Richard Dawson - Clapham Grand, April 30th 2025

There’s always something special about seeing your favourite artists. I saw Richard Dawson play the Barbican a couple of years ago. It was beautiful. But something about tonight trumps it. Clapham Grand was “not all that grand” according to the 3 men on the train home (sigh). What a wicked little venue it was. Intimate, beautiful and the sound was perfect. Most of the set is made up of new album End of the Middle. There’s a smattering of tracks from 2020 and also from the Ruby Chord. Nothing from Peasant along with some oldies for good measure.

If you’ve never seen Richard Dawson live it’s a little bit like seeing a comedian who is insanely good on guitar with an incredible vocal range. Last night he mused on what to do if he died on stage concluding that he wanted to be eaten by the audience; he talked about playing some oldies cause “nobody wants a set of newbies” pondering what would happen at the Oasis reunion if they bashed out an hour and half of new songs; and tells us about when him and his mate Neil saw a UFO, which was expected nonsense for somebody like him but not coming from Neil. Lots of people struggle with stage chat. Richard Dawson does not. However, it’s his ability as a musician that we are all really there for and it’s safe to say that he’s a British treasure. Nobody is really like him. Not many people are as talented or as unique. It’s a spell binding set that is over all too soon. If you get the chance to see him perform, don’t hesitate to go.