La Rose en vie

J Fetzer

Last night, I went to Brighton to see the first night of the tour by Caitlin Rose and her band. I was introduced to Caitlin Rose's music by my colleague Wilton Catford, who is a huge fan of hers. I think she's very good, too, though it would be a disservice to Wilton to claim that my fandom approaches his.

The record she is supporting on this tour, The Stand-In, was only released yesterday, so I listened to it a couple of times as I worked yesterday, thanks to this page at the Independent, which appears to no longer be working.  Then we listened to it in the car as Wilton drove from Guildford to Brighton.

As happens every time I go with Wilton to see Caitlin Rose, we bumped into some of the band members in a nearby pub before the gig, and sat and had dinner with them.  They were both very nice chaps, though I do find it hard making small-talk with strangers, especially ones I have paid to see play music later in the evening.  Fortunately, Wilton has no such difficulties, at least when it comes to discussing music, so he manfully saved my blushes.  One of the guys was called Reno Bo.  He was playing bass in Caitlin's band, and talked about some of the previous bands he'd be in.  He mentioned that one, The Mooney Suzuki, had had a UK top 40 hit, which was slightly embarrassing for us, as we hadn't heard of it, or indeed the band.  Oh well.  Wikipedia tells us that the song was called Primitive Condition. The other guy was the dapper Jeremy Fetzer, pictured here when he was playing later in the evening.

C Rose

I enjoyed the gig very much. Already listening to the album on the way down was enough to make a few songs stand out, and the picture on the left is of Caitlin Rose singing Pink Champagne, which is probably my favourite - at least based on just a few listens. So, if you like folky indieish country music with a great singer, then check her out. I think the rest of the tour dates have sold out, but thanks to the wonder of youtube, spotify, last.fm and so on, you can enjoy such things as the song that finished the encore without having to go to Brighton on a chilly night to a venue where a can of Red Stripe costs £4.

Okay - time for a day of grant writing,  PhD and project student supervision, to be topped off with a board of studies subcommittee meeting to chair.  Coffee first, I think.