DAVE COUSINS AND BRIAN WILLOUGHBY
RAVENSCOURT PARK SUMMER THEATRE, LONDON - JULY 24th 1979
By
Michael Coleman
I was 18 when I went to see Dave Cousins and Brian Willoughby play a free open air concert at London's Ravenscourt Park Summer Theatre. I went with two friends Andy Smith and Steve Rothwell, neither of whom were Cousins fans like myself in fact Andy wasn't really that interested in music but just came along for the beer. We caught the train from our hometown of Luton (about 30 miles outside of London) armed with a cheap camera and rather poor quality portable cassette player to record the event and as much beer as we could possibly carry and consume.
When we got to London a few cans of beer happier we headed across town via the tube to Ravenscourt Park where we found ourselves a spot in the mid afternoon sunshine. As it happens it turned out to be one of those idyllic days for a open air concert, Cousins and Willoughby playing a free concert, a warm July day, cans of beer, could life really be this blissful!
The setting was quite strange the 'Summer theatre' certainly wasn't anything special and the crowd was made up of a mixture of Cousins fans, park strollers, dog walkers and people of just a curious nature of the event.
When Dave Cousins and Brian Willoughby eventually came on stage they played a 11 track 51 minute set which received a very warm reception from everyone who listened. I had seen Cousins and Willoughby before in a college gig which was fantastic but the atmosphere of the open air and the warm sun was a different experience which will always have a special place in my memory.
Cousins and Willoughby onstage
The Set:
1 Hangman And
The Papist
2 We'll Meet Again Sometime
3 Hanging In The Gallery
4 Make It Together
5 Sealed With A Traitors Kiss
6 Ways And Means
7 Beside The Rio Grande
8 Joesphine For Better Or For Worse
9 The King
10 Something For Nothing
11 Grace Darling
Here is one of
the tracks from the cassette recording of the gig:
The
King MP3 (64k 1.23mb)
Right click and select 'Save As' to copy to your hard drive
or Left click to play.
Dave Cousins after the gig.
NOSTALGIA PHOTOS:
Dave Cousins - Sounds Centrespread.jpg
