Podcasts about Fairport Convention

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-one-minute bonus episode available, on Judy Collins’ version of this song. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by editing, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Erratum For about an hour this was uploaded with the wrong Elton John clip in place of “Saturday Sun”. This has now been fixed. Resources Because of the increasing problems with Mixcloud’s restrictions, I have decided to start sharing streaming playlists of the songs used in episodes instead of Mixcloud ones. This Tunemymusic link will let you listen to the playlist I created on your streaming platform of choice — however please note that not all the songs excerpted are currently available on streaming. The songs missing from the Tidal version are “Shanten Bells” by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” by A.L. Lloyd, two by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, three by Elton John & Linda Peters, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow” by Sandy Denny and “You Never Know” by Charlie Drake, but the other fifty-nine are there. Other songs may be missing from other services. The main books I used on Fairport Convention as a whole were Patrick Humphries' Meet On The Ledge, Clinton Heylin's What We Did Instead of Holidays, and Kevan Furbank's Fairport Convention on Track. Rob Young's Electric Eden is the most important book on the British folk-rock movement. Information on Richard Thompson comes from Patrick Humphries' Richard Thompson: Strange Affair and Thompson's own autobiography Beeswing.  Information on Sandy Denny comes from Clinton Heylin's No More Sad Refrains and Mick Houghton's I've Always Kept a Unicorn. I also used Joe Boyd's autobiography White Bicycles and Chris Blackwell's The Islander.  And this three-CD set is the best introduction to Fairport's music currently in print. Transcript Before we begin, this episode contains reference to alcohol and cocaine abuse and medical neglect leading to death. It also starts with some discussion of the fatal car accident that ended last episode. There’s also some mention of child neglect and spousal violence. If that’s likely to upset you, you might want to skip this episode or read the transcript. One of the inspirations for this podcast when I started it back in 2018 was a project by Richard Thompson, which appears (like many things in Thompson’s life) to have started out of sheer bloody-mindedness. In 1999 Playboy magazine asked various people to list their “songs of the Millennium”, and most of them, understanding the brief, chose a handful of songs from the latter half of the twentieth century. But Thompson determined that he was going to list his favourite songs *of the millennium*. He didn’t quite manage that, but he did cover seven hundred and forty years, and when Playboy chose not to publish it, he decided to turn it into a touring show, in which he covered all his favourite songs from “Sumer Is Icumen In” from 1260: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Sumer is Icumen In”] Through numerous traditional folk songs, union songs like “Blackleg Miner”, pieces by early-modern composers, Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs, and songs by the Beatles, the Ink Spots, the Kinks, and the Who, all the way to “Oops! I Did It Again”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Oops! I Did it Again”] And to finish the show, and to show how all this music actually ties together, he would play what he described as a “medieval tune from Brittany”, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”] We have said many times in this podcast that there is no first anything, but there’s a reason that Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention’s third album of 1969, and the album other than Unhalfbricking on which their reputation largely rests, was advertised with the slogan “The first (literally) British folk rock album ever”. Folk-rock, as the term had come to be known, and as it is still usually used today, had very little to do with traditional folk music. Rather, the records of bands like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel were essentially taking the sounds of British beat groups of the early sixties, particularly the Searchers, and applying those sounds to material by contemporary singer-songwriters. People like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan had come up through folk clubs, and their songs were called folk music because of that, but they weren’t what folk music had meant up to that point — songs that had been collected after being handed down through the folk process, changed by each individual singer, with no single identifiable author. They were authored songs by very idiosyncratic writers. But over their last few albums, Fairport Convention had done one or two tracks per album that weren’t like that, that were instead recordings of traditional folk songs, but arranged with rock instrumentation. They were not necessarily the first band to try traditional folk music with electric instruments — around the same time that Fairport started experimenting with the idea, so did an Irish band named Sweeney’s Men, who brought in a young electric guitarist named Henry McCullough briefly. But they do seem to have been the first to have fully embraced the idea. They had done so to an extent with “A Sailor’s Life” on Unhalfbricking, but now they were going to go much further: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves” (from about 4:30)] There had been some doubt as to whether Fairport Convention would even continue to exist — by the time Unhalfbricking, their second album of the year, was released, they had been through the terrible car accident that had killed Martin Lamble, the band’s drummer, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Most of the rest of the band had been seriously injured, and they had made a conscious decision not to discuss the future of the band until they were all out of hospital. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised the longest, and Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny, the other three surviving members of the band, flew over to LA with their producer and manager, Joe Boyd, to recuperate there and get to know the American music scene. When they came back, the group all met up in the flat belonging to Denny’s boyfriend Trevor Lucas, and decided that they were going to continue the band. They made a few decisions then — they needed a new drummer, and as well as a drummer they wanted to get in Dave Swarbrick. Swarbrick had played violin on several tracks on Unhalfbricking as a session player, and they had all been thrilled to work with him. Swarbrick was one of the most experienced musicians on the British folk circuit. He had started out in the fifties playing guitar with Beryl Marriott’s Ceilidh Band before switching to fiddle, and in 1963, long before Fairport had formed, he had already appeared on TV with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, led by Ian Campbell, the father of Ali and Robin Campbell, later of UB40: [Excerpt: The Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Shanten Bells (medley on Hullaballoo!)”] He’d sung with Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd: [Excerpt: A.L. Lloyd, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” ] And he’d formed his hugely successful duo with Martin Carthy, releasing records like “Byker Hill” which are often considered among the best British folk music of all time: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, “Byker Hill”] By the time Fairport had invited him to play on Unhalfbricking, Swarbrick had already performed on twenty albums as a core band member, plus dozens more EPs, singles, and odd tracks on compilations. They had no reason to think they could actually get him to join their band. But they had three advantages. The first was that Swarbrick was sick of the traditional folk scene at the time, saying later “I didn’t like seven-eighths of the people involved in it, and it was extremely opportune to leave. I was suddenly presented with the possibilities of exploring the dramatic content of the songs to the full.” The second was that he was hugely excited to be playing with Richard Thompson, who was one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation, and Martin Carthy remembers him raving about Thompson after their initial sessions. (Carthy himself was and is no slouch on the guitar of course, and there was even talk of getting him to join the band at this point, though they decided against it — much to the relief of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol, who is a perfectly fine player himself but didn’t want to be outclassed by *two* of the best guitarists in Britain at the same time). And the third was that Joe Boyd told him that Fairport were doing so well — they had a single just about to hit the charts with “Si Tu Dois Partir” — that he would only have to play a dozen gigs with Fairport in order to retire. As it turned out, Swarbrick would play with the group for a decade, and would never retire — I saw him on his last tour in 2015, only eight months before he died. The drummer the group picked was also a far more experienced musician than any of the rest, though in a very different genre. Dave Mattacks had no knowledge at all of the kind of music they played, having previously been a player in dance bands. When asked by Hutchings if he wanted to join the band, Mattacks’ response was “I don’t know anything about the music. I don’t understand it… I can’t tell one tune from another, they all sound the same… but if you want me to join the group, fine, because I really like it. I’m enjoying myself musically.” Mattacks brought a new level of professionalism to the band, thanks to his different background. Nicol said of him later “He was dilligent, clean, used to taking three white shirts to a gig… The application he could bring to his playing was amazing. With us, you only played well when you were feeling well.” This distinction applied to his playing as well. Nicol would later describe the difference between Mattacks’ drumming and Lamble’s by saying “Martin’s strength was as an imaginative drummer. DM came in with a strongly developed sense of rhythm, through keeping a big band of drunken saxophone players in order. A great time-keeper.” With this new line-up and a new sense of purpose, the group did as many of their contemporaries were doing and “got their heads together in the country”. Joe Boyd rented the group a mansion, Farley House, in Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire, and they stayed there together for three months. At the start, the group seem to have thought that they were going to make another record like Unhalfbricking, with some originals, some songs by American songwriters, and a few traditional songs. Even after their stay in Farley Chamberlayne, in fact, they recorded a few of the American songs they’d rehearsed at the start of the process, Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” and Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Ballad of Easy Rider”] Indeed, the whole idea of “getting our heads together in the country” (as the cliche quickly became in the late sixties as half of the bands in Britain went through much the same kind of process as Fairport were doing — but usually for reasons more to do with drug burnout or trend following than recovering from serious life-changing trauma) seems to have been inspired by Bob Dylan and the Band getting together in Big Pink. But very quickly they decided to follow the lead of Ashley Hutchings, who had had something of a Damascene conversion to the cause of traditional English folk music. They were listening mostly to Music From Big Pink by the Band, and to the first album by Sweeney’s Men: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] And they decided that they were going to make something that was as English as those records were North American and Irish (though in the event there were also a few Scottish songs included on the record). Hutchings in particular was becoming something of a scholar of traditional music, regularly visiting Cecil Sharp House and having long conversations with A.L. Lloyd, discovering versions of different traditional songs he’d never encountered before. This was both amusing and bemusing Sandy Denny, who had joined a rock group in part to get away from traditional music; but she was comfortable singing the material, and knew a lot of it and could make a lot of suggestions herself. Swarbrick obviously knew the repertoire intimately, and Nicol was amenable, while Mattacks was utterly clueless about the folk tradition at this point but knew this was the music he wanted to make. Thompson knew very little about traditional music, and of all the band members except Denny he was the one who has shown the least interest in the genre in his subsequent career — but as we heard at the beginning, showing the least interest in the genre is a relative thing, and while Thompson was not hugely familiar with the genre, he *was* able to work with it, and was also more than capable of writing songs that fit in with the genre. Of the eleven songs on the album, which was titled Liege and Lief (which means, roughly, Lord and Loyalty), there were no cover versions of singer-songwriters. Eight were traditional songs, and three were originals, all written in the style of traditional songs. The album opened with “Come All Ye”, an introduction written by Denny and Hutchings (the only time the two would ever write together): [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Come All Ye”] The other two originals were songs where Thompson had written new lyrics to traditional melodies. On “Crazy Man Michael”, Swarbrick had said to Thompson that the tune to which he had set his new words was weaker than the lyrics, to which Thompson had replied that if Swarbrick felt that way he should feel free to write a new melody. He did, and it became the first of the small number of Thompson/Swarbrick collaborations: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Crazy Man Michael”] Thompson and Swarbrick would become a brief songwriting team, but as much as anything else it was down to proximity — the two respected each other as musicians, but never got on very well. In 1981 Swarbrick would say “Richard and I never got on in the early days of FC… we thought we did, but we never did. We composed some bloody good songs together, but it was purely on a basis of “you write that and I’ll write this, and we’ll put it together.” But we never sat down and had real good chats.” The third original on the album, and by far the most affecting, is another song where Thompson put lyrics to a traditional tune. In this case he thought he was putting the lyrics to the tune of “Willie O'Winsbury”, but he was basing it on a recording by Sweeney’s Men. The problem was that Sweeney’s Men had accidentally sung the lyrics of “Willie O'Winsbury'” to the tune of a totally different song, “Fause Foodrage”: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “Willie O’Winsbury”] Thompson took that melody, and set to it lyrics about loss and separation. Thompson has never been one to discuss the meanings of his lyrics in any great detail, and in the case of this one has said “I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines.” But in the context of the traffic accident that had killed his tailor girlfriend and a bandmate, and injured most of his other bandmates, the lyrics about lonely travellers, the winding road, bruised and beaten sons, saying goodbye, and never cutting cloth, seem fairly self-explanatory: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Farewell, Farewell”] The rest of the album, though, was taken up by traditional tunes. There was a long medley of four different fiddle reels; a version of “Reynardine” (a song about a seductive man — or is he a fox? Or perhaps both — which had been recorded by Swarbrick and Carthy on their most recent album); a 19th century song about a deserter saved from the firing squad by Prince Albert; and a long take on “Tam Lin”, one of the most famous pieces in the Scottish folk music canon, a song that has been adapted in different ways by everyone from the experimental noise band Current 93 to the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah to the comics writer Grant Morrison: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Tam Lin”] And “Matty Groves”, a song about a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, which actually has a surprisingly similar story to that of “1921” from another great concept album from that year, the Who’s Tommy. “Matty Groves” became an excuse for long solos and shows of instrumental virtuosity: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves”] The album was recorded in September 1969, after their return from their break in the country and a triumphal performance at the Royal Festival Hall, headlining over fellow Witchseason artists John and Beverly Martyn and Nick Drake. It became a classic of the traditional folk genre — arguably *the* classic of the traditional folk genre. In 2007 BBC Radio 2’s Folk Music Awards gave it an award for most influential folk album of all time, and while such things are hard to measure, I doubt there’s anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of British folk and folk-rock music who would not at least consider that a reasonable claim. But once again, by the time the album came out in November, the band had changed lineups yet again. There was a fundamental split in the band – on one side were Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, whose stance was, roughly, that Liege and Lief was a great experiment and a fun thing to do once, but really the band had two first-rate songwriters in themselves, and that they should be concentrating on their own new material, not doing these old songs, good as they were. They wanted to take the form of the traditional songs and use that form for new material — they wanted to make British folk-rock, but with the emphasis on the rock side of things. Hutchings, on the other hand, was equally sure that he wanted to make traditional music and go further down the rabbit hole of antiquity. With the zeal of the convert he had gone in a couple of years from being the leader of a band who were labelled “the British Jefferson Airplane” to becoming a serious scholar of traditional folk music. Denny was tired of touring, as well — she wanted to spend more time at home with Trevor Lucas, who was sleeping with other women when she was away and making her insecure. When the time came for the group to go on a tour of Denmark, Denny decided she couldn’t make it, and Hutchings was jubilant — he decided he was going to get A.L. Lloyd into the band in her place and become a *real* folk group. Then Denny reconsidered, and Hutchings was crushed. He realised that while he had always been the leader, he wasn’t going to be able to lead the band any further in the traditionalist direction, and quit the group — but not before he was delegated by the other band members to fire Denny. Until the publication of Richard Thompson’s autobiography in 2022, every book on the group or its members said that Denny quit the band again, which was presumably a polite fiction that the band agreed, but according to Thompson “Before we flew home, we decided to fire Sandy. I don't remember who asked her to leave – it was probably Ashley, who usually did the dirty work. She was reportedly shocked that we would take that step. She may have been fragile beneath the confident facade, but she still knew her worth.” Thompson goes on to explain that the reasons for kicking her out were that “I suppose we felt that in her mind she had already left” and that “We were probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, though there wasn't a name for it back then.” They had considered inviting Trevor Lucas to join the band to make Denny more comfortable, but came to the (probably correct) conclusion that while he was someone they got on well with personally, he would be another big ego in a band that already had several, and that being around Denny and Lucas’ volatile relationship would, in Thompson’s phrasing, “have not always given one a feeling of peace and stability.” Hutchings originally decided he was going to join Sweeney’s Men, but that group were falling apart, and their first rehearsal with Hutchings would also be their last as a group, with only Hutchings and guitarist and mandolin player Terry Woods left in the band. They added Woods’ wife Gay, and another couple, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, and formed a group called Steeleye Span, a name given them by Martin Carthy. That group, like Fairport, went to “get their heads together in the country” for three months and recorded an album of electric versions of traditional songs, Hark the Village Wait, on which Mattacks and another drummer, Gerry Conway, guested as Steeleye Span didn’t at the time have their own drummer: [Excerpt: Steeleye Span, “Blackleg Miner”] Steeleye Span would go on to have a moderately successful chart career in the seventies, but by that time most of the original lineup, including Hutchings, had left — Hutchings stayed with them for a few albums, then went on to form the first of a series of bands, all called the Albion Band or variations on that name, which continue to this day. And this is something that needs to be pointed out at this point — it is impossible to follow every single individual in this narrative as they move between bands. There is enough material in the history of the British folk-rock scene that someone could do a 500 Songs-style podcast just on that, and every time someone left Fairport, or Steeleye Span, or the Albion Band, or Matthews’ Southern Comfort, or any of the other bands we have mentioned or will mention, they would go off and form another band which would then fission, and some of its members would often join one of those other bands. There was a point in the mid-1970s where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport Convention while Fairport Convention had none. So just in order to keep the narrative anything like wieldy, I’m going to keep the narrative concentrated on the two figures from Fairport — Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson — whose work outside the group has had the most influence on the wider world of rock music more broadly, and only deal with the other members when, as they often did, their careers intersected with those two. That doesn’t mean the other members are not themselves hugely important musicians, just that their importance has been primarily to the folk side of the folk-rock genre, and so somewhat outside the scope of this podcast. While Hutchings decided to form a band that would allow him to go deeper and deeper into traditional folk music, Sandy Denny’s next venture was rather different. For a long time she had been writing far more songs than she had ever played for her bandmates, like “Nothing More”, a song that many have suggested is about Thompson: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Nothing More”] When Joe Boyd heard that Denny was leaving Fairport Convention, he was at first elated. Fairport’s records were being distributed by A&M in the US at that point, but Island Records was in the process of opening up a new US subsidiary which would then release all future Fairport product — *but*, as far as A&M were concerned, Sandy Denny *was* Fairport Convention. They were only interested in her. Boyd, on the other hand, loved Denny’s work intensely, but from his point of view *Richard Thompson* was Fairport Convention. If he could get Denny signed directly to A&M as a solo artist before Island started its US operations, Witchseason could get a huge advance on her first solo record, while Fairport could continue making records for Island — he’d have two lucrative acts, on different labels. Boyd went over and spoke to A&M and got an agreement in principle that they would give Denny a forty-thousand-dollar advance on her first solo album — twice what they were paying for Fairport albums. The problem was that Denny didn’t want to be a solo act. She wanted to be the lead singer of a band. She gave many reasons for this — the one she gave to many journalists was that she had seen a Judy Collins show and been impressed, but noticed that Collins’ band were definitely a “backing group”, and as she put it “But that's all they were – a backing group. I suddenly thought, If you're playing together on a stage you might as well be TOGETHER.” Most other people in her life, though, say that the main reason for her wanting to be in a band was her desire to be with her boyfriend, Trevor Lucas. Partly this was due to a genuine desire to spend more time with someone with whom she was very much in love, partly it was a fear that he would cheat on her if she was away from him for long periods of time, and part of it seems to have been Lucas’ dislike of being *too* overshadowed by his talented girlfriend — he didn’t mind acknowledging that she was a major talent, but he wanted to be thought of as at least a minor one. So instead of going solo, Denny formed Fotheringay, named after the song she had written for Fairport. This new band consisted at first of Denny on vocals and occasional piano, Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Lucas’ old Eclection bandmate Gerry Conway on drums. For a lead guitarist, they asked Richard Thompson who the best guitarist in Britain was, and he told them Albert Lee. Lee in turn brought in bass player Pat Donaldson, but this lineup of the band barely survived a fortnight. Lee *was* arguably the best guitarist in Britain, certainly a reasonable candidate if you could ever have a singular best (as indeed was Thompson himself), but he was the best *country* guitarist in Britain, and his style simply didn’t fit with Fotheringay’s folk-influenced songs. He was replaced by American guitarist Jerry Donahue, who was not anything like as proficient as Lee, but who was still very good, and fit the band’s style much better. The new group rehearsed together for a few weeks, did a quick tour, and then went into the recording studio to record their debut, self-titled, album. Joe Boyd produced the album, but admitted himself that he only paid attention to those songs he considered worthwhile — the album contained one song by Lucas, “The Ballad of Ned Kelly”, and two cover versions of American singer-songwriter material with Lucas singing lead. But everyone knew that the songs that actually *mattered* were Sandy Denny’s, and Boyd was far more interested in them, particularly the songs “The Sea” and “The Pond and the Stream”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “The Pond and the Stream”] Fotheringay almost immediately hit financial problems, though. While other Witchseason acts were used to touring on the cheap, all packed together in the back of a Transit van with inexpensive equipment, Trevor Lucas had ambitions of being a rock star and wanted to put together a touring production to match, with expensive transport and equipment, including a speaker system that got nicknamed “Stonehenge” — but at the same time, Denny was unhappy being on the road, and didn’t play many gigs. As well as the band itself, the Fotheringay album also featured backing vocals from a couple of other people, including Denny’s friend Linda Peters. Peters was another singer from the folk clubs, and a good one, though less well-known than Denny — at this point she had only released a couple of singles, and those singles seemed to have been as much as anything else released as a novelty. The first of those, a version of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” had been released as by “Paul McNeill and Linda Peters”: [Excerpt: Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”] But their second single, a version of John D. Loudermilk’s “You’re Taking My Bag”, was released on the tiny Page One label, owned by Larry Page, and was released under the name “Paul and Linda”, clearly with the intent of confusing particularly gullible members of the record-buying public into thinking this was the McCartneys: [Excerpt: Paul and Linda, “You’re Taking My Bag”] Peters was though more financially successful than almost anyone else in this story, as she was making a great deal of money as a session singer. She actually did another session involving most of Fotheringay around this time. Witchseason had a number of excellent songwriters on its roster, and had had some success getting covers by people like Judy Collins, but Joe Boyd thought that they might possibly do better at getting cover versions if they were performed in less idiosyncratic arrangements. Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway went into the studio to record backing tracks, and vocals were added by Peters and another session singer, who according to some sources also provided piano. They cut songs by Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “You Get Brighter”] Ed Carter, formerly of The New Nadir but by this time firmly ensconced in the Beach Boys’ touring band where he would remain for the next quarter-century: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “I Don’t Mind”] John and Beverly Martyn, and Nick Drake: [Excerpt: Elton John, “Saturday Sun”] There are different lineups of musicians credited for those sessions in different sources, but I tend to believe that it’s mostly Fotheringay for the simple reason that Donahue says it was him, Donaldson and Conway who talked Lucas and Denny into the mistake that destroyed Fotheringay because of these sessions. Fotheringay were in financial trouble already, spending far more money than they were bringing in, but their album made the top twenty and they were getting respect both from critics and from the public — in September, Sandy Denny was voted best British female singer by the readers of Melody Maker in their annual poll, which led to shocked headlines in the tabloids about how this “unknown” could have beaten such big names as Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Only a couple of weeks after that, they were due to headline at the Albert Hall. It should have been a triumph. But Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway had asked that singing pianist to be their support act. As Donahue said later “That was a terrible miscast. It was our fault. He asked if [he] could do it. Actually Pat, Gerry and I had to talk Sandy and Trevor into [it]… We'd done these demos and the way he was playing – he was a wonderful piano player – he was sensitive enough. We knew very little about his stage-show. We thought he'd be a really good opener for us.” Unfortunately, Elton John was rather *too* good. As Donahue continued “we had no idea what he had in mind, that he was going to do the most incredible rock & roll show ever. He pretty much blew us off the stage before we even got on the stage.” To make matters worse, Fotheringay’s set, which was mostly comprised of new material, was underrehearsed and sloppy, and from that point on no matter what they did people were counting the hours until the band split up. They struggled along for a while though, and started working on a second record, with Boyd again producing, though as Boyd later said “I probably shouldn't have been producing the record. My lack of respect for the group was clear, and couldn't have helped the atmosphere. We'd put out a record that had sold disappointingly, A&M was unhappy. Sandy's tracks on the first record are among the best things she ever did – the rest of it, who cares? And the artwork, Trevor's sister, was terrible. It would have been one thing if I'd been unhappy with it and it sold, and the group was working all the time, making money, but that wasn't the case … I knew what Sandy was capable of, and it was very upsetting to me.” The record would not be released for thirty-eight years: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Wild Mountain Thyme”] Witchseason was going badly into debt. Given all the fissioning of bands that we’ve already been talking about, Boyd had been stretched thin — he produced sixteen albums in 1970, and almost all of them lost money for the company. And he was getting more and more disillusioned with the people he was producing. He loved Beverly Martyn’s work, but had little time for her abusive husband John, who was dominating her recording and life more and more and would soon become a solo artist while making her stay at home (and stealing her ideas without giving her songwriting credit). The Incredible String Band were great, but they had recently converted to Scientology, which Boyd found annoying, and while he was working with all sorts of exciting artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nico, he was finding himself less and less important to the artists he mentored. Fairport Convention were a good example of this. After Denny and Hutchings had left the group, they’d decided to carry on as an electric folk group, performing an equal mix of originals by the Swarbrick and Thompson songwriting team and arrangements of traditional songs. The group were now far enough away from the “British Jefferson Airplane” label that they decided they didn’t need a female vocalist — and more realistically, while they’d been able to replace Judy Dyble, nobody was going to replace Sandy Denny. Though it’s rather surprising when one considers Thompson’s subsequent career that nobody seems to have thought of bringing in Denny’s friend Linda Peters, who was dating Joe Boyd at the time (as Denny had been before she met Lucas) as Denny’s replacement. Instead, they decided that Swarbrick and Thompson were going to share the vocals between them. They did, though, need a bass player to replace Hutchings. Swarbrick wanted to bring in Dave Pegg, with whom he had played in the Ian Campbell Folk Group, but the other band members initially thought the idea was a bad one. At the time, while they respected Swarbrick as a musician, they didn’t think he fully understood rock and roll yet, and they thought the idea of getting in a folkie who had played double bass rather than an electric rock bassist ridiculous. But they auditioned him to mollify Swarbrick, and found that he was exactly what they needed. As Joe Boyd later said “All those bass lines were great, Ashley invented them all, but he never could play them that well. He thought of them, but he was technically not a terrific bass player. He was a very inventive, melodic, bass player, but not a very powerful one technically. But having had the part explained to him once, Pegg was playing it better than Ashley had ever played it… In some rock bands, I think, ultimately, the bands that sound great, you can generally trace it to the bass player… it was at that point they became a great band, when they had Pegg.” The new lineup of Fairport decided to move in together, and found a former pub called the Angel, into which all the band members moved, along with their partners and children (Thompson was the only one who was single at this point) and their roadies. The group lived together quite happily, and one gets the impression that this was the period when they were most comfortable with each other, even though by this point they were a disparate group with disparate tastes, in music as in everything else. Several people have said that the only music all the band members could agree they liked at this point was the first two albums by The Band. With the departure of Hutchings from the band, Swarbrick and Thompson, as the strongest personalities and soloists, became in effect the joint leaders of the group, and they became collaborators as songwriters, trying to write new songs that were inspired by traditional music. Thompson described the process as “let’s take one line of this reel and slow it down and move it up a minor third and see what that does to it; let’s take one line of this ballad and make a whole song out of it. Chopping up the tradition to find new things to do… like a collage.” Generally speaking, Swarbrick and Thompson would sit by the fire and Swarbrick would play a melody he’d been working on, the two would work on it for a while, and Thompson would then go away and write the lyrics. This is how the two came up with songs like the nine-minute “Sloth”, a highlight of the next album, Full House, and one that would remain in Fairport’s live set for much of their career: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth”] “Sloth” was titled that way because Thompson and Swarbrick were working on two tunes, a slow one and a fast one, and they jokingly named them “Sloth” and “Fasth”, but the latter got renamed to “Walk Awhile”, while “Sloth” kept its working title. But by this point, Boyd and Thompson were having a lot of conflict in the studio. Boyd was never the most technical of producers — he was one of those producers whose job is to gently guide the artists in the studio and create a space for the music to flourish, rather than the Joe Meek type with an intimate technical knowledge of the studio — and as the artists he was working with gained confidence in their own work they felt they had less and less need of him. During the making of the Full House album, Thompson and Boyd, according to Boyd, clashed on everything — every time Boyd thought Thompson had done a good solo, Thompson would say to erase it and let him have another go, while every time Boyd thought Thompson could do better, Thompson would say that was the take to keep. One of their biggest clashes was over Thompson’s song “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”, which was originally intended for release on the album, and is included in current reissues of it: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”] Thompson had written that song inspired by what he thought was the unjust treatment of Alex Bramham, the driver in Fairport’s fatal car crash, by the courts — Bramham had been given a prison sentence of a few months for dangerous driving, while the group members thought he had not been at fault. Boyd thought it was one of the best things recorded for the album, but Thompson wasn’t happy with his vocal — there was one note at the top of the melody that he couldn’t quite hit — and insisted it be kept off the record, even though that meant it would be a shorter album than normal. He did this at such a late stage that early copies of the album actually had the title printed on the sleeve, but then blacked out. He now says in his autobiography “I could have persevered, double-tracked the voice, warmed up for longer – anything. It was a good track, and the record was lacking without it. When the album was re-released, the track was restored with a more confident vocal, and it has stayed there ever since.” During the sessions for Full House the group also recorded one non-album single, Thompson and Swarbrick’s “Now Be Thankful”: [Excerpt, Fairport Convention, “Now Be Thankful”] The B-side to that was a medley of two traditional tunes plus a Swarbrick original, but was given the deliberately ridiculous title “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”] The B. McKenzie in the title was a reference to the comic-strip character Barry McKenzie, a stereotype drunk Australian created for Private Eye magazine by the comedian Barry Humphries (later to become better known for his Dame Edna Everage character) but the title was chosen for one reason only — to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest title. Which they did, though they were later displaced by the industrial band Test Dept, and their song “Long Live British Democracy Which Flourishes and Is Constantly Perfected Under the Immaculate Guidance of the Great, Honourable, Generous and Correct Margaret Hilda Thatcher. She Is the Blue Sky in the Hearts of All Nations. Our People Pay Homage and Bow in Deep Respect and Gratitude to Her. The Milk of Human Kindness”. Full House got excellent reviews in the music press, with Rolling Stone saying “The music shows that England has finally gotten her own equivalent to The Band… By calling Fairport an English equivalent of the Band, I meant that they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they maintain their roots in rock.” Off the back of this, the group went on their first US tour, culminating in a series of shows at the Troubadour in LA, on the same bill as Rick Nelson, which were recorded and later released as a live album: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth (live)”] The Troubadour was one of the hippest venues at the time, and over their residency there the group got seen by many celebrities, some of whom joined them on stage. The first was Linda Ronstadt, who initially demurred, saying she didn’t know any of their songs. On being told they knew all of hers, she joined in with a rendition of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. Thompson was later asked to join Ronstadt’s backing band, who would go on to become the Eagles, but he said later of this offer “I would have hated it. I’d have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans — they always seem miserable. And if you see them now, they still look miserable on stage — like they don’t want to be there and they don’t like each other.” The group were also joined on stage at the Troubadour on one memorable night by some former bandmates of Pegg’s. Before joining the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Pegg had played around the Birmingham beat scene, and had been in bands with John Bonham and Robert Plant, who turned up to the Troubadour with their Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page (reports differ on whether the fourth member of Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, also came along). They all got up on stage together and jammed on songs like “Hey Joe”, “Louie Louie”, and various old Elvis tunes. The show was recorded, and the tapes are apparently still in the possession of Joe Boyd, who has said he refuses to release them in case he is murdered by the ghost of Peter Grant. According to Thompson, that night ended in a three-way drinking contest between Pegg, Bonham, and Janis Joplin, and it’s testament to how strong the drinking culture is around Fairport and the British folk scene in general that Pegg outdrank both of them. According to Thompson, Bonham was found naked by a swimming pool two days later, having missed two gigs. For all their hard rock image, Led Zeppelin were admirers of a lot of the British folk and folk-rock scene, and a few months later Sandy Denny would become the only outside vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin record when she duetted with Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” on the group’s fourth album: [Excerpt: Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”] Denny would never actually get paid for her appearance on one of the best-selling albums of all time. That was, incidentally, not the only session that Denny was involved in around this time — she also sang on the soundtrack to a soft porn film titled Swedish Fly Girls, whose soundtrack was produced by Manfred Mann: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow?”] Shortly after Fairport’s trip to America, Joe Boyd decided he was giving up on Witchseason. The company was now losing money, and he was finding himself having to produce work for more and more acts as the various bands fissioned. The only ones he really cared about were Richard Thompson, who he was finding it more and more difficult to work with, Nick Drake, who wanted to do his next album with just an acoustic guitar anyway, Sandy Denny, who he felt was wasting her talents in Fotheringay, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, who was more distant since his conversion to Scientology. Boyd did make some attempts to keep the company going. On a trip to Sweden, he negotiated an agreement with the manager and publisher of a Swedish band whose songs he’d found intriguing, the Hep Stars. Boyd was going to publish their songs in the UK, and in return that publisher, Stig Anderson, would get the rights to Witchseason’s catalogue in Scandinavia — a straight swap, with no money changing hands. But before Boyd could get round to signing the paperwork, he got a better offer from Mo Ostin of Warners — Ostin wanted Boyd to come over to LA and head up Warners’ new film music department. Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to LA with his fiancee Linda Peters, spending the next few years working on music for films like Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange, as well as making his own documentary about Jimi Hendrix, and thus missed out on getting the UK publishing rights for ABBA, and all the income that would have brought him, for no money. And it was that decision that led to the breakup of Fotheringay. Just before Christmas 1970, Fotheringay were having a difficult session, recording the track “John the Gun”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “John the Gun”] Boyd got frustrated and kicked everyone out of the session, and went for a meal and several drinks with Denny. He kept insisting that she should dump the band and just go solo, and then something happened that the two of them would always describe differently. She asked him if he would continue to produce her records if she went solo, and he said he would. According to Boyd’s recollection of the events, he meant that he would fly back from California at some point to produce her records. According to Denny, he told her that if she went solo he would stay in Britain and not take the job in LA. This miscommunication was only discovered after Denny told the rest of Fotheringay after the Christmas break that she was splitting the band. Jerry Donahue has described that as the worst moment of his life, and Denny felt very guilty about breaking up a band with some of her closest friends in — and then when Boyd went over to the US anyway she felt a profound betrayal. Two days before Fotheringay’s final concert, in January 1971, Sandy Denny signed a solo deal with Island records, but her first solo album would not end up produced by Joe Boyd. Instead, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens was co-produced by Denny, John Wood — the engineer who had worked with Boyd on pretty much everything he’d produced, and Richard Thompson, who had just quit Fairport Convention, though he continued living with them at the Angel, at least until a truck crashed into the building in February 1971, destroying its entire front wall and forcing them to relocate. The songs chosen for The North Star Grassman and the Ravens reflected the kind of choices Denny would make on her future albums, and her eclectic taste in music. There was, of course, the obligatory Dylan cover, and the traditional folk ballad “Blackwaterside”, but there was also a cover version of Brenda Lee’s “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”] Most of the album, though, was made up of originals about various people in Denny’s life, like “Next Time Around”, about her ex-boyfriend Jackson C Frank: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Next Time Around”] The album made the top forty in the UK — Denny’s only solo album to do so — and led to her once again winning the “best female singer” award in Melody Maker’s readers’ poll that year — the male singer award was won by Rod Stewart. Both Stewart and Denny appeared the next year on the London Symphony Orchestra’s all-star version of The Who’s Tommy, which had originally been intended as a vehicle for Stewart before Roger Daltrey got involved. Stewart’s role was reduced to a single song, “Pinball Wizard”, while Denny sang on “It’s a Boy”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “It’s a Boy”] While Fotheringay had split up, all the band members play on The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Guitarists Donahue and Lucas only play on a couple of the tracks, with Richard Thompson playing most of the guitar on the record. But Fotheringay’s rhythm section of Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway play on almost every track. Another musician on the album, Ian Whiteman, would possibly have a profound effect on the future direction of Richard Thompson’s career and life. Whiteman was the former keyboard player for the mod band The Action, having joined them just before they became the blues-rock band Mighty Baby. But Mighty Baby had split up when all of the band except the lead singer had converted to Islam. Richard Thompson was on his own spiritual journey at this point, and became a Sufi – the same branch of Islam as Whiteman – soon after the session, though Thompson has said that his conversion was independent of Whiteman’s. The two did become very close and work together a lot in the mid-seventies though. Thompson had supposedly left Fairport because he was writing material that wasn’t suited to the band, but he spent more than a year after quitting the group working on sessions rather than doing anything with his own material, and these sessions tended to involve the same core group of musicians. One of the more unusual was a folk-rock supergroup called The Bunch, put together by Trevor Lucas. Richard Branson had recently bought a recording studio, and wanted a band to test it out before opening it up for commercial customers, so with this free studio time Lucas decided to record a set of fifties rock and roll covers. He gathered together Thompson, Denny, Whiteman, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Pat Donaldson, Gerry Conway, pianist Tony Cox, the horn section that would later form the core of the Average White Band, and Linda Peters, who had now split up with Joe Boyd and returned to the UK, and who had started dating Thompson. They recorded an album of covers of songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Otis and others: [Excerpt: The Bunch, “Willie and the Hand Jive”] The early seventies was a hugely productive time for this group of musicians, as they all continued playing on each other’s projects. One notable album was No Roses by Shirley Collins, which featured Thompson, Mattacks, Whiteman, Simon Nicol, Lal and Mike Waterson, and Ashley Hutchings, who was at that point married to Collins, as well as some more unusual musicians like the free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill: [Excerpt: Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, “Claudy Banks”] Collins was at the time the most respected female singer in British traditional music, and already had a substantial career including a series of important records made with her sister Dolly, work with guitarists like Davey Graham, and time spent in the 1950s collecting folk songs in the Southern US with her then partner Alan Lomax – according to Collins she did much of the actual work, but Lomax only mentioned her in a single sentence in his book on this work. Some of the same group of musicians went on to work on an album of traditional Morris dancing tunes, titled Morris On, credited to “Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield”, with Collins singing lead on two tracks: [Excerpt: Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield with Shirley Collins, “The Willow Tree”] Thompson thought that that album was the best of the various side projects he was involved in at the time, comparing it favourably to Rock On, which he thought was rather slight, saying later “Conceptually, Fairport, Ashley and myself and Sandy were developing a more fragile style of music that nobody else was particularly interested in, a British Folk Rock idea that had a logical development to it, although we all presented it our own way. Morris On was rather more true to what we were doing. Rock On was rather a retro step. I'm not sure it was lasting enough as a record but Sandy did sing really well on the Buddy Holly songs.” Hutchings used the musicians on No Roses and Morris On as the basis for his band the Albion Band, which continues to this day. Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks both quit Fairport to join the Albion Band, though Mattacks soon returned. Nicol would not return to Fairport for several years, though, and for a long period in the mid-seventies Fairport Convention had no original members. Unfortunately, while Collins was involved in the Albion Band early on, she and Hutchings ended up divorcing, and the stress from the divorce led to Collins developing spasmodic dysphonia, a stress-related illness which makes it impossible for the sufferer to sing. She did eventually regain her vocal ability, but between 1978 and 2016 she was unable to perform at all, and lost decades of her career. Richard Thompson occasionally performed with the Albion Band early on, but he was getting stretched a little thin with all these sessions. Linda Peters said later of him “When I came back from America, he was working in Sandy’s band, and doing sessions by the score. Always with Pat Donaldson and Dave Mattacks. Richard would turn up with his guitar, one day he went along to do a session with one of those folkie lady singers — and there were Pat and DM. They all cracked. Richard smashed his amp and said “Right! No more sessions!” In 1972 he got round to releasing his first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, which featured guest appearances by Linda Peters and Sandy Denny among others: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”] Unfortunately, while that album has later become regarded as one of the classics of its genre, at the time it was absolutely slated by the music press. The review in Melody Maker, for example, read in part “Some of Richard Thompson’s ideas sound great – which is really the saving grace of this album, because most of the music doesn’t. The tragedy is that Thompson’s “British rock music” is such an unconvincing concoction… Even the songs that do integrate rock and traditional styles of electric guitar rhythms and accordion and fiddle decoration – and also include explicit, meaningful lyrics are marred by bottle-up vocals, uninspiring guitar phrases and a general lack of conviction in performance.” Henry the Human Fly was released in the US by Warners, who had a reciprocal licensing deal with Island (and for whom Joe Boyd was working at the time, which may have had something to do with that) but according to Thompson it became the lowest-selling record that Warners ever put out (though I’ve also seen that claim made about Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, another album that has later been rediscovered). Thompson was hugely depressed by this reaction, and blamed his own singing. Happily, though, by this point he and Linda had become a couple — they would marry in 1972 — and they started playing folk clubs as a duo, or sometimes in a trio with Simon Nicol. Thompson was also playing with Sandy Denny’s backing band at this point, and played on every track on her second solo album, Sandy. This album was meant to be her big commercial breakthrough, with a glamorous cover photo by David Bailey, and with a more American sound, including steel guitar by Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers (whose overdubs were supervised in LA by Joe Boyd): [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Tomorrow is a Long Time”] The album was given a big marketing push by Island, and “Listen, Listen” was made single of the week on the Radio 1 Breakfast show: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Listen, Listen”] But it did even worse than the previous album, sending her into something of a depression. Linda Thompson (as the former Linda Peters now was) said of this period “After the Sandy album, it got her down that her popularity didn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and that was the start of her really fretting about the way her career was going. Things only escalated after that. People like me or Martin Carthy or Norma Waterson would think, ‘What are you on about? This is folk music.'” After Sandy’s release, Denny realised she could no longer afford to tour with a band, and so went back to performing just acoustically or on piano. The only new music to be released by either of these ex-members of Fairport Convention in 1973 was, oddly, on an album by the band they were no longer members of. After Thompson had left Fairport, the group had managed to release two whole albums with the same lineup — Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks. But then Nicol and Mattacks had both quit the band to join the Albion Band with their former bandmate Ashley Hutchings, leading to a situation where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport plus their longtime drummer while Fairport Convention itself had no original members and was down to just Swarbrick and Pegg. Needing to fulfil their contracts, they then recruited three former members of Fotheringay — Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, Donahue on lead guitar, and Conway on drums. Conway was only a session player at the time, and Mattacks soon returned to the band, but Lucas and Donahue became full-time members. This new lineup of Fairport Convention released two albums in 1973, widely regarded as the group’s most inconsistent records, and on the title track of the first, “Rosie”, Richard Thompson guested on guitar, with Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Rosie”] Neither Sandy Denny nor Richard Thompson released a record themselves in 1973, but in neither case was this through the artists’ choice. The record industry was changing in the early 1970s, as we’ll see in later episodes, and was less inclined to throw good money after bad in the pursuit of art. Island Records prided itself on being a home for great artists, but it was still a business, and needed to make money. We’ll talk about the OPEC oil crisis and its effect on the music industry much more when the podcast gets to 1973, but in brief, the production of oil by the US peaked in 1970 and started to decrease, leading to them importing more and more oil from the Middle East. As a result of this, oil prices rose slowly between 1971 and 1973, then very quickly towards the end of 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict that year. As vinyl is made of oil, suddenly producing records became much more expensive, and in this period a lot of labels decided not to release already-completed albums, until what they hoped would be a brief period of shortages passed. Both Denny and Thompson recorded albums at this point that got put to one side by Island. In the case of Thompson, it was the first album by Richard and Linda as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Today, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and as one of the two masterpieces that bookended Richard and Linda’s career as a duo and their marriage. But when they recorded the album, full of Richard’s dark songs, it was the opposite of commercial. Even a song that’s more or less a boy-girl song, like “Has He Got a Friend for Me?” has lyrics like “He wouldn’t notice me passing by/I could be in the gutter, or dangling down from a tree” [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Has He got a Friend For Me?”] While something like “The Calvary Cross” is oblique and haunted, and seems to cast a pall over the entire album: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “The Calvary Cross”] The album itself had been cheap to make — it had been recorded in only a week, with Thompson bringing in musicians he knew well and had worked with a lot previously to cut the tracks as-live in only a handful of takes — but Island didn’t think it was worth releasing. The record stayed on the shelf for nearly a year after recording, until Island got a new head of A&R, Richard Williams. Williams said of the album’s release “Muff Winwood had been doing A&R, but he was more interested in production… I had a conversation with Muff as soon as I got there, and he said there are a few hangovers, some outstanding problems. And one of them was Richard Thompson. He said there’s this album we gave him the money to make — which was I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — and nobody’s very interested in it. Henry the Human Fly had been a bit of a commercial disappointment, and although Island was altruistic and independent and known for only recording good stuff, success was important… Either a record had to do well or somebody had to believe in it a lot. And it seemed as if neither of those things were true at that point of Richard.” Williams, though, was hugely impressed when he listened to the album. He compared Richard Thompson’s guitar playing to John Coltrane’s sax, and called Thompson “the folk poet of the rainy streets”, but also said “Linda brightened it, made it more commercial. and I thought that “Bright Lights” itself seemed a really commercial song.” The rest of the management at Island got caught up in Williams’ enthusiasm, and even decided to release the title track as a single: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Neither single nor album charted — indeed it would not be until 1991 that Richard Thompson would make a record that made the top forty in the UK — but the album got enough critical respect that Richard and Linda released two albums the year after. The first of these, Hokey Pokey, is a much more upbeat record than their previous one — Richard Thompson has called it “quite a music-hall influenced record” and cited the influence of George Formby and Harry Lauder. For once, the claim of music hall influence is audible in the music. Usually when a British musician is claimed to have a music ha

Percussion Discussion Podcast - Episode 164 - Dave Mattacks. Joining me today is the wonderful Dave Mattacks. Dave is a british drummer ( now living in Boston ) with a quite remarkable career under his belt - he is known as the Folk Drummer (much to his occasional chargrin) Having played for Fairport Convention for a long time, however he has a lot more up his sleeve, check this out for a recording and live CV.......... Paul McCartney, Elton John, XTC, George Harrison, Chris Rea, Jethro Tull, The Proclaimers, Joan Armatrading, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Richard Thompson, Steeleye Span and many many more! We had the most wonderful conversation about his career including the moment he went from trying to impress, with flashy, busy drum parts to stripping it back and playing for the song, something that is now synonymous with Dave's name. Huge thanks to our mutual pal Nigel Constable for connecting us up! Many thanks of course for giving up his valuable time to do this! www.davemattacks.com

Generations of singers have sung, played and loved the folk music found in the United Kingdom, and this week's podcast features some examples. Collectors A.L. Lloyd and Ralph Vaughn Williams transcribed and recorded traditional music and made it available to all through the English Folk Dance and Song Society. We'll listen to revivalist groups like The Watersons and the Copper Family, and then examine the electric side of the style with Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention. We will conclude with some of the bright lights on today's scene including Eliza Carthy and The Furrow Collective. A taste of old and new from the U.K. … this week on The Sing Out! Radio Magazine.Pete Seeger / If I Had A Hammer (excerpt) / Songs of Hope and Struggle / Smithsonian FolkwaysBert Jansch / M'Lady Fancy / Rosemary Lane / CastleA.L. Lloyd / Creeping Jane / Bold Sportsmen All / TopicJinky Wells / The Flowers of Edinburgh-Morris Dance Tunes-Bobbing Around-Morris Dance Tunes / Rig a Jig Jig / TopicThe Copper Family / Spencer the Rover/ The Copper Family of Rottingdean / TopicGargone's Athlone Accordion Band / Soldier's Joy & Reel/ Troubles They Are But Few / TopicIan Campbell Folk Group / Johnny Ladd/ This is the Ian Campbell Folk Group / TransatlanticShirley Collins & Davy Graham / Nottamun Town/ Folk Routes / TopicThe Watersons / Country Life / For Pence and Spicy Ale / ShanachieAnne Briggs / She Moves Through the Fair / A Collection / TopicBert Jansch / Sarabanda / Rosemary Lane / CastleThe Young Tradition / The Banks of the Nile/ Galleries / BGOFairport Convention / Genesis Hall / Unhalfbricking / IslandSteeleye Span / Skewball / Ten Man Mop / ShanachieThe Incredible String Band / Way Back in the 1960s / The 500 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion / ElektraEliza Carthy & the Wayward Band / Great Grey Buck / Big Machine / TopicThe Furrow Collective / King Henry / At Our Next Meeting / FurrowPete Seeger / If I Had A Hammer (excerpt) / Songs of Hope and Struggle / Smithsonian Folkways

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the first part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-seven-minute bonus episode available, on “Baby It’s You” by Smith. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ (more…)

Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They're playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves … … the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork. … an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis.   … memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine. … the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom”. … the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure. … what not to do when you meet McCartney. … a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital. … how a band lasts 58 years without falling out. … the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money. … unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. … narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.… Dave Swarbrick's “small holding” and further assorted knob gags. Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/ Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They're playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves … … the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork. … an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis.   … memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine. … the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom”. … the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure. … what not to do when you meet McCartney. … a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital. … how a band lasts 58 years without falling out. … the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money. … unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. … narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.… Dave Swarbrick's “small holding” and further assorted knob gags. Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/ Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They're playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves … … the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork. … an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis.   … memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine. … the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom”. … the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure. … what not to do when you meet McCartney. … a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital. … how a band lasts 58 years without falling out. … the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money. … unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. … narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.… Dave Swarbrick's “small holding” and further assorted knob gags. Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/ Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canciones que cumplen medio siglo. La confirmación del country rock y del rock sureño que avanza hacia el género “americana” y de la hornada de cantantes compositores; la explosión global del rock progresivo o sinfónico; el brote imparable del funk que devendrá en música disco y del mismo modo la fusión del jazz, el rock y la electrónica; el año dorado de la música popular española. Séptimo capítulo de la serie de disco magistrales publicados en el Reino Unido y Australia. ¿Os suenan “Love Is The Drug” de Roxy Music, “Evil Woman” de ELO, “I’m Not In Love” de 10cc o “Baby I Love Your Way” de Peter Frampton?.. Y ¿quién representó a los británicos en Eurovisión?DISCO 1 MIKE OLDFIELD In Dulce JubiloDISCO 2 ROXY MUSIC Love is The DrugDISCO 3 PAUL McCARTNEY/WINGS Listen To What The Man SaidDISCO 4 ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA Evil WomanDIDISC 5 DAVE MASON All Along The WatchtowerDISCO 6 PETER FRAMPTON y Dolly Parton??? Baby I Love Your WayDISCO 7 FAIRPORT CONVENTION Rising for the moonDISCO 8 10CC I’m Not In LoveDISCO 9 THE WHO Squeeze BoxDISOC 10 JEFF BECK Cause We Ended As LoversDISCO 11 ERIC CLAPTON HighDISCO 12 THE SHADOWS Let Me Be The OneEscuchar audio

Guests: Joe Boyd, Record Producer & Author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain Joe Boyd is a legend in music. He was the soundman when Dylan went electric at Newport, the founder of the legendary UFO club in London, and the producer of seminal works by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, John Martyn, Fairport Convention, R.E.M., and many more. In the 1980s, Boyd pioneered global music through his label Hannibal Records, which brought the world everything from the greatest in Cuban music to Bulgarian throat singing and Afropop. Joe's experience in the 1960s was profiled in his 2007 memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Now, Joe has created a comprehensive history of world music in his new book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain. Boyd explores centuries of fascinating backstories to these sounds in this sweeping 900-page history, compiled from more than a decade of travel, research, interviews, and deep listening. He shows how personalities, events, and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston, and Rio are as colorful and momentous as anything in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon, or Liverpool. Moreover, jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll would never have happened if it weren't for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon. "Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. From time to time, the host and authors will be joined by notable musicians, writers, and artists who are die-hard fans of the subject matter covered. Expect lively conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it. "Reading Is Funktamental" can be heard the second Wednesday of every month from 10 – 11 AM on Wave Farm: WGXC 90.7 FM and online at wavefarm.org. It can also be found as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode covers the emergence of UK folk-rock out of the hippie, psychedelic ballroom scene in the late 1960s. Dave and Nate discuss the formation of Pentangle a sort of super group comprised of Jacqui McShee (vocals); John Renbourn (vocals and guitar); Bert Jansch (vocals and guitar); Danny Thompson (double bass); and Terry Cox (drums). They also discuss the formation and evolution of Fairport Convention from a band modeled on the Jefferson Airplane to the greatest and most influential of the UK folk-rock groups. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusively for paying subscribers to the Let It Roll Substack. Also subscribe to the LET IT ROLL EXTRA feed on Apple, Spotify or your preferred podcast service to access the full episodes via your preferred podcast outlet. We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized by mini-series, genre, era, co-host, guest and more. Please sign up for the email list on the site and get music essays from Nate as well as (eventually) transcriptions of every episode. Also if you can afford it please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the show. Thanks! Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We finish the second half Fairport Convention's 1969 Album Liege and Lief @fecklessmomes @progfrogpod helloprogfrog@gmail.com

We offer some final thoughts on how much we loved this album @fecklessmomes @progfrogpod helloprogfrog@gmail.com

It began with the recording of a Great Album. But some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for most of the 80s, the Album passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, it ensnared a new bearer. The Album came to the creature, Ed, who took it deep into the tunnels of the Misty Mountains. And there it consumed him. And in the gloom of Ed's cave, it waited. Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. And the Album perceived its time had now come. It abandoned Ed. But something happened then the Album did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creatures imaginable. Two Momes, Omegrine and Nikwise of the Shire.     On  a very special episode, we reckoned we'd welcome back the Feckless Momes, hosts of the epic Talk Tull to Me podcast, to discuss Fairport Convention's perfect album, 1969's Liege and Lief The only thing we didn't reckon on is that it would take 4 hours It was worth all of it @progfrogpod helloprogfrog@gmail.com

We talk about the music, the myths and the talents behind Fairport Convention's 1969 Album Liege and Lief @fecklessmomes @progfrogpod helloprogfrog@gmail.com

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Dave Mattacks reflects on his remarkable career in music, highlighting his time in Fairport Convention and work with The post Dave Mattacks appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Iain started in Britain's Fairport Convention in the late '60s, but quickly left that band to start a couple more and then move to the US for a lengthy solo career. He has in total released close to 50 albums, including many collaborations. We discus the title track from How Much Is Enough (2024), the title track from God Looked Down (1996), and "Road to Ronderlin" by Matthews Southern Comfort from Later That Same Year (1970). End song: "St. Theresa's Ghost" by Ian Matthews and the Searing Quartet, from Joy Mining (2008). Intro: "Book Song" by Fairport Convention from What We Did on Our Holidays (1969). Learn more at iainmatthews.nl. Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Support us on Patreon.

Joe Boyd's revered productions of artists ranging from Pink Floyd, The Incredible String Band and Nick Drake had been widely-circulated and universally-acclaimed. He had worked with Stanley Kubrick at Warner Bros to assemble the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange. He founded the UFO Club which featured avant-garde artists like Soft Machine — which became his house band — and Yoko Ono. Productions of R.E.M., Billy Bragg, 10,000 Maniacs, Fairport Convention and Richard and Linda Thompson followed. He directed Jimi Hendrix, the eponymous documentary. But if you were paying attention, you would have made note of the through-line running through Joe's prolific output — World Music. His productions of artists such as Dagmar Krause, Nazakat & Salamat Ali, the Trio Bulgarka, ¡Cubanismo!, Virginia Rodrigues, Damir Imamović and several others demonstrated his versatility to trancend not only genre, but also language and culture. Joe's vibrant musical output eclipsed what we thought was possible in the art and science of music. His latest book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, examines the origins, impact and cultural undertones which define world music through his lens. In our conversation, we discussed the roots of his latest masterpiece; political-songwriting through shifting of culture; categorization as a benefit toward creativity; and musical and storytelling experiences with Brian Eno, David Bryne, Bob Dylan, Mike Heron and others.Opening Credits: 1st Contact - Just Quickly I CC BY-SA; Ahmadreza Safarian - Forgotten Corpses I CC BY-NC-SA. Closing Credits: Till Paradiso - Here the Stars for You (TP 063) - CC BY-NC-SA.

Esta semana, en Islas de Robinson, Americana cósmica entre 1969 y 1971. Suenan: POCO - "JUST IN CASE IT HAPPENS, YES INDEED" ("PICKIN' UP THE PIECES", 1969) / FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS - "WHEELS" ("GILDED PALACE OF SIN", 1969) / MICHAEL NESMITH & THE FIRST NATIONAL BAND - "THE CRIPPLED LION" ("MAGNETIC SOUTH", 1970) / JERRY JEFF WALKER - "SHELL GAME" ("DRIFTIN' WAY OF LIFE", 1969) / DILLARD & CLARK - "POLLY" ("THROUGH THE MORNING, THROUGH THE NIGHT", 1969) / THE DILLARDS - "PICTURES" ("COPPERFIELDS", 1970) / THE YOUNGBLOODS - "CIRCUS FACE" ("GOOD AND DUSTY", 1971) / LITTLE FEAT - "I'VE BEEN THE ONE" ("LITTLE FEAT", 1971) / WILLIAM TRUCKAWAY - "BREAKWAY" ("BREAKWAY", 1971) / THE BYRDS - "YESTERDAY'S TRAIN" ("UNTITLED", 1970) / NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE - "ALL I'VE EVER WANTED" ("N.R.P.S.", 1971) / GRATEFUL DEAD - "RIPPLE" ("AMERICAN BEAUTY", 1970) / MATTHEWS' SOUTHERN COMFORT - "WHAT WE SAY" ("MATTHEWS' SOUTHERN COMFORT", 1970) / FAIRPORT CONVENTION - "THE DESERTER" ("LIEGE & LIEFE", 1969) /Escuchar audio

140 - Iain Matthews In episode 140 of “Have Guitar Will Travel”, presented by Vintage Guitar Magazine host, James Patrick Regan speaks with singer/songwriter Iain Matthews. In their conversation Iain tells us about his home in the Netherlands. Iain takes us through his new solo album, he has over 40 solo albums. Iain talks about his guitars Harmony's and Cromwell's converted by Mark Swanson in Grand Rapids, Michigan (markswansonmusic.com). Iain tells us about his current tour schedule and how he manages to travel with his guitars… Iain talks about his musical upbringing with his mom's boogie woogie piano and tells us about how his early bandmate Richard Thompson (in their band Fairport Convention) bought him his first guitar. Iain tells us about growing up and playing in bands in Northern England and making the move to London and working on Carnaby street. Iain describes his time living in the U.S.: LA, Seattle and Austin which preceded his move to the Netherlands. To find out all you about Iain and listen to his music you can check out his website at: iainmatthews.nl Please subscribe, like, comment, share and review this podcast! #VintageGuitarMagazine #IainMatthews #FairportConvention #MarkSwansonGuitars #SwansonGuitars #Guitar #GuitarHero #theDeadlies #haveguitarwilltravelpodcast #guitarcollector #Travelwithguitars #hgwt #HGWT . . Please like, comment, and share this podcast! Download Link

Marjorie Hache navigue ce 9 décembre entre nouveautés, classiques et pépites indie. Linkin Park signe un retour percutant, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Daran, Villagers et Man Woman Chainsaw apportent leur fraîcheur. L'album de la semaine, "Mahash-Ma-Shana" de Father John Misty, nuance l'indie folk d'une pointe punk. Le live fait briller Interpol, capté dans les studios de Third Man. The Picturebooks offrent une reprise électrique de "I Feel You" de Depeche Mode. On revisite Cream, Fairport Convention, Blondie, System of a Down, Guns N' Roses, Devo, Garbage... tandis que Bonnie Prince Billy prépare un nouvel album pour mai. La playlist de l'émission : Linkin Park - Two Faced Arctic Monkeys - Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High Cream - Rollin' And Tumblin' Blondie - One Way Or Another Villagers - Mountain Out Of A Molehill Guns N' Roses - You Could Be Mine The Seeds - Can't Seem To Make You Mine Father John Misty - She Cleans Up Genesis - I Can't Dance Daran - Choisis James Brown - Living In America Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory - Afterlife The Picturebooks - I Feel You System Of A Down - Aerials Man/Woman/Chainsaw - The Boss Fairpoint Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes ? Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere Interpol - Narc (Live At Third Man Records) The Shoes - Time To Dance Devo - Girl U Want Bonnie Prince Billy - London May Otis Redding - My Girl Garbage - Cherry Lips Bring Me The Horizon - Throne Pulp - Disco 2000 Amyl And The Sniffers - Jerkin' Primal Scream - False Flags

This troubadour was a founding member of the legendary British folk group, Fairport Convention, and has gone on to have solo recording career that has spanned six decades.

Episode 302: Joe Boyd is one of the most accomplished and eclectic record producers in the story of popular music. As an American living in London, he helped break psychedelic folk rock pioneers The Incredible String Band and worked with Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, and Fairport Convention. He founded Hannibal Records, giving a home to the solo career of Richard Thompson. He's also worked with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Toumani Diabate, Geoff and Maria Muldauer, and many more. He was also part of the small cadre of music marketers and labels that created the market category of World Music in the 1980s. Here, Boyd talks about his journey and his epic new book And The Roots of Rhythm Remain. 

Iain Matthews fronted the influential British band, Fairport Convention for their first three albums before embarking on a solo career that's lasted almost 60 years. With Matthews Southern Comfort he scored a hit cover version of Joni Mitchell's “Woodstock” in 1970, had a solo hit in 1979 with “Shake It,” and the Eagles' borrowed his arrangement of the Steve Young song, “Seven Bridges Road” for their live album. After saying he was done making solo albums, here he is with How Much is Enough, on Sunset Boulevard Records.  Whether this is his last, who knows?  But it's damn good to hear him again.

After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves … … what time he goes to bed. … “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent's review was an insult. … seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975. … the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”). … supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland. … memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers. … the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground's What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance. … the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet. … “I never thought I'd retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian'.   … the role reversal of being produced by your own son. … and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour. Peter Perrett tour dates here:https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432 Order his new album The Cleansing here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDLFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves … … what time he goes to bed. … “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent's review was an insult. … seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975. … the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”). … supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland. … memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers. … the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground's What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance. … the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet. … “I never thought I'd retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian'.   … the role reversal of being produced by your own son. … and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour. Peter Perrett tour dates here:https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432 Order his new album The Cleansing here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDLFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves … … what time he goes to bed. … “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent's review was an insult. … seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975. … the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”). … supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland. … memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers. … the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground's What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance. … the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet. … “I never thought I'd retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian'.   … the role reversal of being produced by your own son. … and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour. Peter Perrett tour dates here:https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432 Order his new album The Cleansing here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDLFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Boyd has had many job descriptions over the course of his nearly sixty-year career in music, and there was simply no way to cover everything in this conversation. That said, Paul and Joe focus on Boyd's important new book, And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, and themes of cultural cross-pollination in music, the birth of hip hop and ska, the reason Hitler spared the life of virtuoso Roma guitarist Django Reinhardt, what happened with Nick Drake, and Boyd's phenomenal earlier book, the memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s.  As a music producer, Boyd has delivered records by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Taj Mahal, Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson, Sandy Denny. He tour-managed European dates for Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and was a production manager at the 1965 Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals, before flying off to open Elektra Records' UK office in London where he and John Hopkins opened the UFO club, giving a psychedelic home to Pink Floyd and others.  In 1971 he moved to Los Angeles to work for Warner Brothers Films (Deliverance, A Clockwork Orange, and the documentary Jimi Hendrix). In 1979, he worked for Lorne Michaels' film company, Broadway Pictures, and the following year, launched his own label, Hannibal Records, releasing works by John Cale, Richard Thompson and more, while bringing global artists such as ¡Cubanismo!, Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré, Trio Bulgarka, and Songhai, to western audiences. The Record Store Day Podcast is a weekly music chat show written, produced, engineered and hosted by Paul Myers, who also composed the theme music and selected interstitial music.  Executive Producers (for Record Store Day) Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton. For the most up-to-date news about all things RSD, visit RecordStoreDay.com)   Sponsored by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (dogfish.com), Tito's Handmade Vodka (titosvodka.com), RSDMRKT.com, and Furnace Record Pressing, the official vinyl pressing plant of Record Store Day.   Please consider subscribing to our podcast wherever you get podcasts, and tell your friends, we're here every week and we love making new friends.   Rest in Peace, Phil Lesh: "A box of rain will ease the pain / And love will see you through" 

Iain Matthews was an early member of the pioneering British folk-rock band Fairport Convention, singing on its first two albums and leaving during the recording of the third one, Unhalfbricking. Since then this singer-songwriter has formed other bands — Matthews Southern Comfort, Plainsong — and released much solo work, including the just-released How Much Is Enough. He has scored some hits — Southern Comfort's cover of Joni Mitchell's “Woodstock,” his 1979 solo song “Shake It”—and says he has recorded about 70 albums total, all projects included. So he has many tales to tell —about the Fairport years with Richard Thompson, Judy Dyble and Sandy Denny and his break from the group; the many places he has lived and whether they had an impact on his music; his years as an A&R rep; and that vocal arrangement of his that the Eagles borrowed without credit. (Photo by Lisa Margolis.)

What happens when two experimental music veterans go full Smashmouth? Callahan and Witscher's new album Think Differently answers just that-full of wry introspection on the conditions of music, it's value, and despite misreads by music journalists as being "irony poisoned"-comes across as uniquely sincere in a way most things don't. We talk about the album, what is the value of a critique? flexing on critics with pure musical chops, nu-fluxus, low-brow messaging, the rise of "tastecels", the value of humor, sleeping on floors and slogging it out on the road, why you can't stop creating, destroying your life, going to shows you don't want to, Fairport Convention, and attempt to answer the question: "What is the value of music?" Buy think differently from Post Present Medium Here 

Iain Matthews contemplates retirement and, instead, writes a song about it, adding to his discography of nearly 60 albums. Denny, who's been a fan since the beginning of Matthews' career, from Fairport Convention to solo to Matthews Southern Comfort, gets Iain talking about Joni Mitchell, Robert Plant, and in a totally unplanned moment, Amelia Earhart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terminators, thank you for your patience. After a couple weeks' delay, for which TDMG has a good excuse (two fucking hurricanes) and I have none, we're back! Or rather, I'm back, with a big interview. A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with Chris Naughton, frontman of Winterfylleth and pioneer of modern pagan black metal. I asked him to draw up a list of five quintessentially English bands/scenes that fed into the Winterfylleth sound. These serve as touchstones for a conversation ranging from details of guitar technique to lyrical source texts to obscure distro history. On the show, we've often characterized Winterfylleth as a kind of tricky folk-cultural transplant project, “English Slavblack.” Talking with Chris led me to revise this portrait: Much of what I attributed to the influence of Ukrainian bands has older roots in Chris's native soil, in styles I hadn't necessarily expected. As for the question of English black metal, Chris has a thoughtful answer, a robust rebuttal to the old saw that “there's no such thing as 'English' culture." 00:00 - Intro 3:08 - Peaceville death-doom, songwriting for Winterfylleth 33:22 - Bolt Thrower, Carcass 52:45 - Is there an “English Sound” in black metal? (YES, but it's not what you think) 1:01:09 - Deep Purple 1:06:40 - Interlude - Iron Maiden - “Blood Brothers” fr. Brave New World (EMI, 2000) 1:13:54 - Fairport Convention, folk ballads, and pastoral poetry 1:30:21 - Primordial, the turn towards pagan black metal 1:43:22 - Drudkh / Hate Forest vs. other Slavic black metal 2:14:00 - Outro - Winterfylleth - “The Insurrection,” fr. The Imperious Horizon (Candlelight, 2024) Terminus links: Terminus on Youtube Terminus on Patreon Terminus on Instagram Terminus on Facebook thetrueterminus@gmail.com

This week's show, after a 1968 Kinks croon: brand new Chameleons, John Davis, Dummy, Linda Lindas, Franz Ferdinand, Sansyou, and Green Pajamas, plus The Beatles, The Creation, Chan Romero, Gregory Isaacs, Fairport Convention, Solomon Burke, and Lorne G...

The folk music players in the UK have a much more liberal outlook on arrangements than we've had in the US. They enjoy shaking things up a bit while we tend to view traditional music with more reverance, staying close to the original renditions. On Pt.1 this week, we'll hear arrangements of folk music from the UK, some of which have been radically rearranged to more modern tastes. We'll hear The Young Tradition, The Furrow Collective, Fairport Convention and others. Listen for some of your favorites … this week on The Sing Out Radio Magazine.Pete Seeger / “If I Had A Hammer”(excerpt) / Songs of Hope and Struggle / Smithsonian FolkwaysThe Ashley Hutchings Big Beat Combo / “Spinnin' Jenny-Soldier's Spree” / Twangin' “N” A-Traddin' Revisited / Talking ElephantThe Young Tradition / “Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter” / Oberlin 1968 / Wing & A PrayerMartin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick / “Byker Hill” / Life & Limb / TopicWalter Bulwer et. al. / “Jenny Lind-The Girl I Left Behind Me” / English Country Music / TopicAlasdair Roberts / “Sweet William's Ghost” / Strange Folk / AlbionDavy Graham / “Anji” / The Guitar Player / SanctuaryThe Ashley Hutchings Big Beat Combo / “The Sherwood Hand-Jive” / Twangin' “N” A-Traddin' Revisited / Talking ElephantThe Furrow Collective / “The Cruel Grave” / Fathoms / HudsonFairport Convention / “A Sailor's Life” / Unhalfbricking / CarthageOffa Rex / “The Blackleg Miner” / The Queen of Hearts / NonesuchLankum / “Salonika” / Cold Old Fire / Self-producedPete Seeger / “If I Had A Hammer”(excerpt) / Songs of Hope and Struggle / Smithsonian Folkways

Iain Matthews has been in the music industry for over five decades. From his start with The Fairporrt Convention in the late '60s to Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong to his amazing solo career, he continues to write and record excellent music. We talk about his musical journey and his latest album, How Much Is Enough, which will be released on October 25th of this year.

“There was no Command-Zed back then!” John Wood engineered or produced some of the most magical, timeless and affecting records ever made - by Nick Drake, John Martyn, the McGarrigles, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, John Cale, Squeeze and many more. He's 85 now and looks back here at a luminous career that started with mastering singles at Decca and transferred to Sound Techniques, the mecca he co-founded in an old cowshed in Chelsea when takes were spontaneous and even the tape-op was part of the performance. He misses those days, when albums were organic and the labels had less control, and talks here about … … “the age when sound had perspective and seemed three-dimensional”. … Nick Drake's confidence and his guiding lights - eg the Beach Boys and Randy Newman (“who I'd never heard of”). And his final nighttime sessions. … the way Fairport recorded – “We're only going to do it once” – and why they could make three albums a year. …managing the girls in the Incredible String Band, “especially when Licorice played drums”. … John Cale in “maniac mode” and his sudden and unexpected friendship with Nick Drake. … Cale and Nico at the Chelsea Hotel. … and why ‘Geoff Muldaur Is Having A Wonderful Time' was the job he remembers the fondest. Also mentioned: the Downliners Sect, Judy Collins, The Marmalade, Graham Gouldman and Squeeze. John's got nothing to plug and just wanted to talk to us. Thanks, John, and bless your cotton socks.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You may know Iain Matthews from his time with Fairport Convention. Or, you may know him from all his other groups, projects and solo records. And he's about to add another one to the list. How Much is Enough is his newest. We talked with Iain in what turned out to be a master class on songwriting.How Much is Enough is out on October 25th via Sunset Blvd records. For more information, check out Iain's website.

“There was no Command-Zed back then!” John Wood engineered or produced some of the most magical, timeless and affecting records ever made - by Nick Drake, John Martyn, the McGarrigles, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, John Cale, Squeeze and many more. He's 85 now and looks back here at a luminous career that started with mastering singles at Decca and transferred to Sound Techniques, the mecca he co-founded in an old cowshed in Chelsea when takes were spontaneous and even the tape-op was part of the performance. He misses those days, when albums were organic and the labels had less control, and talks here about … … “the age when sound had perspective and seemed three-dimensional”. … Nick Drake's confidence and his guiding lights - eg the Beach Boys and Randy Newman (“who I'd never heard of”). And his final nighttime sessions. … the way Fairport recorded – “We're only going to do it once” – and why they could make three albums a year. …managing the girls in the Incredible String Band, “especially when Licorice played drums”. … John Cale in “maniac mode” and his sudden and unexpected friendship with Nick Drake. … Cale and Nico at the Chelsea Hotel. … and why ‘Geoff Muldaur Is Having A Wonderful Time' was the job he remembers the fondest. Also mentioned: the Downliners Sect, Judy Collins, The Marmalade, Graham Gouldman and Squeeze. John's got nothing to plug and just wanted to talk to us. Thanks, John, and bless your cotton socks.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Leslie shares a selection of his favourite songs with Fairport Convention and reflects on his highlights with The post Chris Leslie – Fairport Convention appeared first on The Strange Brew .

This week on Transmissions, we're sitting down with a genuine legend: Joe Boyd, author of And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, out September 24 from ZE Books. On the front cover of the book Brian Eno—a venerated saint in the Aquarium Drunkard canon—declares: “I doubt I'll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.”  Joe Boyd's career is the stuff of myth. As a producer, he's worked with a murder's row of collaborators, including Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, R.E.M., Richard and Linda Thompson, Incredible String Band, Vashti Bunyan, 10,00 Maniacs, and many more. In 2006, Boyd released a memoir, White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s, which documented his time in the studio during that decade, but And the Roots of Rhythm Remain casts an even wider net, exploring the overlap of musical cultures and the complicated, human negotiations that undergird creative synthesis.  As you'll hear in the early part of our talk, Joe played a pivotal role Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury's music writing journey. In 2008, Woodbury reviewed a Nick Drake box set for the sorely missed Tiny Mix Tapes. The piece also included an email interview with Boyd, whose responses were insightful and in-depth—an experience that inspired Woodbury to chase after interviews. So this conversation picks up the thread some decade and a half later, detailing not only Boyd's new book, but also his experiences with Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Vashti Bunyan, and many more adventures. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you'll find nearly 20 years worth of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard.  Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard

Joe Boyd produced Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others, released acts from all over the globe on his Hannibal label and has just written a mighty and definitive account of the history of popular music, And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, tracing the way different sounds from different countries became interwoven. Nobody is better qualified to write this book as you'll discover from this enthralling conversation. Among the highlights … … “if Mick and Keith had had Spotify there'd have been no Rolling Stones.” … the African roots of Little Richard's horn section. … how a Zulu folk tune from 1939 ended up on the Lion King soundtrack. … “Western musicians are governed by keys, valves and frets but what matters is the notes in between”. … the evolution of ska as rock and roll was too exhausting in the heat of Jamaican dancehalls. … Alan Freed, the “Pied Piper” that led white American teenagers into black music. … Duke Ellington and music “too complicated for white audiences to follow”. … the bossa nova in Nick Drake's River Man. … Paul Simon's Graceland and the meaning of authenticity. … world music's problem with drum machines. .. the attraction of music whose origin you can hear before the vocal comes in. Order Joe's highly recommended book here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roots-Rhythm-Remain-Journey-Through/dp/0571360009Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textPart 2 of TrackTalk with legendary drummer, Dave Mattacks! In Part 2, we do a deep-dive into more of Dave's iconic tracks from XTC, Paul McCartney, Jethro Tull and more! Come along for ride for Part 2, thanks for watching and listening! Please subscribe! Be sure to check out Part 1! https://youtu.be/pDT7hrn0k1k?si=Acyd2jlMNC0O0845 Live From My Drum Room With John DeChristopher! is a series of conversations with legendary drummers and Music Industry icons, hosted by drummer and music industry veteran, John DeChristopher, drawing from his five decades in the Music Industry. Created in 2020, and ranked BEST Drum Podcast, "Live From My Drum Room With John DeChristopher!" gives the audience an insider's view that only John can offer. And no drummers are harmed on any shows! Please subscribe!Exciting news! 100% of the proceeds from Live From My Drum Room T-shirts goes toward a newly created Live From My Drum Room Scholarship with the Percussive Arts Society! https://pas.org/pasic/scholarships/ Live From My Drum Room T-shirts are made of soft 60%cotton/40% polyester. Available in XS-2XL. $25 includes shipping in the contiguous US. Payment with Venmo: @John-DeChristopher-2. Be sure to include your size and shipping address. Email: livefrommydrumroom@gmail.com. Thank you to everyone who's bought a shirt to help support this endeavor!https://linktr.ee/live_from_my_drum_roomwww.youtube.com/c/JohnDeChristopherLiveFromMyDrumRoom

Joe Boyd produced Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others, released acts from all over the globe on his Hannibal label and has just written a mighty and definitive account of the history of popular music, And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, tracing the way different sounds from different countries became interwoven. Nobody is better qualified to write this book as you'll discover from this enthralling conversation. Among the highlights … … “if Mick and Keith had had Spotify there'd have been no Rolling Stones.” … the African roots of Little Richard's horn section. … how a Zulu folk tune from 1939 ended up on the Lion King soundtrack. … “Western musicians are governed by keys, valves and frets but what matters is the notes in between”. … the evolution of ska as rock and roll was too exhausting in the heat of Jamaican dancehalls. … Alan Freed, the “Pied Piper” that led white American teenagers into black music. … Duke Ellington and music “too complicated for white audiences to follow”. … the bossa nova in Nick Drake's River Man. … Paul Simon's Graceland and the meaning of authenticity. … world music's problem with drum machines. .. the attraction of music whose origin you can hear before the vocal comes in. Order Joe's highly recommended book here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roots-Rhythm-Remain-Journey-Through/dp/0571360009Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textMy guest is returning champion, legendary drummer, Dave Mattacks for a special episode of TrackTalk! In Part 1, we do a deep-dive into some iconic tracks from Fairport Convention , Joan Armatrading and XTC, with Dave giving us incredible insights into how the songs were created. The show aired LIVE on Facebook for over two hours, so I split this into two episodes. So come along for ride for Part 1, thanks for watching and listening and stay tuned for Part 2! Please subscribe!Live From My Drum Room With John DeChristopher! is a series of conversations with legendary drummers and Music Industry icons, hosted by drummer and music industry veteran, John DeChristopher, drawing from his five decades in the Music Industry. Created in 2020, and ranked BEST Drum Podcast, "Live From My Drum Room With John DeChristopher!" gives the audience an insider's view that only John can offer. And no drummers are harmed on any shows! Please subscribe!https://linktr.ee/live_from_my_drum_roomwww.youtube.com/c/JohnDeChristopherLiveFromMyDrumRoom

No punches pulled this week. At the bell, a brand new spin from the Afro Celt Sound System due later this month. St. John's songsmith Len O'Neill share his tale of Rebels In The Rubble. More cool celtic from The Go Set who always bring the Opportunities. And, at high tide we float a cool classic from Fairport Convention. Come out swingin' with Celt In A Twist! Afro Celt Sound System - The Lockdown Reel  Iain Copeland - Ailidh Dall of Lairg  Enter The Haggis - Lancaster Gate CANCON Yann Falquet - Le Deux Noyes De L'ile Aux Basques CANCON George Duff - Rattlin' Roarin' Willie  Harv - Saivo  Len O'Neill - Rebels In The Rubble CANCON GiveWay - The Poaching Song The Go Set - Opportunities Jansberg - Korncirkler Fairport Convention - Wait For The Tide To Come In  Jim Moray - Edward Of The Lowlands Open The Door For Three - The Fairy Jig Set   Ashley MacIsaac - Belle Cote CANCON 59:54

Sorry for this episode being a little late….I'd meant to get it out earlier, but who knows where the time goes????? If you've not deserted me…..Welcome to episode 177 of Love That Album. Carrying on with the Fairport Convention connection of episode 176, I welcome three wonderful guests to the podcast this time around – all connected to the great Sandy Denny. Firstly, there's a return visit from John Penhallow, the first manager of Fairport. He's done a lot of archival work in relation to Sandy's music over the years, and we discuss that. Then, there's Sandy's daughter, Georgia Rose Lucas and musician / composer Carla Fuchs. The two of them are behind an album released in 2023 called Songbird. Carla composed new music to lyrics written by Sandy in her journals that were never previously recorded. The two of them collaborated to make this project come to existence. Not on the show, but huge thanks as well go to Elizabeth Hurtt, wife of the late Trevor Lucas, who took the time to tell me about the journey of these lyrics in Sandy's journals. There had been a plan many years ago for many artists to utilise her words for new songs….that didn't happen, but we explain what DID in the show's discussion. Huge thanks to Elizabeth for filling me in. My gratitude to all these wonderful folk for taking the time to talk about the Songbird project, the Attic Tracks songs put out on cassette and then CD by John on Raven Records years ago, Redgum, and Sandy's life and music. If you wish to search out a copy of Carla's album, it's available on Bandcamp at: https://talkingelephantrecords.bandcamp.com/album/songbird Download this episode of LTA from your podcast app of choice (not Spotify). The wider back catalogue of episodes can also be found at https://lovethatalbumpodcast.blogspot.com Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to https://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows. You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum Proudly Pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

British singer/guitarist Richard Thompson spoke to Fresh Air in 1994 and 2022 about about his formative years and about pioneering a new musical genre that blended rock with traditional music of the British isles. He has a new album called Ship to Shore. Justin Chang reviews the new film Janet Planet, the first feature from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Folk hero Richard Thompson joins Sodajerker to discuss the artistic process behind his excellent new record Ship to Shore. In this in-depth conversation, the guitar slinging virtuoso talks about making efficient creative decisions, reliving the old songs on stage, and sharing his musical knowledge through his songwriting camp.

Richard started as guitarist in the folk-rock staple Fairport Convention in 1967 but left in 1970 after five albums. He then recorded his debut solo album, six as Richard and Linda Thompson, and has since recorded 20 more solo albums of lyrically inventive, stylistically varied tunes that nearly always feature very skilled guitar work. We discuss "Freeze," the first single from his new album Ship to Shore, "The Ghost of You Walks" from You? Me? Us? (1996), and "Don't Take It Lying Down" from Still/Variations EP (2015). End song: "When I Get to the Border" by Richard and Linda Thompson from I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974). Intro: "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" from Rumor and Sigh (1991). More at richardthompson-music.com. Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Support us on Patreon.

Richard Thompson began his music career as the guitarist for the English folk rock band Fairport Convention. Following his time with the group, he began performing as part of a duo with his then wife, Linda. Then, after the couple split, as a solo artist. Thompson has recorded over two dozen albums. His latest record is called Ship to Shore and it's out now! He talks with us about the new record, his time with Fairport Convention and even performs a few songs alongside his wife, Zara Phillips.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy