Richard Clapton, Mums Favourite @ Woodville Town Hall, Woodville SA 2/8/2024
The Woodville Town Hall is a beautiful building and a great venue for live music. Local band Mums Favourite kicked off the evening with a great set of mostly (possibly all) original songs. Vocalist / songwriter Sasha is certainly energetic – dancing and cavorting all over the stage and delivering some insane vocals. She has a huge range and a great voice. We were told that after playing small pub gigs for the past five years, it was an honour to be playing in such a venue and supporting an Aussie music legend.
Mums Favourite were the People’s Choice Rock Winner at the 2023 SA Music Awards, and it was easy to see why. I didn’t know any of their songs but thoroughly enjoyed them all – particularly their new song Loveboat. The band looked like they were enjoying themselves, and relishing playing in a large venue, and we enjoyed it too!
Richard Clapton took us on a journey spanning fifty years! He started with a fairly recent song Something About You from his 2018 album The House Of Orange. After shifting to the ‘90s he said “just so that you know you’re at the right gig…” and his classes Capricorn Dancer. We were than taken back to his debut 1973 album “Prussian Blue” and I Wanna Be A Survivor.
We were taken from rock to funk and back to rock, but there were a few songs I didn’t know and, unfortunately, the sound mix was a bit ordinary and Richard’s vocals were more in the background. Neither my partner nor I, and a few others around us, could hear the lyrics. After Dancing With The Vampires we had his 1987 hit Glory Road which he said ironically he wrote “when Gaddafi was running all over Europe”.
We were treated to a few guitar “duets” through the evening between Richard and his lead guitarist of twenty years, Danny Spencer. Richard said his bass guitarist Michael Hegerty keeps reminding him that he played with the band in their first gig in Adelaide fifty years ago at The Mediterranean in Hindley Street – a venue I am not familiar with though many of the patrons cheered when it was mentioned. There was some good banter between Richard and Michael about their age/ When someone from the crowd yelled out “you don’t look a day over seventy five” (his real age), Richard replied “well at least I’ve still got my hair!”.
The crowd joined in with the chorus for Deep Water then the set finished with an extended version of Distant Thunder. The inevitable encore started with a soulful version of The Best Years Of Our Lives with just Richard and Colin on the piano (and, of course, the crowd with the chorus). There are no prizes for guessing the final song for the night – yes, it had to be Girls On The Avenue, definitely left the best for last!
A good show, but a shame about the sound mix! My partner and I also hope that Richard invests in a new belt so he doesn’t have to hoist his jeans up at least once every song 😊!!
Live Review by John Glennie