Wrote Carl Z
>Richard Thompson has argued that both the writing and recording of SOTL
>preceded the events that led to the breakup of the marriage, FWIW. On
>the other hand, the tour to promote the record happened while they were
>breaking up and apparently was pretty tense.
Oh indeed it was; I promoted their show at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, and
it was hell. But to hear the songs from Shoot Out the Lights sung with
tears pouring down Linda's cheeks, to clean up the dressing room after food
was thrown in the intermission, and to deal with the band members
(particularly Dave Mattacks, the drummer) who were both embarrassed and
upset by the domestic unravelling going on all around them wasn't much fun.
Another sadness was that Linda had been forced to leave her new baby, only
seven or eight weeks old, back in England, to do the tour.
Oddly enough, their manager at the time, Jo Lustig, begged
promoters along the tour (myself included) to take Richard and the band on
their own. Not knowing the real circumstances, and knowing that Richard &
Linda together were a much bigger draw than Richard on his own (at that
time), I refused, and presumably other promoters were equally resistant; I
sorta feel badly about that now, but all we were told was that Linda was
having voice troubles.
After the Horseshoe date was done, Linda stayed in Toronto and the
band went on without her; the next evening I had the memorable experience
of going to another club to hear Amos Garrett, along with Kate & Anna
McGarrigle, Sylvia Tyson, and Linda...
I think the Toronto date may have been the last one they did
together, although there may have been one other, three or four days later,
in Detroit.
Ah, yep, those were the days...
Richard
NP: Shoot out the Lights...it's still a hard record to listen to for me!
