far as they were concerned, I’d previously trekked alone to the wilds of Dundee’s Caird Hall to see Hawkwind. I made the whole thing up, of course, wanting to impress with my solo efforts. I duly scrawled some signatures on a Hawkwind album sleeve, then crushed and tore it a bit to make it look like there’d been a fracas of sorts. And around this fake artefact I spun the story of my trip. I explained the light show, the nude female dancers, the sonic wondrousness of it all, until I almost began to believe that I really had been there. All in all, a brilliant night, which only exists in my imagination.
4 U2 While a student in Edinburgh, I saw many great gigs (Pere Ubu, Iggy Pop, The Kinks, Ramones, Bauhaus …) I also missed a few. A mate tried to get me to go see The Buzzcocks, all because of the support act, a new band called Joy Division. I stayed home and wrote an essay instead, and have regretted it ever since. I also missed out on the Stones at the Playhouse because I had an exam the next day. But one concert that stays with me is U2. They were playing in a disco in Tollcross. I think their first album had just been released. A few hundred sweaty fans, dancing for a solid 90 minutes, and a gang of young men on stage, playing for their professional lives. They were brilliant. And to think, I only went because my mate’s girlfriend let him down and he had a ticket going spare.
5 THE PROCLAIMERS After uni, I moved to London. I’d pretty much stopped going to gigs by that time, apart from jazz nights in Hoxton. But I did make the trip to a pub in Finsbury Park to see a new outfit called The Proclaimers. Until that night, I’d never realised how many Scots had made the move south. The place was awash with familiar accents and football scarves – everything from Partick to Aberdeen. The twins won me over that night – they were electrifying. It was a pretty rough and drunken crowd, but they had them eating out of their hands. After the gig, I decided to walk home rather than take the tube: that way, I’d have more time to reflect on what I’d just seen and sing a few of the numbers to myself. That’s how good a gig it was: it made me want to walk through the rummer parts of night-time London.
6 THE ROLLING STONES I had to wait a while for my next outstanding London gig. It happened in 2003, in another fairly small venue, the Astoria on Charing Cross Road. I’d managed to miss having dinner with two-thirds of REM (which is another story in itself), and was gutted. Taking pity, my publisher found me a ticket to a secret Rolling Stones gig. This was supposed to be for fan-club members,