Gordon Giltrap (guitars)
I have long admired Giltrap’s work. In the late 1970s/80s I had bought all of his prog-band created LPs – ‘Visionary‘, ‘Perilous Journey‘ and the brilliant ‘Fear of the Dark‘; I had seen him perform on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test and now I was looking forward to hearing him play a few of those pieces live. So you can imagine my disappointment that he was on his own this evening performing an acoustic set. I don’t think that had been mentioned in the advertising because I’m pretty sure that I was expecting a full-blown band but, hey-ho, I made the best of it.
Of course, he was very, very good. The man is a wizard of the guitar and makes it sing any tune that he wishes and with great intricacy too as, indeed, all guitarists seem able to do! Each tune was introduced with a short story about its roots, how it came about and what it meant to Giltrap himself. I honestly can’t remember any details of these pieces other than that he played a set of reasonable length and that it contained – of course! – his signature tune, ‘Heartsong‘. from the 1977 ‘Perilous Journey’ album. Those of us who are a little longer in the tooth will recall that this tune was used extensively by the BBC as the theme for the weekly Holiday programme presented by Judith Chalmers. and it was the one piece that everyone expected him to play. It’s almost certainly the albatross around his neck these days, but I don’t suppose that he will complain given the royalties that it must have racked up for him.
Looking at Giltrap’s discography it is very hard to decide whether he was promoting any particular album as he seems to have had two or three released at some point around 2000, but it is safe to say that he would definitely have had one or two on sale at the gig; I just can’t remember precisely which right now. My favourite was and still very much is 1978’s ‘Fear of the Dark’ which featured him with his electric band playing such classics as ‘Roots’, ‘Nightrider’, the excellent ‘Fast Approaching’ and, of course, the title track.
In conclusion, this was an enjoyable evening. Whilst there is no officially recorded setlist and I can’t recall any tunes other than ‘Heartsong’ I do remember that Giltrap’s supreme talent was appreciated by a full house and I went home happy that I had heard some of my favourite tunes although not in the ‘electric’ setting that I would have preferred, but in the immortal words of The Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want”. 😉
Setlist: unknown
The Old Grey Whistle Test video (30th November, 1976).
Gigs'n'Stuff 