TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Just been alerted by Ian at FoF to the release of the above. Looks to be a good 'un if the track list is anything to go by. Offered at very modest price here:-

http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/15698969/When-We-Were-Very-Young/Product.html

It's a Talking Elephant release - RRP £13.99

Now that is a 'must have'.  Thanks for alert :)

its on my list of "to buys" for cropredy

Same here, That's £13.99 less to spend on beer! fancy buying an early birthday pressie Jim? .......Thought not! ;) ;)

Available for mp3 download on Amazon, if you like that kind of thing. I'm a CD sort of guy myself but at least Amazon give you little tasters of each track - sounds pretty good!

I'm liking the sound of that!

That looks to be worth the price for Sloth alone.

if you buy the download from amazon you dont get "sloth" ???
so beware [;-)

Also available at emusic and you get all the tracks

Is that because it says Album Only? I think it means you can't download the individual track, but the track will be available if you download he album as a whole.

Release date is 16th August.

But as Simon and Swarb are doing a signing session...

THere were copies at Folk on the Oak a while back...definitely at Cropredy

I ordered it through Talking Elephant, thinking we weren't going to make it to Cropredy - so no signed copy for me :(  Act in haste, repent at leisure etc.

PS  We are going to Cropredy after all so maybe it will be waiting for me when I return and will help to ofset that "oh dear, it's all over for this year" feeling.

Give Talking Eklephant a call - ask if they've already despatched your copy - if they haven't, ask if you can pick it up at their stall with suitable ID - take it to the signing & get it signed!

Never know when you might need it! ;)

Seriously ... a good idea Chris, I will take your advice.  Thanks :)

Got mine at Talking Elephant and got it signed by the great men - nearly missing the Richard Digance "Morris Dancing" in the process. Added to my music streaming system last night and partially listened to at the time. Will have to have a proper listen over the weekend.
The photos inside take me back to seeing them playing in a pub (can't for the life of me remember where) somewhere around this time.

Have had so many CDs delivered this week I am struggling to listen to them all. Just listened to this for the first time. Even though the sound isn't brilliant on some tracks what a good CD. Some great playing by both Swarb and Simon. A lovely mix of songs, styles and tempo, plus some humorous ones thrown in to the mix for good measure. Was in another room for "The Dogs They Had A Party" and had to replay to make sure I had heard what I thought I had. I had.

Another CD that gets my thumbs up.

Have just listened to this.

Patchy sound quality renders it more of a curio than essential listening but Simon's playing on Sloth makes me think the song could and should be rehabilitated by the current Fairport line up. Solos from Simon (acoustic), Peggy, Ric & Chris (mandolin). That would be splendid I think.

Pretty please Simon?

Well, my many of my favourite Sloths come from the 4 piece early 80s lineup (either Bruce or DM, Peggy, Simon and Swarb) so im sure these guys could cut it wonderfully.  Chris on the fiddle though please.

Well yes, I take your point but Ric has to be involved so two fiddle solos?

I didn't mention Ric, and I said 'these guys'!  Make your own mind up...  ;D

Er...OK  ??? Well, I am assuming that any regular re-engagement with the song would have to be performed by the current line up. That was really what I was suggesting. I reckon they could do a great version too.

I have never heard a take by the late 70s/early 80s line ups or even by the Angel Delight line up but Simon's playing on the When We Were Very Young version really makes me want to.



Edit: I tell a lie. The version from The Airing Cupboard Tapes is from '71 isn't it. I am listening to it now and I think it backs up my original thought.

What I was really saying was that Sloth doesn't need Richard, even though everybody thinks it does.  

I also happen to think that Chris Leslie is one of the best fiddle players in the world, and, ultimately, it frustrates the hell out of me that he doesn't get to play it very often.  Its always struck me as like having John Entwistle in the band and making him play keyboards (that's exaggeration for dramatic effect in case you didn't guess!)

The current lineup could definitely do a great Sloth.

Yes. It is a debate for a different thread really but I always thought it was an odd decision. Chris is, as you say, a remarkable fiddle player but when Maart left the band it was surely not a fiddle player that they were in the market for. I just think they enjoyed his company so much during his stint in 92 that they wanted him in the band one way or another.

I saw Fairport at Gosport Festival in 92 after Ric had his accident and the line up was Simon, Peggy, DM, Maart & Chris, one of the most electrifying and memorable Fairport gigs I have ever been to.

I'm not sure there is any question that Sloth can survive without Richard. There are some very fine versions by the Nine/Rising line ups. The bigger doubt may be how it works without Swarb. I'm not sure if that has ever been attempted (RT's solo performances excepted).

Pretty sure it has been in the early Maart days?  Or maybe my memory is up the spoint (No...just googled and there are several versions from '86 - Gottenburg (Apr, 86), Sheffield (18/1/86)...I'm pretty certain I have one or both of those on tape)

I was at that Gosport Festival gig too.  I agree!

I think Jerry D would have disagreed

The band did a very powerful  and impressive Sloth with Maart in Gothenburgh 1986. To my mind one of the best version and the boys did a good job vocally too.
I´m pretty sure today´s band can do a good Sloth even if neither Swarb or RT - or JD for that matter - is up there on the stage.

That Sheffield gig would have been the first time I saw Fairport - while I was at Uni.  Date sounds right.  Can't at this distance remember what they did or didn't play (and didn't know the repertoire well enough at that time anyway!

Is there something online about Gothenburg 86?

I'd love to see a Woodworm Archives release that includes Sloth from the Maart/DM era.  I'd also enjoy hearing Sloth interpreted by the current lineup with no guests.  To stay somewhat on topic, I really dug the two-man version of Sloth on When We Were Very Young.  If someone only knew the song from that version, they'd be like, "nothing is missing."  Then I'd expose 'em to a live recording with drums, lead guitar, and a 2.5-minute Dave Pegg bass solo.

That'll do for me!!!!  ;D ;D

I've just looked at my (easily to get at, at least) recordings and I've got versions of Sloth from the SN, DM, DP, MA, RS lineup recorded at

Sir George Robey, Finsbury Park, London England 1985.10.25

Carnegie Theatre, Workington, UK, 4th December 1985

Bottom Line, NYC, 1986-10-04

Can't put my hands on either of the other two mentioned just now....

I don't know one, but there is a Bottom Line Soundboard from 1986 with a 20 Minute Sloth version with Smoke on the water and Aqualung riff included....

Chers
Alex

Oh yes ;D, Chris has had a fine tutor ;)

C x

They certainly took me back in time, too!  ;)
Early April, 1983.

Waited for some time to get this, since I have most of the tracks on different CD.s, but still, it´s nice to have a good compilation and at the same time support the musos, not the least.
For me it was also nice to see the good radio recording from Uppsala being used as a source.  :)

I just took another look at some of the liner notes in the booklet from When We Were Very Young.

I noticed that there's a "WHERE AND WHEN" list of venues lettered A through I.  The letter H denotes "Butterfield Centre, Cincinnati  1st October 1982" and the letter I denotes "Mick Noll's Covington Haus, Cincinnati  16th April 1984".

There's a bold-faced letter to the right of the writing credits for each track.  None of those letters are H or I.

The last words on the back of the booklet are "With thanks to Steve Carson for long lost Cincinnati tapes".

I'm pretty sure that the Robey gig was the first ever performance by the Ric / Maart line-up... some friends went but I did not bother as I had been to Cropredy just a couple of months earlier. Now I'm gutted that I did not go, even 'though I saw 'em at Greenwich shortly after.

I seem to remember we had a discussion about this some time ago...it's amazing how close the debut of the new line up was to the final dates of the old one (including a couple of post-Cropredy performances in Europe with RT and JD).