As part of a trip to London in March 2024 to see the opening night of Rufus Wainwright’s musical, Loudon Wainwright III played a three-night residency at Nell’s in Kensington.
For those unfamiliar with the place but with some knowledge of London’s rich music venue heritage, Nell’s Jazz and Blues is a great little club in the part of Kensington that was once home to the pub-rock/punk venue known as The Nashville Room. It turned out to be the ideal venue and Loudon performed to packed houses during his brief tenure. The proprietor of Nell’s had been the infamous Vince Power who knew all about good music from his days at The Mean Fiddler. Vince booked these three shows but died a few days before Loudon stepped on stage. He would have enjoyed it immensely.
In 2017 I had promoted a week-long stint for Loudon to perform his engrossing “Surviving Twin” monologue at the Leicester Square Theatre. It is a relatively small venue in the heart of the west end and the audiences loved its intimacy, because he usually plays concert halls when in town. We knew that the Nell’s audience were in for a similarly close-up treat.
Having just started working with Loudon again on his more recent catalogue here at The Last Music Company, I was very pleased to take a call from him in advance of his visit telling me that he wanted to record the shows. I made the arrangements and we got all three nights down. Despite a technical hitch that was discovered too late on Saturday, it all worked out. Over the course of the three long sets, he took the opportunity to work in some brand-new material and a few of the perfectly chosen cover versions that he has made his own.
Then came the hard part. Trying to reduce three ninety-minute shows into a seventy-minute CD.
I’m glad to say that what we’ve got as a result of some tireless effort by Loudon, Dick Connette and Stewart Lerman at the editing desk in New York, is a contemporary example of what this guy does best in clubs but is rarely available on record.
When “Career Moves” was released in 1993. Loudon wrote in the liner notes that the album was “…to celebrate my Silver Jubilee. Twenty-five years of earning a damn good living on the periphery of the music business.” It was recorded in New York City at The Bottom Line and provided fans worldwide with another chance to share the atmosphere of a live show. It was his first in front of an audience since “A Live One” in 1973. This new one was not just a summarily produced filler album commitment to a record label. The album has served as a lasting document of a life right up to that point, fully exorcised through the medium of the liver’s songbook.
Ten years later in 2003, Loudon’s relocation to Los Angeles resulted in his next live record – “So Damn Happy” - taken from recordings made at Largo and the Mystic Theatre.
The Bottom Line has long gone and the Golden Jubilee of this career came and went without another “live” celebration on record to mark the occasion.
But let’s not dwell on the passage of time. Just be thankful that there’s now been another chapter in this remarkable life that’s been preserved to the satisfaction of the liver to the extent that he is happy for it to be shared…in exchange for money.
Some of the songs will be familiar to those who have followed his career, but the way that everything is masterfully performed and was captured on record in this great little club gives everyone the chance to catch a glimpse of the real THIRD MAN – again and again.
All you’ve got to do is go find LOUDON LIVE IN LONDON on whatever way you get to listen to music these days. It’s going to be available from 31st January 2025. ~ Malcolm Mills
Photo by: Ross Halfin
