Steve Tilston, Anteros Arts Foundation, Naaaaarwich
Jan 24, 2018 22:00:11 GMT
ocarolan and brianr2 like this
Post by robmc on Jan 24, 2018 22:00:11 GMT
I had not seen Steve Tilston before or even heard a single song.... goes down as a great, great gig, I enjoyed it so much I actually fought my Scottish genes and bought a CD following the gig, his 2011 album The Reckoning and I'm so glad I did. He is a brilliant song writer, Memory Lane and the title track stand out.... and his song Doubting Thom reminded me of Riverman in delivery. I really like his playing style and also his vocals.
Steve played with a double bass player (Hugh I think) and played a small bodied twelvestring fret on all songs in a number of tunings.
Anyway, main purpose of this review is to recount a story that preceded his song King of Coins, you may know it. Steve now lives in Hebden Bridge and at one point in history a character given the name King David also lived there and is now laid to rest in the churchyard, which as I remember, is still consecrated ground although the church is a ruin. King David was a 'coiner', and in the time when gold was currency and a gold coin from any country was legitimate currency in England the coiners would work the coins and reduce their size using the offcuts to make new coins and so on... of course the landed gentry were in on this as they would be.... the only gold coins you could not tamper with were English coins themselves.
It's a classic tale of success leading to failure and misery, King David become so skilled at his trade that it began to affect first the local economy and then the national economy, which brought him to the attention of the London courts. A customs and excise officer was sent up to Hebden to root out the gang and put an end to the coining. Once again a tail of success leading to failure, the customs officer was good at his task and as a result, King David was feeling the pressure, he decided that the customs officer should be sent on his way, he tasked one of his henchmen to deal with the problem but perhaps didn't realise how this would be done. The custom's officer was assassinated, gunned down on a public street in the centre of Halifax (which caught my attention)... far too public an end, news got back to London and King David was eventually hanged together with his second in command. I may look into this further next September!
Other songs that stood out was a very eastern flavoured 'Moon' song and a song as a response to Nick Drakes Riverman... all in all a great night and I will definitely make a point of seeing him again, the bass player was a top musician too.
Steve played with a double bass player (Hugh I think) and played a small bodied twelve
Anyway, main purpose of this review is to recount a story that preceded his song King of Coins, you may know it. Steve now lives in Hebden Bridge and at one point in history a character given the name King David also lived there and is now laid to rest in the churchyard, which as I remember, is still consecrated ground although the church is a ruin. King David was a 'coiner', and in the time when gold was currency and a gold coin from any country was legitimate currency in England the coiners would work the coins and reduce their size using the offcuts to make new coins and so on... of course the landed gentry were in on this as they would be.... the only gold coins you could not tamper with were English coins themselves.
It's a classic tale of success leading to failure and misery, King David become so skilled at his trade that it began to affect first the local economy and then the national economy, which brought him to the attention of the London courts. A customs and excise officer was sent up to Hebden to root out the gang and put an end to the coining. Once again a tail of success leading to failure, the customs officer was good at his task and as a result, King David was feeling the pressure, he decided that the customs officer should be sent on his way, he tasked one of his henchmen to deal with the problem but perhaps didn't realise how this would be done. The custom's officer was assassinated, gunned down on a public street in the centre of Halifax (which caught my attention)... far too public an end, news got back to London and King David was eventually hanged together with his second in command. I may look into this further next September!
Other songs that stood out was a very eastern flavoured 'Moon' song and a song as a response to Nick Drakes Riverman... all in all a great night and I will definitely make a point of seeing him again, the bass player was a top musician too.
Jo whoever he is.
