TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Hi

As we all know Fairport normally don't perform any songs after Meet On The Ledge. I seem to remember attending a gig at the Town and Country Club in the late 1980's when they played another song after Meet On The Ledge. I can't remember what the song was or why they sang it.

Does anybody else remember this? What was the song and why did they sing it?

Thanks

Chris

I've never seen them do another song after MotL, but I have seen them not do it at all - certainly 3 times, maybe more - when they encored with WKWTTG twice, and finished after Matty at least once.

They have a couple of times at Cropredy, too.  But I'm going back many years ....

A recent Wintour (2008?) date in Edinburgh finished with MOTL followed by Best Wishes, I'm fairly certain.

Barry

I don't remember them following MOTL at Cropredy.
When they have played on more than one night I don't think they have always played MOTL except on the Saturday night.
Some years are only vaguely remembered however ;D, so this could be wrong.
Has anyone else seen them perform after MOTL?
Chris

Whenever I've seen them perform Best Wishes it has always preceedd MOTL.

Although I have a notoriously unreliable memory. I too recall at least one Cropredy & possibly a 1980s tour gig without MOTL as closer. Checking the cover of "Live at Broughton Castle" video, "Orange Blossom Special" is listed as following. An undoubted heresy in many quarters, but I'd not be too disappointed to see it "retired" for a while. ;)

(Where's the "Expletive-Delighted" website when you need it?)

I saw them once at St Georges Hall in Bradford where the audience had been very sedate until "MOTL" and possibly because they finally responded "Who knows Where The Time Goes" was played as an encore.

Whilst Jonah was involved around the stage (Cropredy and out on the road), I can't imagine anybody in the band being brave enough to play anything afterwards...his very very forceful 'and as you know, we never follow that' always used to sound somewhat threatening!!

An anorak writes: Having just checked the '81 video (Musicfolk 1991 reissue) I think I can confirm that "Mason's Apron" / "Orange Blossom Special" does follow "MOTL". Supporting evidence is that Simon, as is everyone else, is wearing the regulation black "set list" tee-shirt up to & including "MOTL". After the film cut before "Mason's Apron" he's now wearing a collared shirt on top. Unlikely for him to have donned this for only one number mid-set. QED.  :)

I'm sure I've seen them do this a couple of times, but both a very long time ago and I can't remember where!

Its odds on that Masham town hall in the 80's was one of them though.

I have definately heard Best Wishes follow MOTL. Preston Guild Hall I think ws last time I saw it.

(I'm probably wrong on this one but...) I seem to recall that there was one Winter Tour in the late 1980s when they didn't play MOTL at all at the Chesterfield Winding Wheel concert. I just have a feeling that this was the Chesterfield concert in early February 1989, only a few days after Trevor Lucas had died. Does anyone else have the same recollection...?

Jonah Jones used to come on stage after MOTL and say, "We don't follow that."

At B'ham Symph Hall yonks ago, Steve Gibbons highjacked MOTL with "Shake it, shake it up baby now" and it morphed into twist and shout.  It is etched in my memory.

A couple of years ago at Huddersfield they did Best Wishes at the end with no MOTL.
We were rather suprised!

I wasn't just going mad, then. Phew.

I am fairly sure that I have attended a couple of gigs where MOTL was NOT the final number. Sorry that I can't furnish with more detail. This would be in recent years, however, because I only saw FC live for the first time in around 2001/2002.

The more I think about it, I feel certain this has happened, and the likely contender would probably be "Best Wishes".

I remember being rather surprised at the time  :o

I have to add this though...... *whispers*......does it really matter?

(Ducks beneath parapet at this point). ::)

p.s. Mods - I promise not to modify this post for a third time.  :-[

I was at that gig. I found a packet of fags on the floor! Handy as I was skint.
Anyway, you're right. They did 'Who Knows Where The Time Goes', no explanation given.
I seem to remember they were having a really good time, perhaps they just didn't want to go home.

I remember 2002 in Worthing on the winter tour when Simon had a heavy cold and had to sit down to play, too unwell to sing, Peggy and Chris handling all vocal duties. Vikki Clayton joined them on stage for a Liege & Lief-style version of Matty Groves before finishing the set with WKWTTG, no MOTL

Here's a controversial view. I can absolutely understand MOTL being the final number at Cropredy every year, and would be disappointed if that changed. But at every concert?

Doesn't it diminish its power to be played so often?

(If this is a resigning issue, I'll accept a reasonable severance package.)

I have to say I concur.

Jules

I can see where you're coming from. Doesn't bother me in the slightest to hear them do it 3 times a year. However, I will agree that when they perform it on the Wintour for example, it just sounds like another song (depending on who's guesting of course, I remember it sounding fab when Beth from TTL sang it in 07), but when it's performed at Cropredy, every year it is really something special.

I wouldn't know if they did,as until just recently I belonged to the faction who get up & leave on hearing the opening chords of MOTL, to avoid the rush in the car park!!!!  ;D  ;)

Sacrilege!  ;)

It's similar to Steeleye's 'All Around my Hat' - everyone expects to hear it. Not everyone going to Wintour dates goes to Cropredy.

We rebelled last year at Cropredy.  I refused to be rushed to the car park until I was good and ready and stayed until the end of MOTL.  It took us all of ten minutes longer to get home.

I would never leave before the end.. unless I was ill or something!!

Mind you in 2008 we did drive home after the end.. remember it rained a bit and we were camping  :o

Neither would I. there might be a late goal or something. Oh, hang on, I'm in the wrong thread.

Yeah the car park field was like a mud bath.

We got home at 4am and I didn't notice my muddy legs till the next morning.. had to change the sheets!!

Mind you it usually takes us a week to get home  ;) ;D

I'm not sure that's quite true, is it...the performance of AAMH is, in my experience only (about 6 or 7 Steeleye gigs) much more of a 50/50 thing than MotL....you may be right that everyone expects to hear it, but Steeleye seem much more comfortable with not playing it than Fairport do with their 'anthem'.  

Or maybe I've just seen the 3 Steeleye gigs ever where they didn't play it!

It was played at every gig I attended last year - and there were a fair few!

But last year was the 40th anniversary, wasn't it? You'd expect the "hits" on a tour like that.

Indeed.  It has been noted over the past few years that AAMH is not always included.  But it probably is played more often than not.

I've been to about 40 Steeleye gigs since the reunion tour in 2002, and I can only think of ONE, maybe two, of those gigs where 'Hat' wasn't in the setlist - and the one gig I'm sure of, I overheard quite a bit of grousing after the show about its absence.
Admittedly in the late 90s (when Maddy had left the band) I don't think 'Hat' made many appearances....

The (at least 3) gigs I'm thinking of which didn't feature it are all pre-2002 (1984 ish to 1995 ish) and all featuring Maddy.  Funnily enough the one gig which I saw Gay (sans Maddy) do with the band (2000 ish), they did play it!  Pretty certain on the tour they were both singing, it was played when I saw them at Canterbury.

AAMH is a different sort of thing to MOTL.   When I sing along with the crowd to MOTL every time I am moved by the lyrics and dwell on the temporary nature of our existence.  When I sing along with the crowd to AAMH I am enjoying a thoroughly good romping folk rock.

When I was a yoof and went to Radio Caroline Roadshows, the night would not have been over without Freebird (loud headbanging 15 minute guitar solo) and probably Hi-ho Silver Lining followed by Caroline by the Fortunes telling us it was time to go home.

Aren't all of these songs really the grown-up equivalent of Zebedee going boioioing "time for bed"... followed by the hurdy gurdy/barrel organ and the merry-go-round?

Yep, it was Chesterfield 1989 - I remember it well as it was my first ever Fairport gig and I've always wondered why they didn't do MOTL that night.