Sunday evening found me and Mr F in the basement of the Spice of Life public house just off London's unfashionable Charing Cross Road, hanging out with the mighty Richard Strange and his pals.
The last time I saw Richard Strange perform live was 12 years ago at the Royal Festival Hall when the original Doctors of Madness reformed for one last gig as part of an event he had curated to mark the centenary of the birth of William Burroughs. My in-depth review described everything apart from the good Doctors as "utter twaddle" which in hindsight was a bit harsh. But only a bit.
There is quite a contrast between the Festival Hall and the basement bar of the Spice of Life - the former has a capacity of 2700, the latter 50 at the most - but it worked in our favour. It was a real treat to see the great man up close in a virtually twaddle-free environment.
Mr Strange was in fine form. It was a largely acoustic set that featured material from both the Doctors and his solo career - including the song about shooting smack with Cilla Black that got him banned from the BBC - and some highly entertaining anecdotes. He was accompanied on some songs by his daughter Lilybud, who opened the evening with a set of her own and has a powerful set of pipes on her.
Richard's recording career began fifty years ago this year. We will start today's selection with a track he played on Sunday that first appeared on "Figments of Emancipation", the second album released by Doctors of Madness in 1976. The other three tracks date from 1981, 2005 and 2022 respectively.
"Marie And Joe" - Doctors of Madness
"God Is Science" - Richard Strange
"Howl" - Richard Strange
"A Dffrnt Wrld" - TV Smith & Richard Strange
And now over to Twiggy.
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