TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

January is my least favourite month of the year.  It's all a bit of a let-down after the festivities of the previous one.  So what better time to have two much anticipated Cd's drop onto my doormat.
  
I couldn't decide which one to play first: the one from last year's Cropredy -  fabulous performances which are still fairly fresh in my memory but which I longed to hear again ... or the unknown one which I feared might not live up to expectation.
  
In the end I plumped for the unknown and need not have worried.  I'm not sure how I managed to miss all this Excalibur stuff but it is brilliant!  My excuse is that I only discovered Fairport in 1998 and have spent the last ten years catching up on the back catalogue.  Of course I am familiar with Castle Rock but the rest are completely new to me.  (There are a few phrases that I recognise ;))

The obvious thing to do now is to explore the five Alan Simon albums from which these tracks have been taken.  And then there's the whole Pentangle/Jacqui  McShee thing – wow, what a great voice!  I only ever heard her once at one of the Cropredy warm-ups and am rather ashamed to admit that I didn't pay much attention then.  And then there's ...  

Do you ever feel that there is too much good music in the world and that there's never going to be enough time to listen to it all?

I haven't got this yet so I'm intrigued. 5 albums? There is Excalibur, Le Concert Mythique, Excalibur II  and the as yet unreleased Anne De Bretagne. What is the 5th album?

Well the Cd notes mention:

Excalibur le Legende des Celtes (1998)
Excalibur le Concere Mythique (1999)
Gaia (2003)
Excalibur II - the Celtic Ring (2007)
Anne de Bretagne (2008)

And there is going to be Excalibur III

I might have got it all wrong ;D - it's completely new to me and I'm feeling a bit confused and to be honest in a bit of a fluster because it is all so good! ::)

Ooh Gaia. I'll have to look that one up. I've got all the others but I hadn't heard of that one!

nor me - can someone report details here please!

There is only one track on F&G from Gaia - Danza del Crepusculo (Dance of Twilight) - composed by Ric Sanders.

Gaia is a concept album about saving the planet.  I do not know if any other Fairport members were involved in this one.

http://travellingeternityroad.yuku.com/topic/1847  You need to scroll down a bit.

Sorry - composed by Alan Simon, performed by Ric Sanders.

Please excuse the double post but I don't know how to EDIT.

Do you ever feel that there is too much good music in the world and that there's never going to be enough time to listen to it all?

[/quote]May I dearly hope that will always, always, always be true. To this point true in my own collection let alone the entire rest of the world!

May I dearly hope that will always, always, always be true. To this point true in my own collection let alone the entire rest of the world!
[/quote]

all the time dear boy, all the time :(
so much music, so little time :'(

For those who would like to hear more Fairport electric, this is the one for you, unless you already have the Excalibur albums of course.  Excalibur II seems to be the only one currently available – just ordered it from Amazon - so it looks like I might have missed the boat :(

I'm wondering if this year's winter tour will be the Fame and Glory tour or whether there will be a mini-set: Simon to sing the title track (and a few others hopefully :D), Chris to sing The Soldier, Ric to play Danza del Crepusculo and I can definitely hear Peggy singing Marie le Cordeliere 8)

I've listened to the clips on the web site, and intend to buy a copy in Basingstoke in only just over two weeks now  ;D

What I was wondering is: will we ever have a chance to see this whole thing live?

To quote the site:
"This huge project is truly impressive when fully staged - there were over 100 musicians on the stage in Paris when last performed."
And:
"We hope you'll be pleasantly surprised to hear us playing some less-than-familiar songs with some unexpected colleagues (including the Prague Symphony Orchestra)".

How cool would it be to see that?
Are there any current plans to stage it again, in Paris or elsewhere?
* Starts counting Tesco tokens, to see if enough for Eurostar tickets*

Some of the tracks on F&G wouldn't require as many as 100 musicians but there could be 7 with Ken Nicol and Phil Cool ;)

As to seeing the whole thing live ... I live in hope ;D

Try Amazon France. I don't think the first album was ever released in the UK but it has recently been re-released in France in a double set with the DVD of the live show (of which Le Concert Mythique is the soundtrack).

As for seeing it live, there are plans to stage Anne De Bretagne in Brittany later this year but nothing confirmed yet.

Thanks GubGub - Amazon France came up trumps ;D

A short break in Brittany later in the year sounds good too.  I'll pay more attention in future and try not to miss any announcements.

Hope to see you there!  :)

We watched Le Concert Mythique.  The chaps and everyone else, including the audience looked like they were having great fun.  There were high kicks from DP while playing the bass - very impressive!  And Gerry ... centre front stage - marvellous! We're still trying to work out Simon's character - was it Arthur or Lancelot?

try musikfolk, they may well have the cd/live dvd available
try
http://www.musikfolk.co.uk/cat-f.html

Thanks Jim but I managed to obtain Le Concert Mystique CD and DVD from Amazon France.  The more I listen to this music the more I love it - the rest of the family agree.

Did anyone here go to the concert?

Can anyone tell me who Simon's character is?

Please {:-)

Perhaps Simon will when he next pops in. Katy's mum.

I wouldn't bet on it: no-one seems to know much about these concerts and recordings ;)  I'm even beginning to believe my own typo in an earlier post ...



It doesn't help that half of it is in French either ::)

You could ask him if you go to a wintour gig.

I'm going to two - London and St Albans ;D

Yes - Both Tony & I were there. I can't remember who Simon played...

I've been doing some research - I found a Dorling Kindersley book about the Arthurian legends on Katy's shelves (good old DK) - and I think he was Gawain.  I've decided that Roger Hodgson was Arthur.

Finally got this album and I like it a lot - presumably because of the single song writer it has more coherence then recent Fairport efforts.

I roo will have to track down the original albums.

According to this site, Anne de Bretagne will be performed in Nantes 29 and 30 June ...

http://www.francebillet.com/place-spectacle/manifestation/Opera-ANNE-DE-BRETAGNE-NANAN.htm

Oh dear. I can feel my credit card getting itchy. No direct flights to Nantes though which is a bit of a pain. I'm thinking of going on 30th. Anybody else doing it?

I'm a little bit wary though after last year's shows were cancelled.

Haha...  I see that site is advertising our chaps in a strange way...

http://www.francebillet.com/place-spectacle/ficheartiste/-FAIRPORT-CONVENT-b60fa223c0a8850a01229301fc2465cd.htm

I think we need to know....   ;D ;D ;D

;D ;D ;D

We'll have nun of this grinning!

Oh dear. I couldn't resist, especially when I saw that the gig is actually in the medieval castle. How atmospheric! I've booked. Cheap hotel in the city centre too. Now I just have to wait for Eurostar tickets to go on sale (not for a couple of months apparently).

Hope it goes ahead this time!

It's okay this time but we better not make a habit of it.

Lots of interesting news on Alan Simon's website.

The Anne De Bretagne album will be released in March.

Excalibur is to be performed in Germany on July 25 followed by a 30 date tour including Switzerland & Austria through January 2010. "The rest of Europe should follow". It appears that Fairport are included in the cast for this.

Finally there is to be a third album in the Excalibur series to be released in November.

More about the Excalibur concert in Germany on 25th July ...

http://www.excalibur-show.com/en/home.html

This is a better date for me as the Anne de Bretagne dates are both on school days.

I wonder when the dates for the tour will be released. And if the "rest of Europe" includes anywhere in the UK?



Oooh, this is a few days after school breaks up... And I haven't booked anything for this summer yet...And my German isn't too rusty (although understanding Bavarians was never a strong point).
Come on, Janet, talk me into it!

I'm trying to think of a good reason not to go to this! It is in an old castle which is also a brewery!  :)

And I have some air miles to use.

Too much temptation being put in my way recently.

Roger Hodgson!!! 8) 8) 8)

Oh, I see ... you meant Germany  ;D

I asked Peggy about this last night and he said there were no plans to stage it in the UK, as there wasn't/isn't the audience you get on the continent and so it's infeasible due to the large amount of people involved.

If of interest, my reviews of Fame And Glory and Live at Cropredy '08 are now up on Green Man Review:
http://greenmanreview.com/cd/cd_fairportconvention_032009.html

Excellent reviews Michael - very interesting observations.  I agree that it is not necessary to know about the Arthurian legends in order to appreciate these songs, but as always with Fairport, their work leads me on to other things in terms of reading, research and other music. Thank you.

I'm interested in this Excalibur thing now, having bought the CD at Milton Keynes a few weeks back and finally having a moment to listen to it on the big stereo quite loud (well, it's the only way isn't it?).  Mmmm, especially Fame and Glory...  Anway, where was I?

Oh yes, is it just me or does the "English" button on Alan Simon's website not work?  It's not that I'm xenophobic, but my French is dire-to-nonexistent and it'd take me until July to figure out what the French version is saying...  Because it's all flash-based even Google's auto-translate thing didn't seem to work.

Anyway, can someone point me to any website with information about the Brittany gig?  Or have I already missed it?  Or was it just a rumour after all?  Or failing that some of the later European gigs, Justin might not have any coursework in August...  ::)

Welcome into the fold - there are about five of us now ;D

The English button on Alan Simon's site doesn't work for me either.  Keep persevering with the French; it does get easier. You are going to have to get used to it anyway if you want to explore the Excalibur stuff ;)

Have a look at the Anne de Bretagne thread for more about the concert in June. There are other Excalibur related threads too.