Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent
Setlist
- Andorra
- This Will Be Our Year
- What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
- I Want to Fly
- Time of the Season
- Fiesta
- A Rose for Emily
- Sanctuary
- Home
- Keep on Rollin’
- Say You Don’t Mind
- I Don’t Believe in Miracles
- Old and Wise
- She’s Not There
encore
- Wonderful
- Summertime
Band members
- vocals: Colin Blunstone
- piano: Rod Argent
The company
Karel
Story
Karel and I went to see Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent today. They played in Nijmegen, a city in the east of the country, where, every year, the ‘vierdaagse’ is held: a four day hiking trek that’s famous in the country and that many people participate with and which is, as we learned today, accompanied by many festivties and events in the city.
Colin and Rod played two gigs today: one at 4:00pm in the major church of Nijmegen and one later in the evening on an open-air podium, which should start any minute now as I am typing this (9:07pm). Karel and I obviously went to the afternoon gig, which, as it turned out, was a very good choice indeed. They played an all-acoustic set, with Colin singing and Rod on a grand piano and doing the occasional backing vocal. The later show would be their regular, electric set.
The entrance fee was only three euros! Other bands should learn from this :). The crowd was more or less what we feared: lots of people who could have been our parents. There were some of our age as well, but most of them were obviously dragged along by their parents. There was also a very little girl sitting in the front row, that Colin smiled and made faces to a couple of times between songs :).
When the show started, Colin and Rod mentioned that they haven’t done an all-acoustic set before. I know they’ve played at least two songs like this before though, on a BBC show with Jools Holland, but apparently only these two songs.
Colin and Rod were very friendly and also funny, often introducing their songs with a joke (Colin: “I hope you all know this song. We hope we do, too.”, or Rod: “As Colin is getting on in years, he’d like to sit on that stool for a while –” (Colin ostentatiously trying to mount the stool at the back of the stage) “– and in the mean time I will play a solo song of mine.”)
The concert itself was absolutely incredibly good. They started with Andorra, which I didn’t know. Most of the songs that followed, I didn’t know either. But they were good. Colin may be getting on in years, his voice is still very strong and beautiful, and he can still reach those high notes. And occasionally, the really high notes :). Rod is a great piano player as well, which he probably demonstrated best in that solo piece I mentioned above: Fiesta.
Taking pictures with flash during the show was done all around, so I wasn’t even embarrassed to do it myself. I’ll put them on my website as soon as I have them developed and scanned, but since I’m going on vacation in a week and the film is still half empty (took about 12 pictures), it’ll probably be the beginning of August when I do so.
They played a selection of their older and newer works (and I’ll name the songs I recognised in random order), from the Zombies (Time of the Season, set closer She’s Not There and encore Summertime), Colin’s solo work (Andorra, I Don’t Believe in Miracles, Wonderful), Rod’s solo work (Fiesta), their latest duo-album Out of the Shadows (Sanctuary) and of course, second last (not counting the encores): Old and Wise!
It was very interesting to hear O&W acoustically. Also, it was very nice to hear it directly from the original singer :). Rod added a few elements of his own to the song that made it a little jazzy, which I’m not entirely sure I liked, but it was still very beautiful. I don’t think I breathed much while they performed it, shivers went up my spine and my eyes almost got wet. I don’t mean to sound mushy, but it’s true :). Unfortunately, it lasted much too short… Rod ended it when the sax solo should have started – but of course, they didn’t have a sax handy :).
After the show, we waited with a few other fans for Colin and Rod to come out again to get our goodies signed and our pictures taken. We talked a bit with two Argent-fans and agreed that when they came out, they’d jump Rod and we’d jump Colin. As it turned out, Colin and Rod had very little time as they had to prepare for the show later that night, but they took their time for us anyway. They’re very friendly persons and we chatted a bit about how good the show was and that they should do these acoustic sets more often. It was a bit of an experiment to them and I’d say the experiment was a succes. Colin also signed our stuff: I’d brought an EitS LP and my Japanese TTM cd which Alan and Stuart had already signed in ‘99 in Utrecht, Karel also had an EitS LP and his Keats cd, which, to our surprise, Colin recognised :). Much to my relief, my pen didn’t leak this time, as it did last time, at the ‘99 APLP concert :).
After getting a total stranger to take our picture with Colin (the kind of posed, artificial picture Aart justly refuses to take at backstage meetings) they had to leave and we did the same. All in all, it was the best €3 I spent in a loooooong time :).
Jan
NP Keats
PS
As I write this PS (9:59pm), Colin and Rod’s late show is probably at an end, making room for popular Dutch band Bløf…