Review: Fairport Convention At The Cheese & Grain, Frome February 16th 2018.

I caught the 6.40 train from Westbury yesterday evening and nine minutes later arrived in the quaint little market town of Frome. I was early as usual, so I went in the George Hotel for a drink. It’s a nice place but they charged £4.55 for a pint of Thatcher’s cider so I won’t be returning there for a while. Then I repaired to the Cheese & Grain which must be one of the best music venues in the West Country. We are very lucky to have it on our doorstep and I’ve seen some great acts here over the years, long may it continue. As soon as the doors opened I bagged myself a seat right on the front row by leaving my jacket on the chair. Then went to the bar and got myself a large sauvignon blanc. On the merchandise stall I spotted Fairport’s legendary bass player Dave ‘Peggy’ Pegg. I bought the new album which Dave signed for me. He also agreed to me having my photo taken with him. What a great man he is. 

I’m playing the album now. It is called 50:50@50. That’s because it is a mix of new material and live tracks and celebrates Fairport’s 50^th anniversary as a band. I find it hard to believe that it is nearly 50 years since I bought my first Fairport album which was What We Did On Our Holidays. I was still at school at the time. Reading the sleeve notes to the album makes you realise what a great contribution Ric Sanders & Chris Leslie make to the band because they have written most of the new material. There are guest appearances by Robert Plant and Jacqui McShee on the album. It is a great album which I highly recommend.

Then it was time for the guest act who are called Winter Wilson. They are a male/female duo and I liked their short but enjoyable set. I particularly enjoyed a song about Jack London called I’d Rather Be Ashes Than Dust. Another great song was a blues number inspired by the lady singer’s admiration for Bonnie Raitt. At the end of their set they were joined by Fairport for a song called There’s Life In The Old Dog Yet.

Winter Wilson left the stage and Fairport began their set with the very powerful and political Jewel In The Crown written by Julie Matthews. In these days of Brexit & Trump we need more songs like this. I should mention that the line-up of the band hasn’t changed for many years now. It is still Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Gerry Conway, Ric Sanders & Chris Leslie. Simon told the audience that the band were now on their fourth bus of this tour because the buses kept breaking down. That led into a very jolly Chris Leslie song called The Bus Rolls On which is all about the members of the band and recalls other songs in their history such as Walk Awhile and Meet On The Ledge. Simon then introduced the classic Crazy Man Michael from their Liege & Lief album which is the greatest folk/rock album of all time. Chris played some haunting whistle on this song. Shuffle & Go is a wonderful rocky dance number with Chris again excelling on vocals and harmonica. Ric Sanders then proved that he is a comedian as well as musician by telling some great jokes. This led to his composition Portmeirion which is a beautiful instrumental. This was followed by Hawkwood’s Army from their Sense Of Occasion album of 2007. The first half of the show ended with the sad story of John Condon who came from Waterford and was the youngest soldier to die in the Battle Of Ypres. This song is on their excellent Myths & Heroes album which I bought three years ago when I last saw Fairport at this venue.

During the interval I got myself another large wine and then the second half began with the rousing John Gaudie and this was followed by Doctor Of Physick written by Richard Thompson and the late great Dave Swarbrick. It was originally on the Full House album of 1970 which I think was when Peggy joined the band. I remember at the time really missing Sandy Denny who had just left to form Fotheringay. A fabulous song written by the great Ralph McTell was next which was Clear Water in which Chris played some great whistle. The lively little number called Gallivant was next up after more jokes by Ric. The Wood And The Wire is a great song written by Chris and Thea Gilmore’s husband Nigel Stonier. Another equally fabulous song followed which was Weightless written by James Wood. Summer By The Cherwell is another jolly song which celebrates their famous annual festival at Cropredy. Sandy Denny was only in the band for a very short period, but her contribution was epic and Simon Nicol sang a great version of her classic Who Knows Where The Time Goes? Another great Chris Leslie song about an ill-fated expedition of 1850 to find the Northwest Passage called Mercy Bay was followed by the great Matty Groves. The band left the stage, but we knew they would return. They were joined once again by Winter Wilson for a rousing rendition of Meet On The Ledge.

After the show my friends Dave and Sarah kindly gave me a lift back to Westbury and I had time for a quick pint of cider in the Ludlow Arms. Thank you very much Fairport Convention for a great evening in Frome. If you get the chance to see them on the remainder of this tour then I urge you to go along, you won’t be disappointed. Also, buy the new album, it is great.

                          

We Are Ever So Clean by Blossom Toes.

My new CD arrived in the post. It is called We Are Ever So Clean by Blossom Toes. That cheered me up because I had been looking forward to hearing this. I had ordered it because I had read that it is a lost classic of British psychedelia. It was released originally in 1967 at the height of flower power and wasn’t popular with the music press or the public and was quickly forgotten. As the decades went by however it began to acquire a cult following among music fans. Copies of the original vinyl album became worth £700. It was re-released on Sunbeam Records in 2007 to celebrate its 40^th anniversary. The CD has ten bonus tracks and a very informative booklet to go with it. I had heard of one band member previously called Jim Cregan because he later joined Family & Cockney Rebel and worked and wrote with Rod Stewart for many years.

As soon as I heard the first track Look At Me I’m You it immediately reminded me of The Beatles Sgt Pepper album. Apparently though, according to the notes all the music here was written before Sgt Pepper was released. I’ll Be Late For Tea recalled to me such songs as Hole In My Shoe by Traffic. Other times I thought of Smiley Smile by The Beach Boys or Satanic Majesties by The Stones. 1967 was a very strange year. Remarkable Saga Of The Frozen Dog is a very funny song complete with a dog barking in the background. There is a lot of humour on this album which is very refreshing compared to the dour stuff that is served up as music these days. Another band that springs to mind from that era is The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Love Is  is a very nice love song  with cello and almost an orchestra in the studio. I think it was all recorded live in the studio with no over dubs. What’s It For has some great drumming and strange lyrics such as, ‘The mere existence of a door is something to be grateful for’.

People Of The Royal Parks conjures up the era of swinging London and has some crazy stoned laughter at the end of it. What On Earth is another cleverly produced song. It was Georgio Gomelsky who produced the album. He also worked closely with The Stones and The Yardbirds in the 60’s. He was Blossom Toes Svengali. Mrs Murphy’s Budgerigar  is all about a budgie flying off and it wasn’t as if Mrs Murphy didn’t feed it. I Will Bring You This And That and Mister Watchmaker are both good songs but I really like the next track When The Alarm Clock Rings. It has a nice jangly guitar intro which reminds me a bit of The Byrds from that era and the message of the song is reminiscent to me of The Monkees Pleasant Valley Sunday. The Intrepid Balloonists Handbook Volume 1 reminds me of fairground steam organs and Edwardian music halls. You has more bizarre vocals and is addressed to someone called Felicity. Track For Speedy Freaks is just that, with the singer complaining that nobody talks to him. There is a lot of chattering going on till someone finally shouts STOP !. That is the end of the original album but then there are ten bonus tracks of live versions, outtakes & demos, their version of Dylan’s I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight  & also a radio interview with Jim Cregan by what sounds like a very bemused Brian Matthew. 

I have really enjoyed listening to this historic album and I'm pleased it is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Tomorrow night I am going to see one of the most influential bands in British music history. I’ll tell you all about that on Saturday.

Talking About Yeats

I was pleased to get this book in the post yesterday, but when I opened it I was even more pleased to find that I got a lot more than I bargained for. The book is called W.B. Yeats And His World and is signed by the author Michael Mac Liammoir.  I stumbled across it on eBay a few days ago when I was looking for something else. It was in the auction which only had a few hours to go and nobody had bid on it. I put a bid in and won it for £2.90. I was chuffed because it is a first edition from 1971 and in very good condition. The seller sent me a nice message to say that there were some extras included. I’ll just tell you quickly about Michael Mac Liammoir because although the name rang a bell I couldn’t think who was, so I looked him up on Wikipedia. It turns out that he was one of the leading Irish actors of his day. He was born in England in 1900 and was a child actor and appeared in Peter Pan and productions with Noel Coward. 

Fascinated by Irish culture he changed his name to the Gaelic version of his English name. He moved to Ireland where he was also a painter, writer, dramatist, poet and impresario.  With his partner Hilton Edwards he founded the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 1928. He worked in films with the likes of Orson Welles and John Huston. He won a top award for his one man show called The Importance Of Being Oscar which was also screened by the BBC. He died in 1978.

What I found inside the book which was really interesting to me was a programme of his one man show Talking About Yeats at The Duke Of York’s Theatre in London in 1971 which was also signed. There were even two tickets for the show on October 21, 1971. Also, newspaper cuttings from the Irish Times about Michael Mac Liammoir with little notes written in the margins. I’m sure whoever the original owner of the book was, they must have been a close friend or huge fan of the great man.

I’m enjoying reading this book on a dark and gloomy rainy February afternoon because the author himself knew Yeats and was part of the literary movement of which Yeats was a central figure. Also finding all the personal memorabilia inside makes me feel in a small way that I know the author myself.

Review: Majestic Halls By Graham Robins.

What a great start to the week. Monday morning arrived bright and sunny and the new album by Graham Robins called Majestic Halls popped through my letter box. I was pleased because it has been a long wait since Parish Papers & Other Stories was released in 2015. I must say it has been worth the wait because Majestic Halls is another fine effort by Graham.

The CD is very attractively designed with photos of Graham wandering around with his dog among the ruins of some ancient majestic hall. It’s the contents that are most important though. Graham’s harmonica introduces the first track Hall Of Faith which is a very spiritual song awash with biblical references. I think Graham’s confidence as a lyricist has grown over the last few years. I first discovered his music with the Shipping News album and although that work contained some great music I thought the lyrics were maybe a little too influenced by Van Morrison, but that is definitely not the case here. As well as Graham’s great voice, the backing vocals by Sallyanne Scarbrow deserve a mention on this opening track.

Three Foot Spoon is a fun track which seems to be set in a greasy spoon café that has a juke box. Perfect to listen to with a cup of Rosie-Lee. The sax arrangements by Paul Devonshire are wonderful on this album, as you can hear on this great slice of R & B. By contrast The Learning Game is a very powerful spiritual song with fine harmonica playing and impassioned vocals by Graham. On first listen this was my favourite song on the album. Northern Ireland fans will love the next track called Nights In Coleraine.  All the musicians who worked on this project do a great job, none more so than Ellie Hill on violin. I’m not sure who plays the drums on each track but the drums are mixed very much to the fore. I like the sentiment of Family Ain’t Always Blood which is a message about the value of true friendship and Paul Devonshire again plays wonderful saxophone. Indianola, Mississippi is the home town of B.B King we are told in the next track. This very bluesy song is a homage to B.B and as you would expect it calls for some expert guitar playing which is provided by Chris Newman.

One More Margarita is a very atmospheric country flavoured taste of Americana. You can’t pin down Graham to any particular genre. On this album you will find elements of Soul, Blues, Jazz, Celtic, Country & rock & roll. This gives a great variety to the album. It never gets ‘samey’. The Great Awakening is an eight-minute tour-de-force with Graham’s soulful vocals accompanied by a jazzy horn arrangement in the background. Pure Soul is just what it says on the tin, pure soul with Rufus Thomas, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding being channeled down. It is ‘Soul-connected’ as Graham might say. This song demands saxophones and they are amply provided. The eponymous Majestic Halls brings the album to a majestic conclusion. You can hear this track below if you scroll down.

I have really enjoyed hearing this album today which a great addition to Graham Robins fine body of work. If you would like to find out how to buy the album for yourself then visit Graham’s website. http://www.grahamrobins.com/

Majestic Halls By Graham Robins