‘One of the nicest, most modest and easiest to work with musicians I ever experienced’
Music promoter Davie Gardner recalls a series of ‘pinch me’ moments when he welcomed Kris Kristofferson to Shetland for a sell-out gig 11 years ago
IT WAS with sadness, and to some extent a sense of loss, that earlier this week I learned of the death of country music legend and actor Kris Kristofferson at the age of 88.
But these feelings extended beyond simply the passing of another musical ‘great.’ Memories came flooding back not only of time spent with my late father over a dram as we listened to some of Kristofferson’s great songs – one of only a handful of artists we collectively shared a genuine rather than tolerable appreciation of – but also of a virtually beyond belief concert Kristofferson himself delivered in our very own Clickimin Centre back in September 2013. A genuine ‘I was there’ event.
Kristofferson’s music had formed part of the soundtrack of my life since I first heard Janis Joplin’s version of Me and Bobby McGee back in the mid 70s and decided to check out further songs by its original composer.
Needless to say, I was not to be disappointed. For me he was quite simply one of the greatest poetic lyricists ever – up there, at his best, with the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
There’s a saying that goes: ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’ Well, that was certainly the feeling I got back in 2013 when I got a call from concert promoters Regular Music in Edinburgh asking if we’d be interested in hosting a concert with Kristofferson who wanted to do a small, out of the way gig to go along with his only other Scottish date on that visit at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall.
That, for me, was literally a heart-stopping call and one that I found hard to believe – and even harder to stay quiet about – until it was actually confirmed a few days later.
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Soon though we were in a position to announce the gig, with the tickets – perhaps not surprisingly – some of the fastest selling I’d ever experienced, with over 1,000 tickets selling out in less than 20 minutes.
If the request for a gig had been unbelievable in itself, actually seeing the great man stride through the arrival doors at Sumburgh Airport – accompanied by his wife and son – was more unbelievable still. A genuine ‘pinch me’ moment, that’s for sure.
The modesty I was to get used to over the next few days was immediately apparent as he insisted on carrying his own luggage and guitar. “I can manage thanks, I’ve been doing this for a lot of years now,” he laughed.
It started as it was to go on with him. Quite simply he was one of the nicest, most modest, relaxed and easiest to work with musicians I ever experienced.
A mixture of excitement, anticipation and raw emotion was clearly evident in the Clickimin Centre on the night itself, right from the time the doors opened, with many folk in the inter-generational audience clearly in tears as Kristofferson walked onto the stage following an opening set from regular associate Roddy Hart.
The occasion was epitomised by, perhaps somewhat bizarrely, a handful of teenage girls in the very front row who literally screamed and burst into tears as he walked on stage, simply said “hello” and started to sing.
“Did you see that? That was amazing,” he said after the show, clearly quite taken aback by the experience.
For the next hour-and-a-half we were treated to around 30 songs including, of course, all-time classics such as Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make it Through the Night, Sunday Morning Coming Down and Silver Tongued Devil.
In, by now, an ongoing series of ‘pinch me’ moments during his visit I then found myself having a quiet beer with him in his hotel after the gig. I couldn’t help but wonder what my late dad would have made of it all.
The word ‘legend’ is possibly used all too often, and perhaps at times even undeservedly, but few would argue that Kris Kristofferson richly deserves that title and accolade.
His name will live forever through his music, while the memory of being in the great man’s company for a few days and hearing him sing all those great songs in a relatively small local venue will live with me forever.
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