Tony Poole's 60th Birthday Celebrations

Last Sunday afternoon I was fortunate enough to be asked along to the celebrations for Tony Poole's 60th birthday. Tony was the 12 string guitarist in Starry Eyed And Laughing - the 'English Byrds' - who put out a couple of excellent albums Starry Eyed & Laughing and Thought Talk in the mid 70s. Peel used to play them relentlessly and I got to see them at a free gig at the Anson Rooms in Bristol in Spring 1975.

Tony played a mesmeric set; both his own songs and songs of others that mean much to him; swapping between electric and acoustic, 12 and 6 string Rickenbackers. Like many of us, bemused to have attained these high numbers, he paid rich tribute to some of those who've already gone, starting with Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel, and playing 'America' for John Platt. This is, as I remember, the set list (unsurprisingly it led to a lot of broad smiles at a number of points) :

'Ballad Of El Goodo'
I Wasn't Born To Follow'
'Money Is No Friend Of Mine'
'Echoes'
'The Girl In The Gene Clark Song'
'Going Back'
'Never Say Too Late'
'Renaissance Fair'
'Chimes Of Freedom'

'The Dutchman'
'In The Madness
'And More Again'
'Beat-up Old Guitar'
'5D'

'Lady Came From The South'
'The River'

'Chasing Cars'
'Flames In The Rain'
'So You Wanna Be A Rock'n'Roll Star'
'You Ain't Going Nowhere'

'America'
'Mr Tambourine Man'
'Eight Miles High'

'For What It's Worth'
'Helpless' -> 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door'

There were also fine short sets from Tom Dean and Pete O'Brien (pink shirt on the sofa).

I had a little chat with Tony and hopefully he'll play a few more gigs this autumn. Meanwhile here's Starry Eyed And Laughing back in the day.