Way to Blue: the songs of Nick Drake
8pm, Friday 11th November 2010

By Wayne Richmond
Posted Sunday, August 14, 2011

Sydney Opera House (Concert Hall)

Tickets from $59
Bookings: Sydney Opera House (02) 9250 7777

This is an unprecedented Australian concert experience honouring one of the 20th century's most influential singer-songwriters and true geniuses of English music, Nick Drake.

Featuring: Danny Thompson, Vashti Bunyan, Green Gartside, Lisa Hannigan, Scott Matthews, Krystle Warren, Robyn Hitchcock, Shane Nicholson and Luluc.

“Astonishing…spellbinding…rousing…grippingly raw.” The Guardian

Though Drake failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, and had a strong aversion to performing, 36 years on from his untimely death at just 26, the enduring potency of his music ensures generations of new fans and widespread critical acclaim. Having influenced countless contemporary artists from The Cure’s Robert Smith to Lucinda Williams, REM, Blur, Beck, Coldplay and more, his fragile acoustic songs capture time, beauty, loss, and wistful desires with precision so subtle that they evoke a startling enchantment in those who hear them for the first time.

Curated by Nick Drake’s producer Joe Boyd, this special event features the orchestrations as originally arranged by friend Robert Kirby who worked on the first two of the three albums Drake released during his lifetime (Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, Pink Moon), along with legendary bassist Danny Thompson who played on many of Drake’s recordings, anchoring the house band.

Featuring an extra-ordinary line up of local artists and seminal British musicians: including Vashti Bunyan, Green Gartside, Lisa Hannigan, Scott Matthews, Krystle Warren, Robyn Hitchcock and more, through modern reinterpretations of Drake’s timeless songs Way To Blue will be a night of beautiful discovery not to be missed by any adoring fan or the newly converted alike.