Richard Thompson is currently on tour supporting one of his strongest albums in quite some years, Sweet Warrior, and he performed a free concert in Prospect Park in Brooklyn last night. Under the most difficult conditions, Thompson delivered a stunning performance of new material and classics, proving once again that he is one of the most prolific and yet under-appreciated performers of last four decades.
But, oh, the rain. With any outdoor concert, the elements play a part in the experience, but this recording is an extreme example. As Thompson took the stage, it began to rain and in the middle of the second song (“Bad Monkey”), the skies opened with a torrential downpour and lightning. The commotion during that song is obvious on this recording. The concert was halted for about 15 minutes, and the crowd ran for cover.
Thankfully, my equipment was not drenched, due to the kindness of a older couple providing cover with a plastic tarp. It rained on and off throughout most of the concert, and there are moments when the surrounding noises of umbrellas and people fleeing for cover can be heard. There is one song missing from this recording (“Mingulay Boat Song”), as my Marantz digital recorder seized near the end of “I’ll Never Give it Up”, most likely as a result of excessive moisture. After a reset, the recording resumed and the balance of the set was captured.
All things considered, under the most difficult circumstances possible, this recording is nevertheless an outstanding capture of a memorable Richard Thompson concert. For an example of this recording at its best, sample the encore “Sunset Song”.
Interestingly, this recording comes almost exactly 10 years to the day since the last time I recorded Thompson, June 15, 1997 at the Fleadh Festival. That 1997 recording will be posted on this site in the coming months.
This recording is no longer available at NYCTaper. Search the web and you’ll probably find it.
Richard Thompson
2007-06-21
Prospect Park Bandshell
Brooklyn, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Recorded from in Front of the Soundboard Booth
Center Seating Section
DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > flac
Premiere Download offered at
http://www.nyctaper.com
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Setlist:
[Total Time 1:30:48]
01 Needle & Thread
02 Bad Monkey
03 Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
04 Take Care the Road You Choose
05 The Wrong Heartbeat
06 Al Bowlly’s in Heaven
07 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
08 One Door Opens
09 I’ll Never Give It Up//
Mingulay Boat Song [not recorded]
10 A Man in Need
11 I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
12 Wall of Death
13 Read About Love
Encores:
14 Sunset Song
15 Mr. Stupid
16 Persuasion
17 Tear Stained Letter
Information:
txt file
Verification:
md5 file
As with all recordings posted on this site, please support this outstanding artist, visit Richard Thompson’s website, and buy his commercial releases.
Purchase Richard Thompson’s latest CD
THANK YOU !!!!!!!!
I cant Decode TRACK 15 (Mr Stupid)
When playing the Flac file in Winamp it Locks up at 3mins:05
The FFP is Ok
(yours)
t15.flac:787e5c98132740239129ab2b12709982
(Mine) Trader’s Little Helper
; generated on June 22, 2007, at 4:34 pm
t15.flac:787e5c98132740239129ab2b12709982
I’ve downloaded the track 3 times,
I’ve Tried TLH – nero – FlacFronted
Same error
ANY Ideas ?
Thanks In Advance
Thanks for the heads up. It looks like Track 15 did not upload correctly to the site. I’m fixing it now. Check back in about 10 minutes.
soounds great.thanks.
any chance you will catch peekskill on sat. 6/23? my friend with the gear couldn’t make it.
dave
THANKS for the Fix !!
Great recording considering the Weather :-D
Thanks for sharing your recording! I didn’t bring my little recorded due to weather fears. When the skies opened up I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any recordings popping up… I’m happy to be wrong!! Looks like you also missed “Hard On Me”, which was played right before the boat song. Compared to other setlists I’ve seen from the tour so far he dropped about four songs, either due to the weather or the nature of the event. But we did get “Persuasion”, which hasn’t been on any setlists that I’ve seen so far this year. Thanks again for your efforts! It was a great show under trying conditions for all.
Yes, it has been pointed out to me off-site that I missed “Hard on Me” too. Thanks for the nice comments.
Thanks, Dan. Listening now. The new album is fantastic!
wow, thanks!
I was at this concert, and yes, that was some torrential rain! the whole evening was an epic display of mother nature and the incredible force of richard thompson (and band)…
I’ve seen thompson maybe 10 times or more and he just gets better and better as a guitarist.. i dont know how its possible, but there it is.
thanks for recording, especially under these most trying of circumstances! just d/l- about to listen now..
mike
HI–
Thanks for what i’m sure is a great recording. I”m also getting errors when i try to convert flac files on several tracks– 15,14,12,10,7. Hope you can help:).
Many Thanks!
Daisy, there was only one error, an incomplete upload of Track 15 (Mr. Stupid), and that has been fixed. All the rest of the tracks should be fine.
Please use the Verification file “md5” (with a verification program like mkwACT or md5summer) to verify your download.
Yay!!!
We got drenched, moved from the lawn to the seats when some folks left after the skies opened up for the second time. We loved the show! Been a huge fan of R.T. for years…any hope of a Mac user (me) downloading the show?
Thanks!
P.S. Who was the lady who kissed him at one point?
Hey, Christoph, there are plenty of flac resources for Mac users. I’ve tried to include all the appropriate links on the flac links post in my archives:
http://www.nyctaper.com/?cat=3
Thanks for the RT! The sound is excellent. Considering the weather, you deserve a medal.
In the txt file, you list the bass player as Danny Thompson. Danny had to return to the UK due to a death in the family. The bass player is Taras Prodaniuk. It was his first gig with the band. He also played on Sweet Warrior.
You are absolutely correct. I prepared the txt file in advance of the concert and forgot to change the band personnel. My apologies to the excellent Mr. Prodaniuk.
Many thanks, I have sat under an umbrella a few times at the Cropredy Festival in the rain, and the mic of course picks up the sound of the rain very well!
I listened to part of this on Farthing Down – a place you have to go “up” to (!!) in Surrey, England – in the rain of course!! This is one of the best sounding RT Band recordings I have heard
I’m asking this on the comments page in case the answer helps anyone else who is similarily “challenged”. Your prompt reply to my Mac-related querry told me, as far as I can tell, how to play the file, but I’m having trouble downloading it. I clicked on “Needle & Thread” and my Safari browser window slowly filled up with alien gibberish text, leaving nothing on my desktop when done. Please advise!
Would you like any photos of the rainy show?
Christoph
My suggestion would be to employ a “download manager”–a program that will download the select links that you choose on a page.
Here is a list of the most popular download managers, which includes some for Macs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_download_managers
Please let me know if this helps.
Fantastic, thank you! His show the following night in Washington DC is available at http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/ through NPR/All Songs Considered — that was inside and dry, and includes an incredible Hard on Me that felt like CPR was being performed on me. I too was looking for the other guitarist on Vincent Black Lightning, there was no way just one guitar and two hands could make all those notes!
Great show! I saw the RTB in Saratoga a couple of months later and it was perhaps the best concert I’ve ever attended! Thanks for making this available. I’d really like to hear the show from ’97 too. Are you still planning to make that available for dl?
Thank you for posting this show. It is in near constant rotation now. We saw him in September, at Royce Hall, UCLA. By any chance do you have a recording from the ill fated Shoot Out the Lights tour with Richard and Linda Thompson? Really, more RT solo, 1000 years or with Danny Thompson, RTB, any RT would be appreciated.
Heh, so you hear me get drenched in the massive downpour on a regular basis. Certainly, the most challenging taping I’ve ever done.
Sorry about any other Thompson. I only taped him twice almost exactly 10 years apart, and both are now on the site.
I’m glad you’re enjoying this one, that makes the work all the more that worthwhile.
Thanks so much- my first nyctaper download- blindingly fast, ready to enjoy for the next day’s drive in to work.6:15am drive in the rain seemed the perfect time to listen to this rainy concert- the slight confusion caused by the rain just added to the overall atmosphere of the recording. Wonderful acoustics, a joy to listen to. Sun was out for the drive back home in the afternoon, and 1952 Vincent sounds glorious and reminds me of days listening to the song on college radio when it was the latest from RT. Can’t wait to listen to the 1997 set.
Thanks for all the effort that goes into capturing these moments for all to enjoy. A true labor of love and it shows.