DAVE COUSINS
VENUE GEORGE IV, LONDON
DATE 21/11/2022
Gig appearances by Dave Cousins, mainman and founder member of The Strawbs, are rare nowadays – he reminds us more than once, it’s over two years since he last performed live at all. Tonight, though, in what proves to be an affecting evening, he’s motivated not by any personal aggrandisement or new product promotion, but by his desire to raise money for charity to provide water tanks to communities in remote areas of the world.
Debbie Manners, Chair of SafeHands, a charity partner in the projects benefitting from tonight, interviews Cousins about his childhood in Chiswick and growing up in Twickenham and Hounslow. This prompts many memories – sadness that his childhood home has long since disappeared beneath tarmac, shovelling horse manure for the coalman, Saturday morning pictures at the Chiswick ABC (with a rendition of the ABC Minors’ theme song), seeing Welsh crooner Donald Peers at the Chiswick Empire, and how an accidental meeting led to a lifetime professional relationship and friendship with Sir Alec Reed, founder of the Reed brand of businesses.
Inevitably, there are many tales of The Strawbs’ early days and experiences throughout the 70s, becoming among the most successful bands in the US at one point. After this, we get to hear him play. Cousins isn’t a young man and he has had some serious health problems – his voice is a bit raw and his guitar-playing is sometimes hesitant – but the honesty and authenticity he performs with, and the context he provides for each song, far outweigh any technical concerns.
We get relatively deep Strawbs cuts including The Golden Salamander, and fan favourite Benedictus performed on electric dulcimer presaged by Cousins explaining that the band’s future following Rick Wakeman’s departure in 1971 was decided by consulting the I Ching, which also provided the opening lyrics of this song. The Call To Action, inspired by an interest in the historical conflicts between Christians and Muslims, gets a strident and powerful presentation, with Cousins recreating the more involved musical passages with just his acoustic guitar. Two brandnew songs get an airing: The Magic Of It All and Everybody Means Something To Someone, which he describes as “a lament for everybody who perhaps feels worthless”. It leaves both Cousins and some members of the audience struggling with genuine emotion.
A rousing Part Of The Union closes the main set, with Cousins returning with one more tune, Beat The Retreat. It’s a fitting, tender end to a truly special evening with one of the people who was there throughout the birth and development of British electric folk and progressive rock.