Richard Dawson
Clapham Grand, London
Wednesday thirtieth April 2025
Shuffling gingerly on stage in a foot solid following a current harm, Richard Dawson nonetheless hits his stride with a beguiling efficiency swaying between tender fragility and dramatic depth.
It’s not straightforward making a dramatic entrance carrying a heavy medical strolling boot, so Richard Dawson as a substitute begins his set on the luxurious Clapham Grand with the plaintive finger-picking of ‘Polytunnel’, one of many gentlest songs from his new album.
As is so typically the case with Dawson’s lyrics, it’s a music that’s easy on the floor – a person ruminating about going to the allotment – however there’s a lot extra occurring apart from. So begins a gig that regularly soars to emotional highs. and but stays grounded all through.
It’s a uncommon expertise that may cloak so many human emotions and relatable tragedies behind an unassuming exterior, however Richard Dawson can. Strengthened by self-effacing banter between songs, he reinforces what I already know of him as a stand-out songwriter with a reside efficiency that distinguishes him as a one-off unique.
After his subdued first quantity, Dawson brings on his common drummer Andrew Cheetham, the one different musician on stage. He seems to be awkward perched on a plastic chair surrounded by displays and impact pedals, and is consistently readjusting himself to be in a cushty place earlier than beginning a music.
However although he admits he almost cancelled this present tour after rupturing his Achilles, in some ways, the harm forcing him to be seated appears to completely swimsuit the fabric. In the identical means, Richard Dawson’s finely wrought lyrics, weaving by means of a cluttered synergy of folks alongside experimental guitar sounds, typically dwell on his personal main and minor misfortunes, so his barely shambolic stage persona is at odds with the beautiful music he makes.
At factors, the gig is pin-drop quiet, after which at different moments, it rides a tidal wave of distortion, backed up by some excellent drum fills. It’s gripping and stirring, and on the identical time wistful and delicate. A high-wire act which few might pull off, however Dawson does with aplomb. Between songs, he regales the viewers with tales, generally preambles to offer context to the lyrics, however generally simply jokes for his personal and our amusement whereas tuning up.
After a brand new music, Knot, about how a lot he hates weddings, he talks of how he felt like a ghost himself for a few years. It might be miserable, a reference to a wedding breakdown, however in Dawson’s expert fingers the entire songs come throughout as amazingly uplifting, in addition to reflective. Throughout one other pause, he recounts how the offending Achilles snapped as a result of he will need to have angered some religious entity by consuming a Greggs pasty at a sacred place! Generally, songwriters’ anecdotes between numbers might be awkward, however these tales are all delivered with real deadpan humour.
At no level does the gig intention to be excellent, and that’s one of many features that for me makes it completely compelling. Dawson’s voice is a factor of marvel, straining for falsetto, reaching shocking highs, and carrying with it so many emotions. The songs have a bedazzling construction, fully uncategorizable, telling sophisticated tales in a witty means, and sometimes ending nearly as if tailing off mid-sentence, avoiding a corny return to the refrain.
Every one he performs on this set is a melting pot of the mundane on a regular basis with the extraordinary, greatest typified by one other new music Bolt, about when his household dwelling was struck by lightning when he was a baby.
And as for his guitar taking part in; it’s really intricate and all the time intelligent. What a musician he proves to be, retaining his taking part in in test till the loopy rock-out jam of the ultimate quantity, ‘Black Triangle’, ostensibly about seeing a UFO, but in addition about private relationships. Dawson asks for a present of fingers to learn the way many individuals consider in alien craft earlier than it begins; most don’t.
On the finish of this epic final music, effectively over 10 minutes by my estimation, he stands to applaud every part of the viewers after which ambles off with an comprehensible limp, the least probably of stars after a stellar present.
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Richard Dawson might be discovered by way of his web site
Phrases by Tom Parry, you will discover his creator’s archive right here plus on Twitter and his web site
Images by Robyn Skinner, see her Instagram
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