THEA GILMORE - RECORDED DELIVERY QUESTIONS

Q : This month sees the release of your first Live Album which I imagine can be seen as a benchmark to the musical journey you have taken from starting out in the late 90’s to where you are now so I guess the first question has to be can you recall the first “Thea Gilmore gig” where & when ?

A: Hmmm... first gig. The back of a tautliner in my local pub garden. I have vague, beery recollections of Wild Willie Barratt setting fire to the stage.

Q : One thing that has been a constant in your live set even in the early days has been the interesting choice of cover versions from early renditions of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” to more recently on the last tour Pink’s “Get the Party Started” is this something you will look to continue and if so any song currently that you’d like to cover?

A: If I cover a song it has to be because I can bring something original to it. My feelings about live music are very much that it is not about reproduction, but about making it new every time. Its the same with cover versions.. There are a host of Dylan or Joni Mitchell songs that I love singing, but I could never really bring anything to them.. choosing songs outside my particular comfort zone gives me an opportunity to get inside the song and almost re-create it (or in the case of the Pink song, re-write it in parts!)

Q : Someone told me that as an artist they were always looking to strive and move forward and play the most recent material is this something that you agree with as with the live album consisting mainly of songs from recent albums and with a catalogue of material that you now have does it make it harder which songs from the early albums to include in the set ?

A: Its always tricky choosing songs for a set. I have a short attention span and sometimes the drive to play what's brand new to you is overpowering. But the great thing about Live music is whether a song is 10 years or 10 minutes old, it has a little re-birth every time you play it onstage. No audience is the same, no reaction is the same and every time you play a song it changes. It belongs to the crowd and I'm just its voice for 3 1/2 minutes. It allows me to rediscover what I write.

Q : When you come to put together a set list for a tour is there a personal favourite song that is first to go on the set list or do you look at each tour song selection as a blank canvas ?

A : There are some songs that its very hard to leave out of a set. They're kind of like little talismen that dictate how a show will be shaped. I think I've only ever played two shows without This Girl Is Taking Bets for example. Yeah.. I guess that would be the biggie.. its a very old friend and a real statement. I feel like something is wrong if its not there.

Q : Inverigo and This Girl is Taking Bets have become firm live favourites with your fanbase did or do you ever think “this will be a great song live” when you’ve written it or does it surprise you which songs fans pick out as favourites ?

A: People alway surprise me.. I don't ever write a song and think it will be a live hit. The things people love give me a real taste for the audiences.. very often they are divided between the wordy upbeats like Mainstream and This Girl and the seriously dark like See If They Applaud! Like i say, always surprising.

Q : Any pre gig ritual Red Wine or Water ?
A: Wine Wine Wine.. water is for onstage.

Q : Looking back you have toured the UK many times have played Glastonbury, T in the Park, V Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival as well as Festivals in America and Canada so with all that do you have a Live memorable moment that you look back on with a smile and go oh yes ?
A: I have many.. festivals are always great. The first Glastonbury I played was a wonderful moment.. Calgary festival, leading a huge 10,000 strong crowd on the mainstage in a rendition of 'Lean On Me'. Walking offstage in Manchester in October 2006 knowing that I made it through a tour whilst seriously preggers! There are so many.. every gig is special.

Q : So “Recorded Delivery” the Live Album released on the 18th May but does Thea Gilmore have a favourite Live Album in her collection ?
A: I've never been a fan of live records.. that's probably why its taken me so long to make one. I used to listen to the Dire Straits Alchemy Sessions when I was a little sprout of about 5.. but I just thought it was a record.. If I had to choose, the live album I think displays the best connection between artist and audience and also the fluidity of songs in a live setting would be Ani DiFranco's "Living In Clip"


NIGEL STONIER - RECORDED DELIVERY QUESTIONS

Q : Are there any songs from Thea’s catalogue of albums that you would like to include in the live set but which, for whatever reason, just become impossible to do justice to ?

A : Not really: Thea never tries to replicate the album version for the sake of it, so songs are always re-inventable, and anything's fair game as long as she's feeling it. There are just some that never seem to have got onto setlists. For some reason we've never played "Lip Reading" or "Water To Sky" off "Songs From The Gutter". Or "Eight Months". Or "You Have Narrowed It Down", both killer songs. One day maybe we will, when everyone's least expecting them.

Q : The second half of “Recorded Delivery” is taken from the Harpo’s Ghost tour of 2006 which was the last time you toured the UK as a “band set up” is this something you would like to go back to sometime in the future?

A : That's mostly governed by the batch of songs Thea's writing at the time we tour, or the most recent album. It's all changeable, but right now we're in a good place with the acoustic shows.

Q : How different is for you as Thea's musical director in preparing an Acoustic Tour against a Full Live Band Tour ?

A : Acoustic tours tend to be more spontaneous, we can change the set every night and have been known to play completely new songs that Thea first played us at soundcheck the same day. Band tours we tend to rehearse more... but not that much more, it just so happens that Thea and I both hate rehearsing!

And having said all that, 'Recorded Delivery" has a full band version of "When I Get Back To Shore" which had literally never been rehearsed. it was at Manchester, the last night of the tour in '06 and Thea was eight months pregnant - but we wanted to do something mad (as if that wasn't a mad enough situation to start with) We did it as an encore... the band all just watched each other's hands for the changes and we busked it... then I attempted a harmonica solo and the harmonica rack wasn't tightened so the thing was slipping away from me every second - it was total slapstick, I ended up almost bent double trying to play, cracked up laughing and Thea grabbed a kazoo and finished the solo. Somehow we all got to the end without corpseing.

Q : What does performing any of Thea’s songs live give you that you don’t get from a studio recording and are there any songs that come to mind that have taken on a different vibe or feel live than the studio recording.

A : They all take on their own dynamic and go somewhere different when we play them live. But I was particularly buzzing off the acoustic version of "Avalanche" which Thea and Fluff worked up last year. It made me get into the song all over again and I'm sure many people felt the same. And "December In New York" always feels amazing live.

Q : Same question I asked Thea... you have toured the UK many times, have played key festivals Glastonbury, T in the Park, V Festival , Cambridge Folk Festival as well as touring and playing festivals in America and Canada so do you have a memorable moment that you look back on with a smile ?

A : I guess my favourite festival might be Calgary Folk Fest in Alberta - they use the work 'folk' very liberally over there, I mean when we were played we were on just before Arrested Devlopment who were followed by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco which is healthily eclectic I guess
And closing the Calgary weekend by leading the entire bill and team of organisers in "Lean On Me" in front of 10,000 or so... that was amazing.
Then, for me, playing and hanging out with Kate and Anna McGarrigle at the Bloosmsbury Theatre, they've been heroes of mine for the longest time and when they were really sweet and complimentary to me I unashamedly melted.


Q : Coolest backstage story you have from the “Access All Areas” world ?

Well there are many... having a drunk thrown out of the backstage area at a UK venue after he kept getting in my face telling me ridiculous stories that he drummed for a global
megastar. Then later on finding that he really did.
On a more upbeat note, touring with the Waterboys yielded some amazing stuff... sometimes the phone in your hotel room would ring at an ungodly hour and the word would be out that that Mike (Scott) and Steve (Wickham) were up for a jam. And in some remote corner of said hotel we'd bang out 'Lost Highway' or old folk tunes and Steve would share stories of busking all over the world. Priceless times.
There are other stories, more embarrasing ones, but maybe I'll save those for the next live album.

Q : And finally what is your favourite Live Album “Frampton Comes Alive” maybe ?

A : Ah yes Frampton comes Alive", of course... there's "Yessongs" too isn't there...
Errrr...
Well to be completely honest I've never been a big fan of live albums, but that's just me... There are two I absolutely love - "Incredible! Live!" by Country Joe MacDonald from 1972, just him and his guitar recorded at the Bitter End in NYC - very 'of it's time', very political, also hilariously funny.
Then there's "Eels with Strings" also recorded in NYC three years ago.

Other than that there's the odd old chestnut - like the Band's "Rock Of Ages" and Neil Young's "Time Fades Away" that are great...