Michael Nesmith at Queen Elizabeth Hall

Michael Nesmith
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 28 October 2012

It turns out that Michael Nesmith, former Monkee and country rock pioneer, hasn't been on these shores for a solo show in 37 years. I didn't realise just how long it had been but I did know these few UK shows were a rarity, so I was excited when they were announced. However a friend then made me nervous when he questioned just what Nesmith was like live these days since his most recent release had been a jazz funk instrumental concept album. I needn't have worried though as the show had plenty of Nesmith's greatest songs, beautifully performed with the aid of his longtime bass player (Joe Chemay), a keyboardist (Charlie Judge) and a little help from technology.

The show got off to a great start with the Monkees song Papa Gene's Blues, which is actually the first Nesmith song to appear on record, and it washed away any doubts I may have had, sounding like classic Nes. It's funny seeing old man, white-haired, balding Nesmith, who is just a year off 70, because he's barely recognisable as the green bobble hat-wearing young man of the Monkees TV show or the bearded country-rocker of the 70s and 80s. The minute though that he opens his mouth, that voice, even speaking, is so familiar that you can almost picture him all those years ago. The vocals may have aged a little and it's clear that some of the high notes are now beyond him but he still sounds pretty damn good to my ears.

After such a well received and perfect opener, he explained to the audience that after being away from the UK for so long he wanted to come up with something different and unique for this tour. The approach he came up with turns out to be pretty interesting: before each song he tells a story to help set the mood and explain the song. He tells us to imagine the fictional tale while listening to the song and using his iPad (handily taped to a stand in front of his microphone), he would read off a scenario, often involving a boy and a girl and a romance gone wrong. For instance, for the first song using this method, Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care), he tells of a man and a woman living in an apartment block who see each other every day and slowly something develops between them and then one day he looks at her and realising he loves her, sings this song. It's a pretty evocative way of doing it and some of the stories do really explain the songs well. I mean, even though I had listened to Different Drum hundreds of times, both Nesmith's and Linda Ronstadt's versions, I had never really listened closely to the lyrics. For that song he told us to imagine a couple sitting in a cafe in Paris in the late 60s, she wants to be a mother, he wants to be a lover, and they look at each other realising they want different things. The song too is slightly re-imagined, slowed down to more of a ballad with Judge providing a French-influenced keyboard backing to nice effect.

Every song had a little story as an intro, some of which sounded like they may have been based in truth, but even if they were entirely fictional, Nes did tell us a few true stories too, such as when his record label RCA complained about all the country rock records he was making and urged him to instead to make a hit record, to which he responded with yet another country rock album but titled And the Hits Just Keep On Comin' (which is a great anecdote and very Neil Young of him). He also spoke of making his first music video for Rio and proudly mentioned it is in some hall of fame (which for the life of me I can't recall, perhaps the Library Of Congress) before performing said song and also the track that follows it on the album From A Radio Engine To The Photon Wing, Casablanca Moonlight, which he told us was a favourite of his but this was only the second time he had ever played it live. Both sounded wonderful I must say.

There were lots more of some of my favourite Nesmith songs, tracks like Some Of Shelly's Blues, Grand Ennui, Tomorrow & Me (which sounded pretty funky), Joanne and Silver Moon. It was also great to hear Laugh Kills Lonesome from his very underrated 1994 album Tropical Campfires, which he explained by inspired by a painting of cowboys around a fire in a desert with big smiles on their faces.There was also a trifecta of songs from his his concept album/book The Prison before which he gave a lengthy intro telling the story told in the novella, which was strange but at the same time fascinating. The songs themselves were lovely country numbers, which you actually didn't need to know the story to enjoy.

After two hours of music and just one encore paying tribute to Nesmith's late, great pedal steel player Red Rhodes (Thanx For The Ride), the show came to an early end (which admittedly is nice on a Sunday night) but the applause said it all: he could have played for a lot longer. All my fears were completely unnecessary as Nesmith really delivered tonight. I do love the Monkees but I love Michael Nesmith the country rock pioneer and peer of the likes of Gram Parsons and Gene Clark much more. I'll never get to see Parsons or Clark live so it's a lovely thing to say I've seen Nesmith.