I arrived at Randy's to find that Robyn was running late and was still on his way down from NYC. After a while we were allowed in to take a seat in the small environs of the ‘Man Cave’ record store. Due to Robyn’s late schedule it had been decided that the PA system would be dispensed with for the show so when Robyn did appear all he had to do was take his coat off, take out the guitar and harmonicas and start to play.

This he did, saying that he would be playing some songs that were requests received via Twitter. He opened with September Cones and at the end described how he envisaged an array of cones glowing in the late summer/early autumn light at dusk when writing it.

After the first couple of songs Robyn asked the audience if we could hear ok and if the small air-conditioner (or “ventilator” as he called it) needed to be turned off. The consensus was to leave it on, and I am sure the COVID factor played into this. The whole audience was masked and vaccination cards had been checked at the door, but it was still nice to have some air circulating.

Before starting Light Blue Afternoon Robyn said “just imagine a John Lennon slap echo/reverb on this, it’s not by him, but it has that sound”. At the end he said the song was from a record that Randy probably didn’t have in stock (Tromso, Kaptein), but Randy had put other older records of his on prominent display (which had prompted me to pick up a couple of items I was missing before the show) about which Robyn said “the me’s on them are quite young” and that he would play something from them later in the show. He then played a new song we have been calling Sweet September since the first time it had been played in a Sweet Home Quarantine the month previous (update: the song is actually called 'I Just Love You' when Robyn released a recording of it on Patreon in February 2022).

The next song was noted as being “on the one where I am holding the radishes” gesturing to the copy of Invisible Hitchcock that was just to his right, which turned out to be a promo copy. “You mean in 1986 someone gave that away” Robyn said. His attention then turned to the copy of Black Snake Diamond Röle on display and he wanted to know what label it was on, to which he was surprised to find it was an Aftermath pressing that he said he didn’t know existed and that he might get himself as he didn’t have it! After some words about Dylan and how bad his Christmas album is he launched into A Skull, a Suitcase, and a Long Red Bottle of Wine.

A few songs later Robyn added a capo to the guitar, or a tourniquet as he called it, and played a guitar version of The Man Who Invented Himself, explaining its origins as being inspired by Monty Python’s Life of Brian, but back then you could not hear things again so easily which is why it does not sound anything like Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. We then got a trains two-fer with the somewhat rarely played Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl and the titular I Often Dream of Trains, the later held the small crowd in rapt attention.

A short while later we got the first of two John Lennon songs of the night when an audience comment prompted him to play the solo Lennon song Love. The show was taking place on what would have been John’s 81st birthday so some covers of his work were practically a given going into the show.
Next, with only a mention of it being written in 1981, Robyn launched into the real rarity Falling Leaves, a song that he had resurrected for an SHQ show the previous month after only having played it once before live in 1989 as far as Asking Tree has record of.

This was followed swiftly by another rarity All I Wanna Do is Fall in Love, that did have an introduction. With Robyn saying Vince Healy from The Psychedelic Furs, who played on it, proclaimed it was a hit and he would record it if Robyn didn't, which made Robyn think the song was not really for him. This probably explains why it got hidden away on the Invisible Hitchcock record and has only been played live a handful of times since, mostly on the SHQ shows.

After a few more of his songs Robyn dug into the covers again announcing the next song as one Bob Dylan allegedly wrote as a repost to John Lennon’s songs with the Beatles and then played 4th Time Around from Blonde on Blonde.. For someone who plays A LOT of Dylan covers this is one he does not play too often. This was followed by an actual Lennon song when he played #9 Dream.

After a time check (he had a car coming at 10pm) he asked if there were any audience requests and someone asked for Ultra Unbelievable Love, a song he had played a couple of times on SHQ, but not since the 90’s with the Egyptians before that. He said he would have a go which he did and a slightly ragged version was played but it was not without charm, “that had most of the ingredients if not in the right order” as he said. His ability to remember the words to such rarely played and unexpected songs should not be sniffed at also.

The next request was my own, one of his new songs The Sir Tommy Shovel, which he said was written on electric guitar and never played on acoustic before (but it had). He described writing the song in Nashville as an expatriate Brit (like myself) and wondering if he would ever get back to Britain during lockdown and missing the British pub, but not necessarily some of the Brits you find in them!

And then with the appropriately titled Goodnight I Say the set was over and Robyn packed his Larrivée guitar and harmonicas into his guitar case, grabbed his coat and left Randy’s to be whisked back to NYC in a chauffeur driven black Cadillac - yes really!
Marcus S