Frances Knight and Geoffrey Richardson in Deal

The Lighthouse, Deal
16th March 2014

This was Canterbury jazz piano legend Frances Knight and Caravan/Penguin Cafe Orchestra multi-instrumentalist Geoffrey Richardson's first gig together. It's what Frances is calling "acoustic loveliness".

It was an afternoon gig, a glorious sunny Sunday afternoon by Deal seafront, and The Lighthouse was packed out with mostly older couples who'd been enjoying Tyrone's weekly Sunday afternoon "reggae roast". A seated, listening audience. Quite a lot of old Caravan fans, I expect. They played some of Geoffrey's songs and instrumentals, the title track off the new Caravan LP Paradise Filter (not my cup of tea, I'm afraid), some folkie things with GR on penniwhistle, a couple of PCO numbers with him on ukelele, cuatro, etc.. Frances was playing a mix of keyboard and accordion (or was that a bandoneon?). The highlight for me was an instrumental version of the Incredible String Band's "The Circle is Unbroken" with Geoffrey on viola and Frances on squeezebox. That made my week! And then back to Canterbury for a game of Go and a view of the full moon from the Dane John Mound. A great day, all round.