The One Note Solo Neil

Now this is a pretty funny take on the criticism of Neil as a one-note soloist. But we're not a guitar expert or anything so what do we know?

Thanks Troy!

From USA Weekend:

Q: Do you think you're an underappreciated guitarist?

Neil: Man, I don't play the guitar. I hit the guitar. [Laughs.] I just go in there with a feeling and play. I saw in "Rolling Stone" something about "Cowgirl in the Sand" being one of the top 20 guitar songs, so that was cool. But I realize I'm not Eddie Van Halen; he can play rings around me.

Afterall, Neil Young is only the 3rd Most Underrated Guitarist in the world.

Broken Arrow Magazine - August 2008 (#111)

Hop Farm, England, July 6, 2008
Photo by Chris Greenwood

The latest issue of Broken Arrow Magazine, published by the Neil Young Appreciation Society just arrived and -- as always -- a nice read.

Issue #111 (August) of Broken Arrow Magazine - as usual - has some fine articles, commentary and nice photos. Great photos by Chris Greenwood at Hop Farm, England, John Atkinson in Dublin, Ireland, and Falko Riesmeier in Oberhausen are real highlights that capture the energy and spirit of the Europe Summer 2008 tour.

Also in Issue #111:

• Road reports of the Europe 2008 tour
• An interview with Nils Lofgren by Aer Stephen, NYAS #4159
• Rust Never Sleeps at Ontario Museum by Sharry Wilson, NYAS #1063
• CSN: The Biography by Dave Zimmer, NYAS #2371

And as usual, a news section edited by Guy Haslam, with lots of innarestin' items.

Check out the Neil Young Appreciation Society page for more info on how to join.

Don't be denied!

Thanks Scott and everyone who is supporting the NYAS & BA!

Thrasher - NYAS#2476


More on back issues of Broken Arrow magazine.

Neil Young To Tour Australia in 2009

Neil Young will be performing in Australia this January for the first time since 2003. He will headline the national Big Day Out festival at Flemington Racecourse on Monday, January 26, 2009 and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl two days later on January 28. Other bands rumoured to be playing the festival are the Arctic Monkeys, the Ting Tings and My Morning Jacket.

Dates are:

January 21, Brisbane, Entertainment Centre
January 24, Sydney, Entertainment Centre
January 28, Melbourne, Myer Music Bowl

Tickets go on sale September 19.

Also, see Big Day Out 2008 - Auckland, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth.

Here's a Neil Young Concert Review of the Greendale Tour in Melbourne, Australia, November 2003.

Thanks Chris M., Benjamin D., Alex Z., BigBrother, Michael M. and everyone else down under who forwarded info! Great news mates and so happy you'll be seeing this amazingly wonderful tour.



Check out the Neil Young Tribute this Friday in Brisbane.

Lonely Planet Boy Blog

During the last tour, we highlighted a Concert Review of the Moment: Hop Farm Country Park, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge, Kent, England on 7/6/08 by J Phimister. The review we thought had some of the most vivid reading that we had come across on the tour and thoroughly enjoyed his writing.

Well, J. tells us that he has a new blog and we're passing along the link for Thoughts, ramblings and reviews of a Lonely Planet Boy. The blog is "mainly a space for music and films: my thoughts, impressions and reviews. But, who knows? Maybe there will be room for a little political rambling, and a few glimpses into my private world. Nothing too creepy, though, I promise"

Check it out. Thanks J. and Keep on bloggin' in the free world!

He Came Dancing Across The Water: Europe Summer Tour Wrap Up

Coburg, Germany, 08/23/08 - Photo by Coburger Tageblatt

The Neil Young's Europe summer tour wrapped up last night in Denmark.

Lots of highlights from the tour. Not the least of which was the debut of three new songs:
- "When Worlds Collide" in Coburg, Germany, 08/23/08

- "Sea Change" from Way Out West Festival, Göteborg, Sweden, 6/9/08

- "Just Singing A Song Won't Change The World" on August 7, in Helsinki, Finland
(lyrics and YouTube videos at links above)

A quick run through of the song grid on Rust Radio shows that Neil played 35 different songs over the 24 date tour. Among the highlights was the cover of The Beatles "A Day In The Life" which was played as the final encore song.

Here are songs that were played only once on tour (or twice):
When You Dance, I Can Really Love
Time Fades Away
For The Turnstiles
Winterlong (twice)
Down By The River (twice)
Wrecking Ball

So a real range of songs with rarities, one-offs, covers, and new songs.

Thanks Roel for the statistics!



The Concert Review of the Moment of Neil Young at Hop Farm Country Park, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge, Kent, England: 7/6/08 is by J Phimister:

To put it succinctly: Neil. Young. Fucking. Rocks. I am beginning to think there is no-one quite like him out there. I'm pretty sure they must have been able to hear this set in Calais! He kicked off with a beyond-grungy version of "Love and only love" and never looked back. Old Black, his trusty Gibson Les Paul screamed, roared, squealed, moaned and howled over nearly ten minutes as the old fucker stamped around the stage, his face screwed up in an expression of sheer, what? Anger, hurt, delight? It's hard to tell with old craggly-face, and it doesn't matter. What matters is that no one, not Elton, Macca, Dylan or Prince, plays with such fire and rage in their bellies as Young. And this was just the first song!

Rock In Rio Madrid, Spain, 6/27/08 - Photo by Antonio


Coburg, Germany, 08/23/08 - Photo by Henning Rosenbusch


Neil Young: "A Day in the Life" at Rock in Rio Ciudad del Arganda Rey Madrid, Spain, 6/27/08.





"Time Fades Away" at Konig Pilsner Arena, Oberhausen, Germany on 7/9/08. This is the first performance in 35 years!


Roskilde Festival, 7/5/08
Photo by Martin Rosenaur

A Concert Review of the Moment of Neil Young in Lyon, France, 6/25/05 by Benji:

Then on No Hidden Path came that amazing fall when he tripped right stage over a floor monitor and Old Black's lead got stuck on the top of the old harmonium, with Neil on his back. It really looked as though that hurt and Neil held the guitar aloft, horizontal, banging away still, well and truly entangled. He finally managed to rise up, everything still connected, and him to the music. He then seized the guilty monitor and threw it a few inches back and addressed a unfriendly hand gestures to the techs right stage. He then majestically treated us to another 10 minutes of his epic track, clocking in at 28 min (i think). It seemed as though he might have hurt right-hand finger(s) as he looked at them a few times. But Neil can't be stopped, not by age, techtrouble or pain.

The encore was truly mind blowing. That was A Day in the Life takes a walk on the wild dark psychedelic side and it floored everyone in the hall. Neil clearly looked hurt - Larry had to help him saddle up Old Black. When he finally broke its' strings, it was a titan breaking free from the chains of fate! moving stuff, almost painful to watch!

On the whole, great gig, even if, this time, I felt as though Neil was hanging on to the Bronco rather than levitating above it in amazing grace as he had done on Valentine's in Paris. Fighting the muse rather than cavorting in the Elysean Fields with her. So that is epic solos where melody out of chaos where they had been elegant crystal sculpture magically emerging from some galactic elemental soup.

Verona, Italy, 6/23/08 - Photo by Alessandro Corio


Xabre in Lisbon, Portugal, 7/12/08 - Photos by HarryO

The Concert Review of the Moment on Neil Young at Hop Farm Country Park, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge, Kent, England Concert: 7/6/08 by jamesayliffe:

Neil went for the heart’s main aorta from the first song, and I gave myself up to him completely for the next two hours. Any of us could have written a set list with or without any of the songs he played, but I thought the pacing and the choice was nigh immaculate. Once he had played He Hey My My, one of my top ten revolving Neil Young favourites of all time – Rust Never Sleeps was possibly my most played album of 1980 – he could play whatever he liked, and I’ve have been just as happy. As it happened, every song, familiar and unfamiliar, compounded into a blaze of supreme magnificence. I was glad there were such big gaps in my knowledge of his material, because I love hearing music for the first time, and I certainly did that. If there’s anything I love it’s a good trancey guitar wig-out, and he left me drooling with rapture, punching the air and wailing as he did things to his instrument that can’t have been legal, and went beyond rock music in to pure sonics. Prehistoric feedback dragged from the pit of creation ended the night, Neil’s guitar a naked soul exposed, as it lay against the drum-riser, burnt out but still sputtering in the memory of music; utterly ravished…

Oberhausen - 7/11/08
Photo gallery by Roel on Rust Radio


Hop Farm Country Park, England, 7/6/08 - Photo by Contact Music

Also, see all reviews, photos and videos of Neil Young 2008 Europe Summer Concert Tour. And Highlights of Summer 2008 Europe Tour - Leg #1.

Thanks everyone for the reviews, photos, videos, and links. Thrasher's Wheat appreciates everybody's support!

“Comes A Time” Neil Young Tribute in Vermont This Sunday

As we mentioned earlier, a tribute to Neil Young called “Comes A Time” will be held in Burlington, Vermont on Sunday, August 31.

Here are the details.

It all started here on Vermont soil the day Neil Young crossed the Canadian border and played his first concert in the United States. Forty years later, Burlington internet radio station WBKM.org is proud to bring the music of Neil Young back home!

Nine confirmed bands each bringing a distinctively unique approach and flavor to some of Neil’s tunes will play at a free family event. It's entitled “Comes A Time”, held in Burlington’s Battery Park on Sunday August 31, 2008 between 5 and 8 PM, to honor a musician who’s impacted our lives artistically, socially and environmentally.&nbs p; We ask you to join the WBKM family and help get the word out on this great First Annual free event. The Lake Monsters mascot "Champ" will be there, we'll have face painting and the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf will be there to collect your non-perishable food items.

For further information, please contact WBKM and speak to either Eric Koval or Tony Gallucci at 802-399-2871 (studio) or 802-318-1924 (cell). Thank you!

Thanks Tony! We'll be looking forward to a full report. Good luck & have fun!!!

Horsens, Denmark Concert Reports

Neil Young will be performing tonight at Forum Horsens, Horsens, Denmark.

Got a report? Drop a comment below. No registration required.

Check Sugar Mountain for setlist updates. Also, see Grid Chart on Rust Radio.

Also, see Neil Young 2008 Summer Europe Tour and Concert Reviews and the right, middle sidebar for continuous real time RSS feed updates.

Radiohead Covers "Tell Me Why"

Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood covered Neil Young's 'Tell Me Why' during their concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles this week on August 25th.

The pair had reportedly tried to play the song in Washington the previous week, but Yorke forgot the words.

Thanks Liam & sweetpete!

Here's what Radiohead's Thom Yorke said about Neil Young in June 2006:

"I saw Neil Young live a few years ago (for €105) playing a solo acoustic gig and it was amazing, he justed rolled along swallowing up drunk clapping hecklers and ignoring Bono who sat over there and tapping his feet and bobbing his neck and explaining the songs and Greendale and Grandpa and then he played this song [After The Goldrush] but he changed the lyrics to 'Look at Mother Nature on the run/ in the twenty-first century' and still wow.'"

And here's a Clash of the Cover Songs: Neil Young vs. Thom Yorke performing "After the Gold Rush" on Spinner.com.