To promote the Prison , Nezs ground breaking book with soundtrack, he embarked on a very short promotional tour in England and Ireland in November 1975. This tour came about after his one-off concert at London’s Victoria Place on March 6, 1975, sold out. When a date became available at the Theatre Royal, in London’s Drury Lane, became available in late November, promoter John Curd offered it to Michael and asked Paul Fenn at the Asgard Agency if he’d like to set up a university and college tour to go alongside.
It included several Universities , an interview for BBC radio and ended with the Drury Lane concert .
Nov 21. Trent Polytechinc Nottingham
Nov 22. Essex University, Colchester.
Nov 23. Queen’s University, Belfast
Nov. 27. Paris Theatre and BBC Radio ( interview and recording ) London.
Nov.28. Brighton University.
Nov 29. Sheffield University.
Nov 30. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
Nez on his 1975 UK tour. Trent Polytechnic , Nottingham, UK. 21st November 1975.
27th Paris theatre. While here ,he did an interview for BBC radio on the 27th. Just Nez and his twelve string. The playlist is ;
Silver Moon
Some Of Shelly’s Blues
Joanne
Intro and Dance between the Raindrops
Opening Theme (Life The Unsuspecting Captive)
Marie’s Theme
Closing Theme (Lampost)
A recording was made of this performance and later released by 7a Records. It comes with a 12 page booklet that includes a rare 1975 interview with Nez, as well as an interview with Dave Pegg from the Fairport Convention, who played with Nez at the Drury Lane show. This particular performance had been kicking around as a bootleg for some time but this is taken straight from the master tapes. Iain Lee describes it perfectly in the accompanying booklet.
” It is sparse and beautiful. Hypnotic and engaging. The vocals are sublime and the guitar playing is divine. The songs could have been recorded yesterday.”
On November 30th 1975 Nez and Red did a concert at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. with a one-off band, The musicians playing with Nez were Dave Mattacks , bass player Dave Pegg and guitarist Steve Leach, an American friend of Nez’s who was in the UK at the time. Over on stage right was Red Rhodes’ pedal steel guitar, all £68,000 of it. ( according to Nez At rehearsals )
” While Nez and band are being loose and reacting to each other, Katherine, the – then – Mrs Nesmith (they divorced in 1988 ) is running around and generally making sure things are going smoothly. She’s a lot more precise than hubby and perhaps served as the interpreter of Michael’s more esoteric deliberations.
“I’ve been making sure the lighting looks good and that there are no flaws before the concert so that it goes smoothly. I leave the music-making to the musicians!”
The PA and road crew were supplied by the band Man. Says Katherine: “They’re working with the people we hired to do the recording and making sure their equipment is compatible with ours. Everything seems to be going very smoothly.” ( Ian Ravendale for ‘’ The Beat’’ )
After an hour of the band, and an interval, Nez returned on his own and played a few songs from his last-but-one RCA album, the wryly named And The Hits Just Keep On Comin’, alongside most of The Prison.
Focus on Nez 