Born To Run

It's odd how your opinion of someone can be altered in a moment. In the blink of an eye the esteem in which you have previously held them can be stripped away exposing the human vulnerability beneath. Woah Davenelli! I hear you scream, this is all a bit deep for this time of the night.

Indeed, but something has been playing on my mind for the last few weeks and I thought that I had to share it with you.

A while back I went to see Jonathan Richman, an artist I have admired for close on two decades. This was not the first time I have seen him in action but merely the latest occassion of many. At each previous gig we (the audience) have been enthralled with his twee melodies and ponderings on the life of a rock'n'roller. Each show carried an air of spontenaity with Jonathan moving off in different directions (often simultainiously) leaving drummer Tommy Larkin to try and keep things on track. But not this time.

This show was a lesson in Richman By Numbers. Clocking in at just over an hour (I am led to believe that he was contracted to play for closer to two) we were grudgingly granted a one song encore then he was off out of the side door and into the night.

Now I don't know if he had a lot on his mind...what I do know is that he left behind a hall full of pissed off punters who had each shelled out £15 for the privilege. Many of these people had sustained him through the lean times.

Don't get me wrong here...what he did give was of a very high standard it's just that he didn't do enough of it.