The Portland Arms
Details
- Date
- September 23, 2026
- Venue
- The Portland Arms Cambridge, England
- Billed As
- Robyn Hitchcock
- Gig Type
- Concert
- Guests
- Rick Lollar, Charlie Francis and Josh McCartney
Notes
Opening act: Emma Swift
Full band show.
Rick Lollar - Guitar
Charlie Francis - Bass (Charlie was not expected to play bass, not sure what happened to Rik Hornby)
Josh McCartney - Drums
Setlist info and pictures provided by Piers S-C
Full band show.
Rick Lollar - Guitar
Charlie Francis - Bass (Charlie was not expected to play bass, not sure what happened to Rik Hornby)
Josh McCartney - Drums
Setlist info and pictures provided by Piers S-C
Set List
- I Often Dream of Trains Robyn solo
- Raymond Chandler Evening Robyn solo
- Kingdom of Love
- I Am This Thing
- America
- Madonna of the Wasps
- The Shuffle Man
- Driving Aloud (Radio Storm)
- A Globe of Frogs
- My Dead Astronaut
- Yesterday's Rain
- Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis) with some line of 'More Than This' at end
- Oceanside
- Queen of Eyes
- Insanely Jealous
- Brenda's Iron Sledge
- I Wanna Destroy You segues into
- I'm Waiting for the Man Velvet Underground
- See Emily Play Pink Floyd
- All Along the Watchtower Bob Dylan
Reviews
From Robyn on Facebook:
It’s a recurring pleasure to play the Portland Arms in Cambridge. When I first played floor spots at the Folk Club there I was lucky to get
allotted 2 songs; admittedly I was pretty terrible. Nowadays I can sell out my own headline show, though it’s taken half-a-century to reach that coveted position. The Portland Arms as a venue, too, has evolved: from a smoky back room of a pub with no PA that held 50 people sitting on wooden chairs it’s now a 180-capacity boutique rock venue. How it appalled the Cambridge Folk Club regulars in 1975 when I hauled a 30-watt amplifier onstage with me there! 51 years on, the audience would be mightily disappointed if I showed up there without an amp.
So much of my career incubated in Cambridge. Going back there now the streets where I lived and walk look smaller, more bijou and far more expensive. The pubs that my friends and I played in are still there, though only the Portland Arms remains a music venue. It’s an exercise in time and age, watching those old days recede behind me in the mirror. Were they good times, or happy times? Not necessarily. Some of them I recount in my second memoir ‘Stranded In The Future’ - many more I don’t. But distance is golden: I love checking in with my past, and I’m very grateful to my long-term listeners to whom I am part of theirs. See you next year I hope, for something special and Cambridge-related…
It’s a recurring pleasure to play the Portland Arms in Cambridge. When I first played floor spots at the Folk Club there I was lucky to get
allotted 2 songs; admittedly I was pretty terrible. Nowadays I can sell out my own headline show, though it’s taken half-a-century to reach that coveted position. The Portland Arms as a venue, too, has evolved: from a smoky back room of a pub with no PA that held 50 people sitting on wooden chairs it’s now a 180-capacity boutique rock venue. How it appalled the Cambridge Folk Club regulars in 1975 when I hauled a 30-watt amplifier onstage with me there! 51 years on, the audience would be mightily disappointed if I showed up there without an amp.
So much of my career incubated in Cambridge. Going back there now the streets where I lived and walk look smaller, more bijou and far more expensive. The pubs that my friends and I played in are still there, though only the Portland Arms remains a music venue. It’s an exercise in time and age, watching those old days recede behind me in the mirror. Were they good times, or happy times? Not necessarily. Some of them I recount in my second memoir ‘Stranded In The Future’ - many more I don’t. But distance is golden: I love checking in with my past, and I’m very grateful to my long-term listeners to whom I am part of theirs. See you next year I hope, for something special and Cambridge-related…