It’s been quite a year for Michael Chapman. Just turned 70, he’s already completed two US tours, released three albums, and achieved a longstanding ambition to play The Troubadour, the legendary West Hollywood venue famed for early shows by such songwriting heavyweights as Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Joni Mitchell, The Eagles, James Taylor and Elton John.
“In 1981 I was in Los Angeles and I stood outside of The Troubadour and said to myself, ‘one night I’ll walk in here when it’s packed,’ and this year I did,” enthuses the guitarist/songwriter.
“Everyone who was anyone has played The Troubadour, and I ticked the box of a life’s ambition. It’s an iconic venue and I had a great time.
"American audiences are very appreciative in a way British audiences aren’t. They’ll applaud politely at the end of a song... but in America, they’ll applaud in the middle of a song because you’ve done a guitar line they like.”
Emerging from the seminal UK folk circuit in the late ‘60s, it was bad weather that led Chapman on the road to becoming a professional musician.
“On a rainy night in 1966 I went into a pub in Cornwall but I couldn’t afford to pay to go in. So I said, I’ll tell you what, I don’t want to stay outside in the rain, I’ll play guitar for half an hour for you.
"They offered me a job for the rest of the summer and I’ve been at it ever since,” he recalls of his debut at the Count House in Botallack.
“I play exactly the same room every July. I’ve been doing it for 45 years. I love it. That’s my gig!
"It’s four miles from Lands End and it’s the best gig in the whole world. If it wasn’t raining back then I’d not be playing now.”
Starting out, Chapman found himself appearing alongside such like-minded individuals as Roy Harper and the late John Martyn.
“We were all working the same clubs and then we all moved out of the clubs and onto the college circuit together.
“We all came out of the same club, Les Cousins in Soho. I remember Al Stewart doing all 130 verses of It’s Alright, Ma, (I’m Only Bleeding), there was John Renbourn, Mike Cooper, Wizz Jones, the list’s endless.
‘‘Ralph McTell and Al Stewart found their niche early on I think, and they’ve kind of stuck to that, but Roy was always Roy, John Martyn was always going to go further and further, Mike Cooper was getting into free jazz and I was also moving further.
‘‘If you stand still, you die. I have no idea what I’m going to do next. The only plan I have is not to make any other plans – things change.”
