We welcome Clinton Heylin to our hometown of Pontefract to give a very special presentation: The Words and Music of Bob Dylan. Hosted by our friends The CAT Club at The Pigeon Loft @ The Robin Hood on Sunday 29th May, 5:30pm. It’s the last night of Pontefract International Festival of Ale too, so it’s fun all round. Don’t you dare miss it. Click here for tickets
25th September Lamproom Theatre, Barnsley (Tickets)
26th September Grateful Fred House Concert, Birkdale (Email for tickets)
27th September The Red Shed, Wakefield (Tickets)
29th September Tap & Barrel, Pontefract (Tickets)
30th September The Doublet, Glasgow (Tickets)
1st October Borderlines Festival, Carlisle (Tickets)
2nd October Backstage @ Green Hotel, Kinross (Tickets)
6th October The Courthouse, Otley (Tickets)
8th October The Greys, Brighton (Tickets)
9th October Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath (Tickets)
10th October Black Swan Folk Club, York (Tickets)
11th October Malvern Cube, Malvern (Cancelled)
Iain Matthews’s critically acclaimed memoir Thro’ My Eyes was written in collaboration with author Ian Clayton. The book is structured around a series of Matthews’s songs and illustrated by the stories that inspired them. This words and music show brings the book to life: Ian Clayton will read stories from the book interspersed with live songs from Iain Matthews, presenting an intimate and highly entertaining evening that tells the story of an artistic life through the eyes of one of our most enduring singer-songwriters.
The show will follow the story of Iain’s life, from a Scunthorpe childhood obsessed with football and music, to thrusting himself into the heart of Carnaby Street in the swinging-sixties. In 1967, he was recruited as lead vocalist for folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention before embarking on a hugely successful and prolific career as a solo artist and in the groups Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong, including a No. 1 ht single with ‘Woodstock’. In 1973, when an invitation was extended to record in LA with ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith, Iain took it with open arms. The opportunity to work with musicians and songwriters he had admired from afar led him to stay; he lived and worked in the USA for the next 27 years, through highs and lows, with extended stints in Los Angeles, Seattle and Austin. In 2000, in an an act of personal and professional renewal, he moved to the Netherlands, where he still lives and works to this day. Throughout those fifty years, Iain has never stopped working, with music driving him forward every step of the way. The show will be a highly entertaining and intimate occasion, rich in stories and wonderful live music, presenting the story of an artistic life through the eyes of one of our most enduring singer-songwriters.
‘If there was an award for the role of Godfather of Americana in the UK, serious consideration would have to go to Iain Matthews. It’s all there in his excellent autobiography.’ Americana UK
‘Thro’ My Eyes is the best music read I’ve come across in a very long time.’ fRoots
‘Highly recommended both for its historical value and as a quick-paced, absorbing reading experience.’ Richie Unterberger’s Top Twenty Rock Books of 2018
Video: Iain Matthews performing in the Tap & Barrel theatre room
Thro’ My Eyes Book Launch: Stories, Songs and Celebration
Sunday 28th October 2018, 7:30pm
The CAT Club, Tap & Barrel, Pontefract
>>Tickets
Route welcomes Iain Matthews back to Pontefract for the launch of his memoir Thro’ My Eyes. Iain will be joined by his co-writer Ian Clayton for an evening of stories, songs and celebration. In the intimate settings of the Tap & Barrel theatre room, Iain and Ian bring will the book to life in front of our eyes.
Iain’s book shows us what a fifty-year career in music looks like from the inside. From hearing something magical in vocal harmonies at Sunday School in Barton-Upon-Humber, music takes hold of Iain and never lets him go. It becomes his gateway to something else. It is music that drives him to the bright lights of London, and it will drive him on again and again throughout his life – to Los Angeles, to Seattle, Texas, the Netherlands. When everything comes crashing down, it drags him through to the other side, starting out again on his path, moreoften stronger and fresher.
Iain doesn’t shy away from the personal price of a musician’s life. He is forced to up sticks and relocate numerous times in his life and the stories unfold to reveal him slowly coming to terms with who he is, the cards he is dealt and what it is that drives him, all the while working, working, working. The stories take you back to the music with a fresh pair of ears.
We’re blessed to be hosting this special launch event that will combine stories from the book with the music that goes alongside it in such an intimate setting. If you’d like to join us, you can. Click here
Matthews Southern Comfort Autumn Tour
Iain will be joining us in the middle of a short UK tour with Matthews Southern Comfort. On Friday 26th October he will be taking to the stage at Kirton in Lindsey Town Hall, just a stone’s throw from where he worked as an apprentice in the sign writing shop of J.D. Tighe’s, singing along to pop music on the radio, prompting his workmate Derek Cottam to tell him that he ought to join a band because ‘you’re better than that twaddle’. And so it came to pass.
The current Matthews Southern Comfort sees Iain joined by three Dutch musicians: BJ Baartmans; Bart de Win and Eric Devries. It’s a mesmerizing show, the level of musicianship is breathtaking. The set is a mix of old songs and new, with the trademark vocal harmonies throughout, anchored by a singer who is a master of his craft. If you have even the slightest chance to make one of the shows, we’d recommend that you take it. Follow this link for more information on dates across the north of England and Midlands.
Fri. 26th. Kirton Lindsey – Town Hall
Sun. 28th. Pontefract – Iain Matthews book launch
Mon. 29th. Pontefract – Matthews Southern Comfort gig.
Tue. 30th. Bilston – Robin 2. UK (w/ Magna Carta)
To mark the publication of his monograph No One Else Could Play That Tune: The Making and Unmaking of Bob Dylan’s 1974 Masterpiece and the release of Bootleg Series Vol 14 More Blood, More Tracks, Clinton Heylin is taking to the road to talk about the Blood on the Tracks New York recording sessions.
Clinton has tracked down and interviewed just about every eye-witness still standing, including the only musician – Dylan excepted – to play at all the New York sessions; a new interview with Ellen Bernstein, Dylan’s CBS A&R girlfriend at the time; at least one engineer previously undocumented and two old Village friends who attended the initial sessions at Dylan’s behest. He also spent a fortnight at the Tulsa Dylan archive, researching and annotating the two working notebooks into which the artist wrote two dozen original songs, only a dozen of which would make it all the way to the September A&R sessions.
In No Else Could Play That Tune, he tells the full tale of the making of Dylan’s greatest masterpiece as well as providing a detailed examination of the thought processes that went into the unmaking of it; as Dylan dismantled the New York album, re-recorded 60% of it and sped the rest of it up, removing audible blood from each and every track he changed. Never fully revealed before, it is a story only now ready to be told, accompanied as it is by the full soundtrack, courtesy of Sony Music. Clinton will be talking all about it at the following events:
Saturday 13th October, 2:30pm
Tap & Barrel, Pontefract, England
A book launch event and a playing in full of the New York version of Blood on the Tracks in association with The CAT Club and National Album Day. (*** UPDATE *** The launch event will take place in the theatre area of the Tap & Barrel. Seats in this area have SOLD OUT. There is a public bar adjacent to the theatre which is open to all. If you want to drop by, the record will play through to the public bar and you will be able to pick up a copy of the book on the day.)
Sunday 14th October, 4pm
The People’s Bookshop, Durham, England
A Durham Literature Festival event, Clinton will be joined by Durham-based musician Matty Oliver, who has the aura of a young Bob. (See him sing Subterranean Homesick Blues.) Tickets here.
Thursday 18th October, 6:30pm
The Woody Guthrie Centre, Tulsa, OK, USA
A talk in partnership with the Bob Dylan Centre in Tulsa, home of the Dylan archive. Details here.
Monday 12th November, 7pm
KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York City, USA
A Red Room event, Clinton will be presenting from his book and New York session tracks will be played. Free event. Details here.
More events to follow as they are announced.
If you can’t make an event, you can order a copy of the book direct from Route
Click here for more details and to order your copy of No One Else Could Play That Tune.
Related Titles:
What We Did Instead of Holidays
New Title | Trouble In Mind
JUDAS!
Anarchy in the Year Zero | Collector’s Edition
The book launch for Clinton Heylin’s monograph No One Else Could Play That Tune: The Making and Unmaking of Bob Dylan’s 1974 Masterpiece will take place on Saturday 13th October, at Tap & Barrel, Pontefract, starting at 2:45pm.
This date is also National Album Day, so we’ve teamed up with our friends The CAT Club, one of the UK’s longest running record listening clubs. The launch presentation will be followed by a playing of the original New York version of Blood on the Tracks. We will be joining many others simultaneously celebrating albums on this day with a needle drop time of 3:33pm.
The CAT Club has a noble policy of encouraging gatherings to sit and listen to an album in its entirety. We’ve chosen the New York ‘Test Pressing’ version of Blood on the Tracks as Clinton’s monograph is focused on the New York sessions. The listening experience will be consistent with Columbia PR officer Paul Rappaport’s attitude to his copy of the original Test Pressing. who is quoted in the monograph thus:
I played it to friends in the company, I played it for the [people in] radio, because I thought it was one of the greatest things ever, and when he decided to change it, me and a handful of others at Columbia were heartbroken. Because we thought we had heard one of the most perfect recordings of all time. You didn’t [usually] share test pressings … with many people … [But] I would sit with people and I would get a bottle of wine and I’d say, You’re gonna sit here with [a] glass of wine and you’re going to listen from beginning to end, and you’re not going to utter a word. And every person I played it for was just so moved [by] the end, they couldn’t talk.
Tickets for the launch event are £15 and include a copy of the monograph (cover price £15). Clinton will be on hand to sign copies.Click here to book your place.
If you want to make an afternoon of it, the Tap & Barrel is the best lunch spot for miles around. Head chef Gary Pickles has worked in some of the best restaurants in Europe and the US alongside some of the best chefs in the world. There’s a staple menu and weekly specials. Click here for more details and to book a table.
(*** UPDATE *** The launch event will take place in the theatre area of the Tap & Barrel. Seats in this area have SOLD OUT. There is a public bar adjacent to the theatre which is open to all. If you want to drop by, the record will play through to the public bar and you will be able to pick up a copy of the book on the day.)
If you can’t make it to Pontefract, but would like to order a copy of the monograph, we will start shipping after the launch. Click here to get your copy.
Clinton Heylin talks with the Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines, at the book launch for Trouble in Mind.
The launch was held in conjunction with The CAT Club and is hosted by Rev Reynolds. Before the conversation between Clinton and Bishop Nick, the room had enjoyed a full playing of Slow Train Coming. The version played wasn’t the released album, but a previous mix sent by Dylan to his record company which had a slightly different running order and included an extra track, ‘Trouble In Mind’.
The event took place at Tap & Barrel, Pontefract.
Nick Baines blogs at:
www.nickbaines.wordpress.com
Trouble In Mind website:
www.dylantroubleinmind.wordpress.com
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