Raymond Froggatt and his Band – Shanklin Theatre May 17 2014.

An evening to remember! 

My relationship with Froggie goes way back – though he’s blissfully unaware of this – to the mid 1970’s when I was invited to stay with a schoolfriend for the weekend. Her sister Jeannie, who did indeed have light brown hair, played the Frog’s first two albums over and over all weekend, and I was hooked.

I still have the cassette tape Jeannie illicitly made for me (I did invest in the originals later!) of ‘The Voice and Writings’ and ‘Bleach’, complete with the sound of a door slamming just after the first verse of ‘I’m Sure’, and I have loved his music ever since. 

Although Raymond himself would no doubt reject this comparison, I love his work for the same reason I love Bob Dylan – the beauty and poetry of the lyrics and the often deceptively simple melodies that carry the words straight into your heart. Whether you are singing along to ‘Froggie Went A’Courting’, crying at ‘Teach Me’ or ‘The Old Accordion’ (which I can’t hear or sing without tears to this day) or finding parallels in your own life with ‘The Invisible Chain’, the songs touch some chord in your heart.

As a youngster in Norfolk I would go to venues like Snape Maltings to see him, and have been lucky enough to enjoy his live performances many times, so when I discovered he was coming to the theatre down the road from my house I naturally immediately snapped up front row seats.

Froggie is in his 70s now, and you know how singers can, as they get older, start to lose their voice and their charisma? I’ve seen it with several of my old favourites from 40 odd years ago.

But not Froggie! Nor his band – and in particular Hartley Cain, who has played guitar by his side so long they are an integral part of each others’ music. Froggie without H Cain would be like – well, May without Mercury. 

Raymond may be a bit slower on his feet than he was all those years ago but his voice is as rich as it ever was, and his humour as sharp and self-deprecating.

Many of my old favourites – and newer favourites – got a look in, from ‘Somewhere Under the Sun’ to ‘Roly’. Yes, I know others have recorded Froggatt songs, but no one sings them like he does – and with all respect to singers like Cliff Richard, I still prefer the author’s versions of ‘The Singer’ and ‘Red Balloon’ – and thanks Froggie for finally explaining the meaning of that song!

A slightly more political note was sounded with the self explanatory ‘Nobody Believes It Any More’- so true. 

But the central message of most of his music has always been the love that binds us all together in our lives, and I could only agree with him when he said that it is evenings like this that we will remember in our lives, thanked the audience in his typically humble way for enjoying his music and told us that ‘an old Brummie’ loved us for that. Well, the audience clearly loved this old Brummie too!

As he has for almost the last half century, Froggie made us laugh, made us cry, touched our hearts and thoroughly entertained. He sent me out of the theatre with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

Thanks Froggie!