Perth, W. Australia May 9, 2026
When I last saw Ralph McTell in 2007, he opened his set
with “Streets of London,” undoubtedly his biggest song. “Let’s get that out of
the way” he quipped, almost as if the legendary number had become a millstone around his
neck. But tonight was very different. “Streets” was saved for the big finale where it was received with heartfelt audience participation followed
by a prolonged standing ovation. It’s been a while since I’ve heard an audience sing
along with such gusto.
That could be because, as the name suggests, after no fewer
than 16 Aussie visits since 1976 this looks likely to be McTell's final tour down
under and he clearly felt the old war horse of a song deserved to go out with
dignity. Just like the performer himself, in fact.
Ralph and I go back a long way. I first saw him play at the
legendary Soho basement folk club Les Cousins at the tail-end of the 60s. At
the other end of the show biz scale, I was also there at the Royal Albert Hall
in May 1976 for the concert which became the UK half of the Ralph, Albert
and Sydney album. But, after 60 years treading the boards, the small halls and
folk clubs remain McTell’s spiritual home and the compact 500 seat State
Theatre Centre of WA in the heart of Perth was the perfect venue to enjoy
his intimate songs and stories, possibly for the last time.
Arriving onstage looking like an extra from the TV show Death In
Paradise in a white suit with matching shoes he seemed a little
overdressed for the occasion, but at age 81 I guess he’s long outgrown the folksingers’
uniform of jeans and work shirt. Reassuringly, his trademark Gibson J50
guitar, a model he’s been associated with since his earliest days, was present
and correct.
A great finger-picking guitarist, he made it all look so easy as he took us on a leisurely stroll through his back catalogue, throwing in a handful of new songs along the way, each one prefaced with a humorous
or heart-warming story (sometimes both). The mid-70s was Ralph’s most fertile
songwriting period and “From Clare To Here” from the Right Side Up
album remains one of his finest tunes. It tells of a homesick Irishman he met while working the building sites around London.
The oldest song of the night was “Mrs Adlam’s Angels” from
his 1969 second album Spiral Staircase. Like all his early albums it was originally released
on the folk-centric Transatlantic label alongside classics by Ralph’s
contemporaries Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and the like.
The giant grand piano which had lurked ominously in the shadows for much of the set was finally employed for two of his strongest songs, “Old Brown Dog” and the eternally moving “Naomi”. A lengthy preamble explained the latter was written for Ralph’s grandparents and I noticed a few moist eyes being quietly dabbed. With most of tonight’s elderly audience probably now grandparents themselves, the song seemed to take on an added poignancy.
Judging by the assorted British accents I heard in the
bar, I’d estimate a sizable chunk of tonight’s crowd were ex-pat Poms, in which
case there was really no need for the lengthy explanation of the word “charabanc”
from the opening line of “Maginot Waltz”.
After a short interval the second half kicked off with the children’s
song “Kenny the Kangaroo” from the 1983 kids TV show Alphabet Zoo presented by Ralph and Nerys Hughes (she of The Liver Birds
fame). It was all a bit twee and the only minor downside of the evening. “It
was my manager’s idea” said a clearly embarrassed Ralph, by way of mitigation.
Much better was “The Girl From The Hiring Fair”. 40 years ago, McTell donated this powerful song to Fairport Convention for their comeback album
Gladys’ Leap. But it has always remained a fixture of his own set
and seldom sounded better than tonight’s performance. His knack of capturing the
imagery of a bygone era and translating it into song is a rare gift.
Weirdly, considering the venue is located smack dab in the late-night
clubbing area of the city, they had imposed a 10pm curfew, leading to a
somewhat rushed ending to the concert. Before starting the aforementioned “Streets
of London” closer, Ralph had pre-warned us there would be no encore and, due to
time constraints, possibly no meet and greet either, as usually happens. Sure
enough, he hurriedly exited the stage with the applause still ringing out, and his
final Perth show was over.
Before hanging up his Gibson J50 for the final time, Ralph
still has some European dates to play including, as he told us, a short tour of
Ireland. But if this really was his last Aussie visit, let's remember it for the great music he gave us over the decades and not for that somewhat abrupt finale.
