Good news for fans of the music of Bert Jansch, the BBC has just broadcast The Genius of Bert Jansch concert from December of 2013 at Royal Festival hall. That does seem like quite a long time ago now! I am very proud to have played at this concert (in this case electric guitar for Beverley Martin) alongside legendary names from the UK music scene such as Robert Plant, Donovan, Bernard Butler, Jacqui Mcshee, Bonnie Dobson, Martin Simpson, Ralph McTell, Martin Carthy and others. The concert will be available online for the next month or so.
Bert Jansch was a massive influence to me as I was growing up. I remember hearing how it had taken my dad and two of his friends to play Angie and the horror that they had felt when they found out it was just one guy on that phenomenal record! Bert's music as a solo artist and as part of Pentangle was never far from the family turntable and like many guitarists who write for the instrument, my first stumbling teenage composition was a sort of backwards Angie.
As you'll see from the running order below there were some performances that didn't make the final broadcast. In particular a beautifully poignant tribute to Bert and Loren Jansch by Gordon Giltrap and also a video of Neil Young singing Needle of Death from Jack White's record making machine. I hope at some point both of these see the light of day.
And yes, playing When The Levee Breaks with Robert Plant watching from the wings was certainly a career highlight for me. It was nice to fire the White Falcon in anger too. The amp, (for those who might be interested in such things) was a vintage AC30.
If you haven't seen this concert or are unfamiliar with the work of Bert Jansch then I can only urge you to get stuck in immediately. There is a huge wealth of music to explore. You can start here.
Stay Tuned,
MDW