Summary
GERRY Rafferty's daughter, Martha, is recalling how her father would sit at his piano, late at night, working on song after song. Through the wall she would hear him playing the piano and singing. He was, she says, much more of a night person than a day person. "He seemed to long for the darkness to come down and shroud him with its anonymity," she writes about her earliest memories, on the official Rafferty website. "It was in that darkness that he could open up, let his light shine."
Next month, a little more than a year after Rafferty's untimely death at the age of 63, many of these songs, composed on piano or guitar in just such a nocturnal setting, will be played live by a group of distinguished musicians. Ron Sexsmith, Jack Bruce, Maria Muldaur, The Proclaimers, Tom Robinson, Barbara Dickson, James Vincent McMorrow, Burns Unit member and ex-Delgado Emma Pollock, and more. Throw in Rafferty's old sidemen - Hugh Burns, Graham Preskett, Mel Collins - plus the concert's house band (Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire), and it is, by any measure, quite a line-up. No wonder tickets for the Celtic Connection concert disappeared so quickly; even less of a wonder that a second night has been added.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Rafferty Connection
"It grew out of discussions with Martha last year, after the funeral," says Rab Noakes, lifelong friend of Rafferty's, former cohort of his in early Stealers Wheel, and co-organiser of the concerts with Martha. "We saw a concert as an obvious way to commemorate Gerald and his work. Initially, Martha had been looking at the possibilit...
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