BOO HEWERDINE, GARY CLARK,  RICKY ROSS 2002

TOKYO STAR PINE'S CAFE
19/20/21 May 2002
Ticket : 5000yen throu this home page, the Star Pines Cafe
Pia tickets will be 5700 yen
Information:Star Pines Cafe 0422-23-2551

TOKYO
15. MARCH 2001（Thu）　
Minami Aoyama MANDALA (Near Gaienmae)
Ticket start selling on Thursday 22nd Jan 2001 At Ticket Pia, Minami Aoyama MANDALA
Information☆Minami Aoyama MANDALA：03-5474-0411

TOKYO
8. JUNE 1999（Tue）　OPEN☆18：00　START☆19：00
Minami Aoyama MANDALA (Near Gaienmae)
Opening Guest☆Koji Wakui ＆Rieko Kise
Ticket☆4000yen（Free seating／Including 1 drink）
Ticket start selling on Thursday 25th March At Ticket Pia, Minami Aoyama MANDALA, The Music Plant
Information☆Minami Aoyama MANDALA：03-5474-0411

OSAKA
4 JUNE 1999（Fri）　OPEN☆17：00　START☆20：00
Dubliners, Osaka Irish Pub (Souemon cho)
No music charge, Please order drinks
Information☆The Dubliners Osaka：06-6212-7036

NAGOYA
5 JUNE 1999（Sat） OPEN☆18:00　START☆20:00
Armadillo (Near Hongo Station)
Opening Guest:The Rattling Celtic Band
Music Charge:2500 yen
Information☆Armadillo TEL:052-771-2600

Support by Meldac
Produced by The Music Plant

But the record was terrific, a slinky, spacey, dance-pop thing called "Money and Time" that was both catchy and literate, and there was no need for insincerity. The band, The Great Divide, broke up after a couple of singles, but I started taking a serious interest in Boo Hewardine's career: I saw him supporting the Roaring Boys; I saw him at an almost empty Marquee (in a band then named Georgia Peach) supporting the Roaring Boys; after I moved to London, I saw Georgia Peach's next incarnation, The Bible, as often as I could-at first in Student Union concert halls (back then, Deacon Blue were the perennial Bible support act), as support at the Town & Country Club and finally, as the band started to take off, headlining there.

By that stage, my tangential personal connection with the gawky lead singer was no longer as issue-I was a fan of The Bible (the band), pure and simple.

In fact, if you liked pop music with guitars, verses, choruses and lyrics, pop music that recognized the primacy of the song and the endless gut-wrenching potential of the right chord change, it was hard not to be a Bible fan. Their two albums, Walking The Ghost Back Home (1986) and Eureka (1988) are minor classics, chock full of tunes that everyone, not just the chosen few, should have spent their summers whistling.

"Graceland," from the first album, was their biggest not-hit-fifty-something with a bullet, and I remember having to sit through "Wogan" to see them play "Honey Be Good" from the second album. But commercial success-even the modest commercial success that kindred Brit-pop spirits Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera and Danny Wilson managed every now and again-was sadly elusive, and in the end things fell apart.

Boo kept himself busy. He made an album with Texan folkie Darden Smith; he played live with Clive Gregson and Eddi Reader, and wrote a couple of songs, including 'The Patience Of Angels," for Reader's second solo album; he made his own solo album, Ignorance, in 1992; The Bible reformed at the end of 1994 and made an EP. Bits and bobs, but never enough, especially when Roddy Frame, Paddy McAloon and all the other pop classicists seemed to disappear at the same time. Until now, the '90s have not been kind to those who prefer to have their hearts broken in their living rooms, rather than their toes broken on the dance floor.

Produced by John Wood (known for his work with Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, John Martyn and The McGarrigles), Baptist Hospital is Boo Hewerdine's quietest-and therefore his best-album to date. It aches, and that ache is probably pop music's rarest, most valuable commodity: it takes real nerve to prize regret over rage, and tenderness over threat. Someone once said that all art aspires to the state of music; well, if I could write books that sounded like this, I'd be...maybe not happy, but very, very fulfilled.

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