From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V19 #508 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Saturday, October 12 2024 Volume 19 : Number 508 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Soft Boys (old) news [bayard ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2024 09:51:37 -0400 From: bayard Subject: Soft Boys (old) news Hello friends! I am announcing this here on the list first because it's fun to let my old-school homies see it before Facebook gets its teeth in it, heh. (I was very glad to see Eddie and Vivien posting here a few months ago, by the way. Keep it up!) So as most of you likely know, Marcus and I, along with an old non-feg buddy of mine, have been keeping Robynbase/The Asking Tree going these recent years; Marcus does a brilliant job keeping things updated re. the new and forthcoming Robyn gig appearances, whereas I concentrate on adding and correcting info about ye olde days. We were absolutely thrilled to receive from Lee Cave-Berry (Kimberley Rew's wife) an absolute treasure trove of Soft Boys setlists from about mid-1977 thru mid-1979; the period when Jim Melton was still in the band doing backing vocals and blues harmonica, and Andy Metcalfe was on bass. (The fact that the setlists correspond with Andy's tenure make me wonder if he had a hand in collecting them - but in any case it seems Kimberley ended up with them (and indeed, may have been the one to save them, given his excellent Soft Boys scrapbook)). You can browse through all the gigs with setlists here: https://askingtree.com/gigs/quick_query?query_id=with_setlists A few observations: The sets are often fairly uniform, and contain mostly Can of Bees tunes, as one would expect (the latter part of this timeline was a tour supporting that album). There are also tunes that ended up on the posthumous 'Invisible Hits' collection. But there are a few intriguing details too. If you go through the setlists in order, you'll notice the evolution of the repertoire. Some interesting covers are played and a few mysterious rarities like "Parsley Show," "When it Gets Dark" and "Imploding Blues." One tidbit involves "Muriel's Hoof/Rout of the Clones" - this appears to be a traditional Irish jig popularized by Steeleye Span, and released by them as "Bryan O'Lynn/The Hag With the Money" and later "Hitler's Folly/The Hag With the Money". Hmm! I found it super interesting to put these puzzle pieces into the rich tapestry that is the early Robyn live history - hope some of you do too! There are lots of other features on the site too, like "On this day" and even an interactive map that Marcus painstakingly entered loads of venue coordinates for.. check 'em out! b ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V19 #508 ********************************