Kenny Rogers pleaded with Lucille not to leave him and begged Ruby not to take her love to town when he performed at Dundee’s Caird Hall on April 6 2009.
Some of his fans begged security not to throw them out when they got up to dance!
Little wonder they were hopping and bopping in the aisles as The Gambler proved he was the King of Country with still quite a few aces left in his pack.
Oddly, the man who was born in Houston in 1938, and was a member of the Country Music Hall Of Fame thanks to multi-million-selling hits such as Lucille, Coward Of The County and Lady didn’t start out as a country singer.
He had a minor hit as a teen rocker in 1957 before joining a jazz group and finally finding fame with psychedelic rock outfit The First Edition whose best-known hit Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) was included in the soundtrack to hit movie The Big Lebowski.
Their biggest hit, Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town, was written from the point of view of a paralysed Vietnam veteran.
It was only after Rogers went solo in 1976 that he adopted a more middle-of-the-road sound that led to him becoming one of the biggest-selling artists of all time.
His knack for finding a popular song – he was modest about his own writing skills and preferred to pick songs from other writers – was unerring, bringing him huge hits with Don Schlitz’s The Gambler, Lionel Richie’s Lady and, with Dolly Parton, the Bee Gees’ Islands In The Stream.
Country legends at Caird Hall
Rogers announced he would perform in Dundee for the first time during a 10-city UK trek as part of his 50th anniversary tour.
The Courier reported: “The concert, on Monday, April 6, is set to be a sell-out following the recent Scottish concerts by fellow country music legend Willie Nelson in which all seats were taken.
“This is a major show for the Caird Hall as Rogers will only play two Scottish venues, one being Dundee.
“Although a country singer, Rogers has had chart hits with classics such as Through the Years, She Believes in Me, You Decorate My Life and Lady.
“Tickets for the concert will be on sale today at 9am from Dundee City Box Office, and may go quickly.”
They did.
Nostalgia tours are big business and the snowy-haired 70-year-old rolled back the years and left his indelible mark on the Caird Hall with a packed set of greatest hits.
The crowd sang along and cheered him on loudly.
The Courier said he had the Caird Hall crowd in raptures “from the first minute he walked slowly on stage to a loud welcome, engaging them with his easy, gentle ribbing”.
The review stated: “He might be 70 and maybe doesn’t move quite so smoothly as in the past, but Kenny Rogers showed last night he can still get an audience on its feet, clapping and singing along to his massive country hits.
“The mainly 50-plus, 2,000-strong audience, which included a fair smattering of 20-somethings, got in the swing of things from the start even though he opened the set with two of his latest songs.
“Veering easily between middle of the road, easy listening and out and out country, the first real roar of the night came with the opening bars of his huge 70s hit Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town.
“Peter down the front was picked out and Kenny threw him a tenner for correctly naming one of his big hits, returning several times to repeat the banter and rewarding him with a T-shirt thrown from the stage.
“There can’t be many superstars who would get away with showing their family photographs as a backdrop but the 70-year-old icon was always on a winner by revealing pictures of his four-year-old twins Justin and Jordon from birth to the toddler stage, along with his wife Wanda.
“Dedicating the song To Me to the twins, he said their arrival was ‘the single greatest gift’ he’d ever received.
“More roars followed that for Coward Of The County and Daytime Friends And Night Time Lovers before he included the audience in a full-on singalong version of Hey, Bo Diddley, which he said came to him in a dream one night when he was playing on stage in Dundee, Scotland.”
Dundee standing ovation
More singalong hits followed with the Bob Seger-penned We’ve Got Tonight, Lionel Ritchie’s Lady, which he wrote and produced for Rogers, before his trademark stomper The Gambler.
Lucille was next, which had the crowd swaying, before he ended the night with a souped-up version of Islands In The Stream, sadly without Dolly Parton, but he made up for that by including the crowd again, throwing half a dozen tambourines into the front rows.
The Courier concluded: “It was magic stuff from a real professional, a genuine country giant who stays just the right side of schmaltzy showbiz, his voice still warm and as comforting as a cosy cup of cocoa by the fireside.
“He fully earned his Dundee standing ovation.”
The Evening Telegraph letters page was full of complimentary messages after the performance from one of the biggest acts to have ever played the Caird Hall.
Jimmy Borland wrote: “I praise the entertainment branch of the Dundee City Council for securing Kenny Rogers and his band for the Caird Hall.
“They were outstanding.
“Kenny sang all his hit songs and introduced his family on video while he sang.
“He was brilliant and has lost none of his stage presence.”
Who were the party poopers though?
“My friends and family would have enjoyed the fabulous Kenny Rogers concert at the Caird Hall in Dundee much more had it not been for the party poopers behind us calling security to ask us to sit down.
“We all paid £35 each for a ticket so surely we should have been allowed to dance?”
The letter was signed by the pseudonym of “Ruby You Better Sit Down”.
Did they?
The Gambler’s Last Deal
After a hugely well-received performance in the Sunday Legends slot at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival, the Texan icon announced his farewell tour – The Gambler’s Last Deal – in 2015, saying he wanted to spend more time with his fifth wife Wanda and their twin teen sons.
He said: “I turned 79 recently, and you can’t keep going forever, even if you want to.
“I still have some fun to catch up on, so I guessed if I wanted time out, the only way is to go out gracefully.
“I felt I owed it to the people who’d like to come out to see me one more time.
“I’ve been on the road since the late ’50s, with little time away from touring. I’ve accomplished what I wanted to do and much more.”
Rogers’ prolonged goodbye ended abruptly under doctor’s orders after “health challenges” caused the final dates of his retirement tour to be cancelled in 2018.
Rogers died on March 20 2020 at the age of 81.
Altogether, he recorded 65 albums and sold more than 165 million records.
During his last interview before his death, Rogers said: “There’s no question, I will miss the crowds and the people who have always been so sweet to me.
“I’ll also miss the friendships I’ve made.
“But my life, you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
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