After a day in the scorching sun at Lord's, Dave and I quickly swallowed a few pints then raced off to the Royal Albert Hall to see the special one-of gig of Donovan reprising his Sunshine Superman album from 1966, for the first - and, he says, the only - time.
We had excellent seats downstairs this time and there was magic in the air in the build up to the gig. After the support act, Donovan and his band, including Danny Thompson on double bass, came on and performed the first set, comprised of his hits, mostly in chronological order, starting with Catch the Wind, then Colours and Buffy St Marie's Universal Soldier - I've posted a brief video on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUb4H_mbfkM
Half way through this half, the London Contemporary Orchestra came on to beef up the sound for some of the later hits, including Hurdy Gurdy Man - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZEpLFDNlLY
The second half of the show was the main event - playing the Sunshine Superman album all the way through. It's a very eclectic album and at various times, it was the full orchestra, or just the electric band, or, twice, he sat cross-legged between a sitar and a tabla player and did his Indian mystic thing:
The surprise appearance came from Jimmy Page, looking very fit and tanned, with silver hair tied back in a pony tail, and gleaming white teeth, product of some American orthodontist, no doubt. The encore of the show was a reprise of the title song and first number from the second half of the show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqyRXDCc9CE
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