Editor's Note: Last night, my friends Tom and Nancy, who own Bloomsday Books in the Crestwood Shops at 55th and Brookside, together with me and a couple of others took one of the bookstore regulars to a concert. The Right Honourable John Donnelly is a 75-year-old boilermaker from Paisley, Scotland, who moved to Kansas City in the early '60s and hangs out at Bloomsday most days of the week, orating on books, boiler repair, carpentry, politics, the clans of Scotland, Japanese prints, Texas history and, above all, the proper way to do things.
So, as you can imagine, getting him out to see a rock show was not easy, but we were determined, because 20-year-old Atlantic Records recording artist Paolo Nutini is also from Paisley, Scotland. Nancy was the chief organizer of the group; she kept us committed even after some of us heard Nutini's latest album and weren't impressed. But the whole thing was worth it. (Thanks, Nancy.) As to John Donnelly's musical tastes, I'm not sure. I know he likes the bagpipes, and once, at the bookstore, we were going around naming what song we'd choose to have played at our respective funerals, and John, without thinking twice, picked "China Grove" by the Doobie Brothers.
In short, Donnelly's way more rock and roll than you can even understand. I now turn the review (mostly) over to him.
On the Last Concert I Went To: Ravi Shankar, 25 years ago, at the Cowtown Ballroom at Gillham Plaza. "I was all dressed up in my best JC Penney suit and narrow tie, and there were these guys smoking reefer on the other side of the barrier at the back. After a while, I stood up and said, "Hey! If you're gonna smoke, go an' do it somewhere else!" Ravi Shankar didn't like people on drugs, either."
On Paisley, Scotland: It's an old industrial town. You've got the tenements, Victorian architecture... What it's most famous for is the Paisley shawl.
On the Beaumont Club, pt. 1: "I liked it better when it was a bakery." [Manor Bakery]
On the Audience: "I see a few other middle-aged Nutani [sic] fans."
On the Beaumont Club, pt. 2: "Was this place named after Beaumont, Texas?"
On Opening Act Serena Ryder: "Who is she, and why is she yelling?"
On Bonnie Prince Charlie: "He ended up being a wife-beating drunk in Rome."
On Waiting for the Headliner to Play, pt. 1: "I'm going to write a letter to the Paisley Express about all this crap going on here -- all this waiting!"
On the Lack of Appropriate Comestibles: "That's what they should've sold here tonight -- fish and chips!"
On Waiting, pt. 2: "I've forgotten what I've been waiting for!"
On the Cinema of India: "Have you ever seen The Apu Trilogy? You must see it. It was directed by Satyajit Ray. S-A-T... ."
On the Beaumont Club, pt. 3: "I wonder who owns this place. They don't spend a lot on the decor, do they?"
On Waiting, pt. 3: "I should've brought a book."
On Long-Awaited Headliner, Paolo Nutini: "That's what being raised on a diet of toast and condensed milk will do to you."
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Now that's Rock 'n' Roll. More reviews like this please - just take John with you.
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