efn Reviews |
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"Working Class Millionaire” Richard Digance
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"I don't want to be a clerk, a conductor or a spark" ... or a music journalist for that matter - but hey, we all need to earn a living somehaow and Richard Digance predominantly makes his with guest appearances on Countdown these days. Mind you, throughout the 70s Digance used to be a regular performer on the folk circuit. It was at the Bird in Hand folk club in Forest Hill that I first met Richard and for some reason I purchased his debut album (hot off the press if memory serves me right? ) England's Green and Pleasant Land without knowing what he sounded like. It was on the strength of talking to him prior to the gig that I felt I could trust him to turn out the goods and, thankfully, my judgement proved right as the album was a revalation to me in my inexperienced youth as a budding folk performer. His gig proved to be just as revelatory with songs including the gorgeous Migration Memoirs and A Natural Gas which hinted at the strength of his leanings towards a clever and comical lyric. Of course he later established himself as a consumate support act to the likes of Steeleye Span and in fact his second album How the West was Lost (still my personal favorite), produced by Steeleye's Rick Kemp, was a landmark Melody Maker album of the year. As well as the emotion wringing title track it included plenty of other great numbers including such as I Hear the Press Gang, Drag Queen Blues, Dear River Thames, and of course Working Class Millionaire.
The heady days of a "folk music" career may be long gone for Richard but for those of us old enough to wallow in the nostalgia of it all, we can feel sated that this 2 CD (4 album!) package of those early recordings will once again get a good airing.
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| Review By: Pete Fyfe From efn issue 133 - December 2006 Copyright © 2006 - efn magazine |
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