Buck 65 at the 100 Club: The chirpiest heartbreak you ever did see

I'll keep this short and sweet as Buck 65's place as ShadowPlay's All Time Favourite Artist is well documented and firmly assured*. A surprisingly chipper Richard Terfry was on fine form at London's historic 100 Club this week.  

A short chat at the merch stand prior to the gig confirms he remains the affable, charming and funny soul we've come to know and love over the last two decades (well, one in my case. It was heartwarming to find he remembered my favourite ever interview at the Rescue Rooms, Nottingham with him in 2004). On seeing Buck at The Garage in Islington last year I wondered whether his forthcoming album would be his Blood on the Tracks, documenting, as it does, his break up with his wife. 

Terfry had come back from tour to find a note saying 'don't forget to feed the cat' and his wedding ring. And indeed the record, Neverlove is a cathartic effort ('That's the Way Love Dies' and  'Love Will Fuck You Up' are standouts) but still with Buck's inimitable perky style ingrained within it. It combines his usual hip-hop/folk style with his popiest edge yet and, in all but a couple of cases, is complemented well by a series of female vocalists. What's more, it's his best outing since 2003's celebrated Talkin' Honky Blues, mixing clever wordplay, some well worked duets and effortless changes in tone. 

Before the set, he tells me he's had to talk a lot about his split from his wife in conducting media interviews for the new album. It's been like a psychoanalysis session, he explains. Indeed, he sought help for panic attacks experienced after his divorce. 

But his 100 Club performance displays little of this torture. Dressed in a sharp suit, Buck is his usual playful self, making quips about laundry and culminating his set with a dance suggesting there's an explosion in his crotch while singing about having cake and sex on his birthday. There's snatches of crowd favourites including Indestructible Sam and Roses and Bluejays and ultimate classics including Centaur and Wicked and Weird are given full run outs. He largely steers clear of the more mournful songs from the album and uses his duets with Tiger Rosa to muck about and encourage her to spank him with her belt. He drifts off to remind us he's a great scratch DJ then nips back to the mic to tell a funny story about a girl downing a glass of milk. 

Buck 65, whether in his guise as a radio host or simply as Richard Terfry, a man who has been through a lot, remains one of the most talented musicians on the planet. With his latest offering, he's also reminded us he remains one of the most musically relevant. 

*Oh ok, yes I failed to keep it short and sweet.

The rise of the 'by request' set list

Joy Division legend Peter Hook is taking requests

It's incredible something with as dreadful a name as Napster had such a revolutionary impact on music consumption. The peer-to-peer file-sharing site, arguably the most mainstream one of its kind, gave music fans an unprecedented power over artists which the latter has been struggling to regain balance from ever since its launch in 1999. 

In retrospect, the developments that followed feel inevitable - the rise of paid-for downloading via iTunes, then streaming through Last.fm, Youtube and Spotify and the move towards big bucks large gigs and insanely pricey festivals becoming the main money spinner. They have been accompanied by a torrent of other changes to music consumption from on demand radio to using social media. 

The prevalence of a new phenomenon - the 'by request' set - has been exemplified by this year's festival line ups. Metal giants Metallica are putting their set at Sonisphere, which takes place at Knebworth in July, to a public vote. The democratic gig will see fans polled on which songs they wanted to hear by getting an online code when they buy a ticket. The festival will also see Metallica joint-headline with Iron Maiden for the first time in the UK, quite a coup for the metal fest.

At Alt-Fest, Peter Hook & the Light will follow their set playing the entirety of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (another recently revived trend in performing whole records) with an encore picked by the fans. They will be able to vote from a selection of Joy Division tracks on Facebook for the six-song encore at the festival in Northamptonshire in August. 

Hook said: "Having played some 200 gigs with The Light now, I've found that the fans all have their own particular favourite tracks which they want to hear live. It's a great idea to throw some of the set list over to the people at Alt-Fest to see what they most want to hear us play." 

Hook's decision flies in the face of many musicians who - through fatigue at playing the same songs repeatedly or simply stubbornness - deliberately shun fan favourites. Neil Young assured crowds on his 1973 English tour of Tonight's the Night that they would hear some 'old stuff you've heard before' after he'd played his new record live in full, then promptly played the whole album in full again claiming the audience knew it by then - class. 
Back in the present, ShadowPlay favourite Buck 65 is among a raft of artists who regularly use Twitter to ask their audiences what they'd like to hear during that evening's gig. 

As social media brings fans and artists closer together than they've ever been, and gives artists more instantaneous feedback on which songs fans love, it's natural musicians are more mindful in composing sets. To my mind, there's no problem with it - it's just a more organised variation on calling out for a favourite tune live. But artists may need to take care they do not simply become karaoke acts, playing to fans' demands at every turn.


The balance of power has clearly well and truly shifted but musicians need to be given licence to have control over their performance. 

Desert Isolation Discs: Alex Lawson

Over at our sister site Desert Isolation Discs I've been indulging in the rather enjoyable vanity project of picking my favourite tunes of all time.

Hope you enjoy and have had a fantastic 2013. I'm very keen to interview people for Desert Isolations so get in touch if you fancy it.

Hear the tracks in full here or listen to the interview with me below.

Desert Isolation Discs: Alex Lawson by Alex Lawson on Mixcloud

Buck 65 talks horny blues

Buck 65 is horny. In fact Nova Scotian hip-hop's most prestigious export is practically a walking copy of Nuts with carefully crafted tunes in place of some bird from Big Brother's tits. 

Canadian rapper, storyteller and gentle comedian Richard Terfry's appearance on stage at The Garage in Islington is a welcome sight after a number of years of intermittent appearances in the UK. For the uninitiated, Buck is a storyteller who has associations with Anticon records and has spent two decades creating some of the most interesting, innovative and genre-defining hip-hop of his generation. He's also a rather funny, charming fella. 

Buck structures his set like a reverse romcom, beginning by telling of his long distance relationship with his wife-to-be, then their move to Paris together before exhaling heavily and saying the last year and a half has been difficult as he got divorced. This story translates into a scintillating set featuring a duo with support act Laura J Martin playing his wife [see video] before Buck performs a tune which repeatedly states "I wish we could start again". It's a painful and surprisingly stark moment for an artist who often morphs into different characters and is surprisingly chipper. "You don't know how hard it was to perform that," he breathes at the end of the song.

But he's got the Pot Noodle horn, apparently, so his midset is dominated by the theme of heavy penetration and fledgling encounters. He bookends his classic tribute to an oversized lover - Centaur - with a rap made form the titles of spam emails about sperm and a poem-cum-rap about his overly amorous chat up lines. He attempts to give off the air of an awkward first timer attempting to find his way, in fact a more eloquent wordsmith able to handle himself in any situation you'll rarely find.

But the gig is not just Buck's catharsis. He plays Superstars Don't Love from latest album 20 Odd Years as well as previewing material from his forthcoming record expected next April. He also cranks out classics including 463 and Wicked and Weird from Talkin Honky Blues which being back many memories including rapping the entirety of the latter on the motorway with my friend Daniel, fucking up my A Level English exams after going to a Buck gig the night before and interview Mr Tefry at the Rescue Rooms in Anton's office. 

He also cranks out a slightly bizarre 'Friday night' dance tune which may or may not appear on the new record which is quite fun if a little odd. The set runs a little long and it would've been nice to see the beautiful steel guitar of a full band to enjoy his full range rather than just two turntables and a microphone. 

His last couple of records have been a little pedestrian by his very high standards but anyone who's even glanced at ShadowPlay ever will understand why his status as my personal favourite artist ever remains firmly assured. With the prospect of a new heartbreak album moving into view, there's a distinct possibility that this could be Buck's Blood on the Tracks-style defining moment. 


Buck 65, Laura J Martin - The Garage, 16/11/12