TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

From the latest FC Newsletter:

NEW FAIRPORT ‘LIVE’ 2 CD SET
Also on the Spring Tour, we’ll have copies ‘hot-off-the-press’ of our brand new double live CD – “What We Did On Our Saturday”. This 2 CD set contains 25 tracks drawn from last year’s 50th anniversary celebration at Cropredy. Along with the current line-up, former Fairporters Richard Thompson, Ashley Hutchings, Iain Matthews, Judy Dyble and Maartin Allcock were present to join in the fun, ably assisted by Sally Barker, PJ Wright, Chris While and Ralph McTell.

We’ll also be selling pre-release copies from our online store (of course!) just as soon as we have them in stock! Keep an eye on the website for details.

I've got the set anyway, but I'll be happy to buy that.  Nice one.

Yay!!!!!

 ;D

Indeed!

Glad this CD is happening as I enjoyed the set last year so will be a good reminder  :)

Yes, I have been waiting for this.
I only wish the RT set and Morris On could be made available, too

I’ve often thought that with a number of different acts seen at Cropredy over the years but largely we have to make do with YouTube although I do appreciate people bothering to post on there, I don’t like it when I’m stuck behind them while they’re filming on their phones!  :-[

and.. ditto

That sounds like it should be a good listen! I hope there will be plenty of copies for sale at Cropredy.

If not, it will be on sale on the Fairport website

From FC's site...

From FC's official website:

Track Listing -
CD1
1. Time Will Show The Wiser    2. Reno Nevada    3. Suzanne    4. Farewell, Farewell
5. Crazy Man Michael   6. Come All Ye    7. The Deserter    8. Lark In The Morning Medley
9. Tam Lin    10. Walk Awhile    11. Poor Will & The Jolly Hangman    12. Sloth
CD2-
1. Now Be Thankful    2. Fotheringay    3. Ned Kelly    4. Rising For The Moon    
5. White Dress    6. A Surfeit Of Lampreys    7. The Hiring Fair    8.The Hexhanshire Lass
9. Who Knows Where The Time Goes?    10. Our Bus Rolls On    11. Dirty Linen
12. Matty Groves    13. Meet On The Ledge

Online sales from the FC website as soon as they get 'em in stock; also on sale at the Spring tour dates.  ;D

Apart from the "I genuinely can't believe they've chosen "Our Bus Rolls On" to sit in that little lot" shock, that's a rather fine little tracklisting...

Yes but they sang it during the Saturday set so it’s on the album - same for all the other tracks!

Always enjoy the Crop albums  [;-)

Which reminds me time to get the toast gurgling in readiness

It's not the full set is it?  Maybe it is.

As far as I can see it is missing:

Ye Mariners All
I Don't Know Where I Stand
Sir Patrick Spens
Talk About Money
Summer by the Cherwell
Jewel in the Crown

DW

Oh well we’ll have to put up with “the bus rolls on” but at least we’re spared “Summer by the Cherwell”

I’m afraid I must agree with my right honourable friend regarding this set list-based aberration. Sub-question to the house, if there weren’t a number from the 2017 album included, what would be the most recent song?

Agree, any of the omitted songs would have been infinitely preferable to that.

Believe it or not,I think the most recent songs are those off of Jewel in the Crown, ignoring the tracks off of the various ‘anniversary’ albums and newer compilations but, again, I’m probably wrong - again

Interesting isn't it? What may we have expected to showcase Chris Leslie's contribution?

John Gaudie
I Wandered by a Brookside

or

Festival Bell
Ukulele Central

??

I missed the fact that the dreadful "Summer by the Cherwell" was on the omitted list, it's a pity PJ didn't omit to write it in the first place.
     I'll get this CD but when I mp3 it I'll lose the bus dirge.

I would have preferred Jewel to the Bus but you can’t win ’em all I guess.
But I will buy it anyway,
signed
The Old Loyal Fairporter.

I presume Sir Patrick was omitted because they got somewhat lost.  The warm-up performances of that song were superior.

I'm very pleased, though I too would have subbed in "Jewel," which is my favorite post-1979 FC song.

As it is mine.

From collecting all the sets over the years, there are often stronger performances in the warm ups.  Given the nature of the beast, I guess that isn't that surprising.

I reckon a warm-up ‘bootleg’ would be a very popular item for a select group of afficionados. Still, there’s always next year’s RSD.

There's a 10-disc box set just waiting to happen.  I suspect, that while they have all the recordings, the hassle of organising permissions from all the relevant parties (and, sadly, estates) is just too much like hard work.  Best do it myself - "Sloth, versions 1-19" it is then...  ;D

Put me up for a copy!  8)

It is available for pre-order now. Delivery starting May 17th.

I ordered my first new FC record in years yesterday.
First job is to rip it and lose the bus song.

You might lose the bus this time but there will be another coming along soon.

2 at once - if you wait long enough.  ;)

I've just done the business too.  

Come on now, all together:

"Peggy on the bass with a smiling face
He loves the Breton way
Never more happy in the seaside air
With his sunburnt face, he plays
Simon picks such a cool guitar
From a California maker
He came along for the very first song
Original mover and shaker"

Jesus...

You should see the whole bloody thing written down!  The world can only cope one verse at a time...  And in such illustrious company on this release.  What were they thinking, indeed....

;D

It's an ill-advised attempt at an "Angel Delight" update that doesn't really work...

A god knows that was bad enough.  

You've got to admit this is better:

I quite like a breast of chicken
And I'm crazy about aspic and roast quails
But the sight to make my pulse rate quicken
Is a dozen nice fat snails
On the other hand, there's Pegg on the bass
Whose tastes in food are very much wider
You'll see a smile light up his face
At a couple of kippers and a glass of cider

Keep comedy out of folk(-rock).  Please.

Call that comedy?  :o

They must have been up all night writing these lyrics.  ::)

Just seen that Amazon lists the album for pre-order, but the listing has reviews of What We Did on Our Holidays!

Confirmed during the Union Chapel gig that Sir Pat was dropped due to a cock-up by Peggy.

It is available to view on Cropredy Blog however  ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkaj3M2WhUE

A brand new 'What We Did On Our Saturday' review.  :)

https://rootsandbranchesaustralia.wordpress.com/2018/05/13/fairport-convention-what-we-did-on-our-saturday-review/

Nice.  With all the provisos already talked about on here and in your review, I'm really looking forward to giving it a spin.  

Me too !...Having been there last year I'm now realising that I witnessed a very special event... 8)

Listening to it now with the evening sun streaming through the window and a stupid grin on my face.  :)

Hoping I can do the same some time next week when my copy arrives  :)

I could watch this all day

One small question - are the lineups quite right on some of the tracks? Maart seems to be listed twice on Rising for the Moon.

It though a great memento of that moment in time. Stupid grin still intact!

 Have there been any whispers of a dvd release for the show?  [;-)

I am reliably informed that this was looked at and discarded as uneconomic.

Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMzMcRsGBw4h6wIR8WYLW_g) is the preferred video outlet for Fairport for the foreseeable future.

 Ah. Shame. Thanks Andy. I was ill on the day itself but having a ticket I was determined to go. Lasted till about 10 p.m. but the cold finished me off... :(

Don’t mind that as YouTube is cheaper than forking out for a DVD which will no doubt cost a small fortune as they normally contain a load of extraneous stuff you usually only watch once but is there to justify the pricing.

Sorry to hear that. I missed much of Richard Thompson’s set as I was suffering from a rather severe diabetic hypo due to my type 1 condition and I messed up my injection!  :-[

I’m on insulin and I’ve found over the years what with the heat and the constant moving around my levels go much lower than usual
I find I inject the usual amount but can drink beer and have foods I’d usually avoid to stop me going low.
It’s the one weekend of the year where I don’t worry about what I eat and drink!!
The first year I was diagnosed I injected as normal and narrowly avoided two hypos!
I quickly learnt from that!

Hi Steve yeah I’m generally the same - eating and drinking stuff that I wouldn’t normally contemplate. Last year though I over-compensated thinking that burgers and oggies and Mexican and ice cream and beer would send my blood sugar levels too high. I should’ve learnt by now after 45 years with Type 1 Diabetes. However a guy I met last year who sat next to me saved the day by donating his doughnuts (maybe I should re-phrase that  ;D )

Got more of a prob this year though as I’ve been changed onto matching insulin dosages with carbohydrate counting so it’ll have to be even more guesswork as Ikve got a new type of insulin as well!

 Blimey. Your issue was worse than mine. I just had a s***ing sinus infection. Nine months late I should probably say: If anyone stood in a pile of vomit just outside Williamscot, I'm deeply sorry  :-[

Back to the album - my copy arrived this morning, giving it a first listen now. Superb so far. Nice work, chaps !

However, pedant alert, Nigel Schofield's sleeve notes - the current FC dates from 1998 when Gerry Conway joined, not 1996 as the notes say.

Also, I'm not sure about his observation that this reunion of the debut album lineup was a "genuine first."
A quick scan of my Cropredy 2002 35th Anniversary cd shows the same lineup gathered, GC subbing for Martin Lamble rather than DM who was absent from proceedings that year.

My copy has just arrived with the morning post (at 1.00pm!) so that’s this afternoons entertainment sorted  before I go to London tonight to see Mary Chapin Carpenter  :)

Much as I like the music on the various Free Reed box sets, Nigel Schofield made a lot of errors and some head scratching claims in the booklets which I find rather surprising for a big fan.

Also in the notes Nigel says that Richard Thompson's "Career-spanning set: one half acoustic- the other electric with Peggy, Simon, DM, & Christine Collister" was at the end of Saturday night!

I was present for a hastily organized 1967 line-up reunion in 2007, as well. "Time Will Show The Wiser" made the 2007 DVD, with Iain, Judy, RT, Simon, Ashley, and I believe both DM and GC (or at least DM) on drums.  If I recall correctly, someone remarks that they realized late that they had the 1967 configuration present, so they performed it with little or no rehearsal.

I seem to remember being asked if I would do  that reunion several months before  ;D
We did rehearse together at Woodworm studios and we did a warm up at the Mill, so not completely unrehearsed ;D

Then there was their wonderful reunion in 2009 for Joe Boyd's Witchseason gig at The Barbican...

I stand corrected and one-upped. For the record, it did not sound unrehearsed in 2007, but I nevertheless had some misinformation bouncing around in my head.  :)

He is a terrible writer. Everything he produces is riddled with errors and he has no objectivity. It is just a shame that that he has become the authorised voice of the band. There must be better candidates. What is Patrick Humphries up to these days?

“Mr Humphries, are you free?”  ;D

CD just arrived... so happy...  can’t  wait to have a listen.

 ;D ;D ;D

Did he write all the Free Reed box set material?

Yep.

😂😂😂😂😂

Loving it... I am back there in that glorious field!!

CD arrived, production is crystal clear and the whole thing is very enjoyable.

I hope you are huddled in an increasing number of jumpers as the CD goes on, and possibly sitting in the fridge by the end, in order to recreate the genuine experience!  ;) ;D

Totally agree and it’s almost as if we weren’t there (except for the crowd cheers recorded at the end of the tracks)

I should ask someone to chain smoke next to me for two hours, for authenticity.

Just finished CD1 - marvellous!  ;D

Listened again and really enjoyed it. Truly a memorable evening. Some great performances.

A few typos in the listing, but apart from that, immense.

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Coupled with the actual errors... Does nobody read this stuff?  Mind boggling.

But, aye, it's arrived here too.  Apart from the obvious, the best Fairport release for many a long year....  It's a bloody good live album.  Excellent.

Not sure I want to be reminded of that evening as I was in agony with sciatica and listened to most of the set lying down in my tent.

According to Setlist.fm (much more reliable than my memory) the actual setlist that night was

1   Bottom of the Punchbowl / East Neuke of Fife / Ye Mariners All
2   Summer By The Cherwell
3   Time Will Show the Wiser
4   I Don't Know Where I Stand
5   Reno Nevada
6   Suzanne
7   Farewell, Farewell
8   Crazy Man Michael
9   Come All Ye
10   The Deserter
11   The Lark in the Morning Medley
12   Tam Lin
13   Walk Awhile
14   Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman
15   Sloth
16   Now Be Thankful
17   Sir Patrick Spens
18   Fotheringay
19   The Ballad of Ned Kelly
20   Talk About Money
21   Rising for the Moon
22   White Dress
23   A Surfeit of Lampreys
24   The Hiring Fair
25   The Hexhamshire Lass
26   Jewel in the Crown
27   Who Knows Where the Time Goes?
28   Our Bus Rolls On
29   Dirty Linen
30   Matty Groves
31   Meet on the Ledge

So Bottom of the Punchbowl / East Neuke of Fife/ Ye Mariners All is missing, as are I Don't Know Where I Stand (Jude's only lead singing of the night), Sir Patrick Spens (cocked up by Peggy I recall), Talk About Money (understandable as that's Sally's number with them from the tour), & Jewel in the Crown.


But we do have Our Bus Rolls On. Oh, joy.

Still, with that possible exception, a bravura performance and the sound quality is crystal clear, even to my deaf ears.

So only missing 3 “useable/legitimate” songs then (I’m not counting Summer by the Cherwell)

Indeed riddled with them.
Don't know if it's a real error or just a (stupid? mean?) oversight but mentioning "The Full House line-up -...., for heaven's sake!" without pointing out Swarbrick missing and Chris Leslie filling in for him (as opposed to mentioning earlier Dave Mattacks doing the same for Martin Lamble) is not very smart either.

When Swarb complained about the mistakes in the Fairport by Fairport book Nigel defended himself, correct me when I'm wrong, by the time pressure and lack of proofreading opportunity caused by the publisher.
Who's to blame this time?

The sound on these is excellent. Just to check the difference I played the boot of the whole show recorded on the field that night and have to tip auld hat to the man with the mic, the quality is excellent.  He only lets  him self down for not pressing the pause button for the durations of "Summer " and "bus"😬

Err Summer by the Cherwell isn’t on the album unless I’ve misunderstood your post

I'm a nitpicker, I know.
But the liner notes also mention the TV program "Baton Rouge"
Should be "Bouton Rouge"

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Yes, you did misunderstand the post.😨

Sorry I apologise. I’ll try harder next time  :-\

I listened to it for the first time today and absolutely loved it.
I kept thinking it was an ‘old’ recording, from ‘back in the day’. It really brought back the feel and spirit of last Cropredy. Superb.

I like ‘our bus rolls on’ as a statement of intent, but it really jarred for me here, sounding a bit ‘twiddly’, as it didn’t fit with the ‘grit’ of the rest of the tracks - and highlighted where the chaps had changed over recent years.

My main gripe.....cardboard sleeve.....so easy to tear. First world problems.

I haven’t read the sleeve notes yet......need to find my reading glasses!

Great cd, great souvenir of a magical weekend - thanks chaps.

I realise my opinion is totally unoriginal and obvious but- My word this really is very good Indeed! I lovely souvenit of a great performance but also a wonderful sounding thing. Gorgeous!  [;-)

Yes it is most enjoyable and receiving the most repeat plays here of any Fairport release since the last Cropredy one (2008?). The one with John The Gun on.

Two small criticisms, bearing in mind I was not there so am not sure what it was like on the night but Jude is too low in the mix on the songs where she appears. It almost sounds as if Ian is singing solo. And some of Chris's vocal mannerisms are going a bit X Factor. Why stick to the melody when you can embellish it with 27 superfluous notes? It only happens briefly but it is unnecessary.

I thought it was just me!  I agree with you on both counts.

This is the first Fairport album I have listened to more than once for a long time. I rather like it.  I do like the (for me) new arrangement of "Farewell Farewell".

I suspect that goes for a lot of us.

Dittos on all of the above.  I listened to this three or four times through in my car before I finally put something else in the changer.  Great sound, great playing, (mostly) great song selection  :), no complaints!

I'm planning on buying more to give away as gifts this year to a couple of uninitiated family members.

Yes, a month or so on, even I am still enjoying this but have not regretted deleting the omnibus chanson from my memory stick( for the car) and my ipod..

This is just great.