h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The cinema last night was really good. A Skin Too Few wasn’t what I would consider a typical documentary. Rather than intricately examining everything Nick Drake ever said or did and interviewing everyone he ever met, the film makers tried to give more of an impression of who he was and what he was like. It wasn’t a comprehensive “full-colour” documentary, it was more of a “pastel-shade” journey through his life and his music. Some of the film was beautifully shot, scenes of rain running down the windows of a car through which we see the blurred lights of a city (presumably London) and shots of trees blowing in the wind stuck particularly in my mind. I don’t think I learned anything about Nick that I didn’t already know, but I enjoyed it anyway.

After the film Keith James (accompanied by Rick Foot on the double bass) performed some of Nick’s music. Nick Drake was famous for his incredibly precise and powerful guitar playing. In particular his finger picking was almost unique and is apparently very hard to recreate. But as you might expect, Keith turned out to be an exceptional guitarist and his interpretations of Nick’s music were very, very close to the mark. His voice was much deeper and harsher than Nick’s own and when he performed John Martyn’s Solid Air (written about Nick Drake), it fitted much better, however he put his own mark on each of the songs, making them sufficiently different from Nick’s performances, but at the same time retaining the soulful emotion that is present throughout Nick’s music. A couple of highlights were Riverman and Northern Sky largely because they are two of my favourite Nick Drake songs, but I really enjoyed Keith’s version of Made to Love Magic, which was far more melancholy than Nick’s version. Keith also performed a couple of Nick’s songs that I hadn’t heard before, which made for interesting listening.

I haven’t been to see much live music this year, so I was excited merely at the prospect of going to a gig. But one of the tragedies of Nick Drake is that because he died so young (at just twenty-six) and because he performed so little during his lifetime (a product of his intense shyness) very few people actually got to hear his music in the flesh. Keith said that they had been doing gigs showcasing Nick’s music for four years and in all that time they’d only met eight people who said they’d seen Nick live, that’s eight people out of who knows how many hundreds or thousands of Nick Drake fans must have been to their shows over the years; so a chance to hear a live performance of Nick Drake songs was something very special indeed.