Fairport @ BBC Sessions 4CD Set

[Jim]

i know thers unreleased stuff from the 9 era line up as well
they are probably putting vol2 together as we speak









                                                                     i hope

[Jules Gray]

i know there's unreleased stuff from the 9 era line up as well

Any information about which songs are MIA?

they are probably putting vol2 together as we speak

I can't see it - they used pretty much all the 1967-9 stuff.  All they'd have left would be a few 1970 recordings, and a few 1973 recordings - and maybe the odd other thing.  Certainly not enough for a second box.  I'm pretty sure that that'll be our lot.

 

Jules

[Jim]

i know there's unreleased stuff from the 9 era line up as well

Any information about which songs are MIA?

they are probably putting vol2 together as we speak

I can't see it - they used pretty much all the 1967-9 stuff.  All they'd have left would be a few 1970 recordings, and a few 1973 recordings - and maybe the odd other thing.  Certainly not enough for a second box.  I'm pretty sure that that'll be our lot.

 

Jules

i cant remeber all the songs but i distinctly remember listening to Peel one night when fc were in the studio and they played "country pie" and i seem to remember "George Jackson"
 sounds like a bit of a zimfest

[Bob Barrows]

Dispatched today according to the company should be here by the weekend hopefully.

Neil, did it ever arrive? I'm just wondering if i should order anything from this vendor in the future.

[Jules Gray]

i cant remeber all the songs but i distinctly remember listening to Peel one night when fc were in the studio and they played "country pie" and i seem to remember "George Jackson"
 sounds like a bit of a zimfest

Oh boy - I'd love to hear BBC versions of those two songs!

 

Jules

[Neil]

Dispatched today according to the company should be here by the weekend hopefully.

Neil, did it ever arrive? I'm just wondering if i should order anything from this vendor in the future.

It finally arrived today, my earlier hopes were dashed but now it is in my hands in one piece and all ok. I only have a 3 minute drive home so will listen on the weekend.

10 days is actually not bad service, took them three days to dispatch, they are real and it was only $45 in the end.

[BPTNT]

The Full House material has been circulating but I enjoy the good sound quality although loud music played around my ears for 40 years has made me rather blunt to hi-fi finesse.

Well, there have been allegations made on the RT discussion list that the "Full House" material on this set are actually NOT live BBC recordings, but lesser quality/generation versions of the studio recordings, so that may be truer than you think.  I wish I had saved the digest that had these allegations so I could be more specific, but at least one other person has listened to both versions of the songs in question and came to the conclusion that it was probably true.  This is indeed disturbing news if true, and seems quite sad if someone was indeed intentionally trying to pull something.

Interesting to note this is being picked up on elsewhere also. See also my earlier post in this topic (page 10 or therabouts), Neil.

Two tracks (Walk Awhile and Poor Will) WERE originally broadcast in this fashion; i.e. identical to the Full House studio recordings, but several others (Dirty Linen, Sir Patrick Spens and Doctor Of Physick) are identical (performance wise, if not in terms of the mixes) to the ones on Full House and blatantly not broadcast on the BBC as sessions in 1970 or since (given that we have off-air tapes in circulation to compare them with). To the best of my knowledge (and the research into what the band recorded at the Beeb undertaken by Mark Fuller of Friends Of Fairport some years back) the Doctor never even visited Maida Vale back in the day...though I stand to be corrected .

Part of the problem- I would imagine- was that so little of the 1970 sessions existed in releasable quality. My hunch is that while Ashley Hutchings was still in Fairport, he supposedly made a point of asking BBC engineers for tapes after the sessions were completed (hence the arrival of Heyday as a privately released tape in the mid-70s) but, with him no longer in the picture, there was no one that organised enough in or around the band at the time to bother keeping stuff archived for the box set some 37 years on...Probably having far too good a time, no doubt . So...I'd imagine the compilers were left with lots of ropey sounding "off-air" recordings made by home recording enthusiasts but, little of the quality of the '68-'69 stuff that preceeds it on the box set, hence the offending tracks.

[Ollie]

The Full House material has been circulating but I enjoy the good sound quality although loud music played around my ears for 40 years has made me rather blunt to hi-fi finesse.

Well, there have been allegations made on the RT discussion list that the "Full House" material on this set are actually NOT live BBC recordings, but lesser quality/generation versions of the studio recordings, so that may be truer than you think.  I wish I had saved the digest that had these allegations so I could be more specific, but at least one other person has listened to both versions of the songs in question and came to the conclusion that it was probably true.  This is indeed disturbing news if true, and seems quite sad if someone was indeed intentionally trying to pull something.

Interesting to note this is being picked up on elsewhere also. See also my earlier post in this topic (page 10 or therabouts), Neil.

Two tracks (Walk Awhile and Poor Will) WERE originally broadcast in this fashion; i.e. identical to the Full House studio recordings, but several others (Dirty Linen, Sir Patrick Spens and Doctor Of Physick) are identical (performance wise, if not in terms of the mixes) to the ones on Full House and blatantly not broadcast on the BBC as sessions in 1970 or since (given that we have off-air tapes in circulation to compare them with). To the best of my knowledge (and the research into what the band recorded at the Beeb undertaken by Mark Fuller of Friends Of Fairport some years back) the Doctor never even visited Maida Vale back in the day...though I stand to be corrected .

Part of the problem- I would imagine- was that so little of the 1970 sessions existed in releasable quality. My hunch is that while Ashley Hutchings was still in Fairport, he supposedly made a point of asking BBC engineers for tapes after the sessions were completed (hence the arrival of Heyday as a privately released tape in the mid-70s) but, with him no longer in the picture, there was no one that organised enough in or around the band at the time to bother keeping stuff archived for the box set some 37 years on...Probably having far too good a time, no doubt . So...I'd imagine the compilers were left with lots of ropey sounding "off-air" recordings made by home recording enthusiasts but, little of the quality of the '68-'69 stuff that preceeds it on the box set, hence the offending tracks.

Who gives a damn whether they were recorded at the beeb or not, they are still good!!!

[Neil]

Ollie many people give a damn about where they were recorded and also what may have been omitted or we wouldn't have so many pages discussing this box.

There has never been on the board a willingness to be amazed and love everything the band has released, hence the long discussion regarding Sense of Occasion. I don't remember anyone saying the tracks are bad just asking where did they come from, and on a set clearly marked Live at the BBC doubt over whether tracks were recorded there seems appropriate.

Now I have to go listen to the thing.

[jamesc]

Just as a little side track,H M V are selling Liege and Lief , with two bonus tracks for a fiver.

[BPTNT]

I probably wouldn't give a damn, Ollie, if they weren't identical to the studio recordings I've owned and loved for as long as I can remember.

The whole point and reason why people buy archive releases like BBC sessions is that it's "buried treasure" (or "new old stuff"). Also, it's great to hear more spontaneous (sometimes inferior, sometimes fresher) versions of the studio records. There are several (though not all) of the 1970 "sessions" on this box which fit neither of the above. That's the point

On a happier note, I'm listening to the 1971 session with Angel Delight songs at the mo- the real deal (as is 95% or so) of the set, so I'm happy enough now the dust has settled over my original disappointment.  

[fstix (Michael)]

That was me who made the observation on the RT list.  I'm sure the so-called 1970 BBC Sessions are nothing of the sort but the Full House tracks in lesser quality.  Of course the performances are still good, but the point is that they are part of a box named as BBC recordings, making it a deceptive description for those particular tracks.

I have no problems with any of the other tracks and am very happy to have them all together.  I just wonder what the thinking was in this case??  Maybe it was an attempt to keep the set "complete" except, as noted here, it's not 100% complete either (I recall a studio "Days Of 49" from 1973 as another example).

[Ollie]

I probably wouldn't give a damn, Ollie, if they weren't identical to the studio recordings I've owned and loved for as long as I can remember.

The whole point and reason why people buy archive releases like BBC sessions is that it's "buried treasure" (or "new old stuff"). Also, it's great to hear more spontaneous (sometimes inferior, sometimes fresher) versions of the studio records. There are several (though not all) of the 1970 "sessions" on this box which fit neither of the above. That's the point

On a happier note, I'm listening to the 1971 session with Angel Delight songs at the mo- the real deal (as is 95% or so) of the set, so I'm happy enough now the dust has settled over my original disappointment.  

Oh, I didn't realise that they were identical!! Still, it's still worth getting the box

[davidmjs]

Oh, I didn't realise that they were identical!! Still, it's still worth getting the box

I don't think it's been proven...but it is a conspiracy theory that appears to have legs..

[GubGub (Al)]

I doubt that it is deliberate duplicity. I suspect if it is true, it is a mistake. Wrongly labelled tapes? Off air recordings of broadcasts of the studio versions wrongly identified?

As Ollie says, it is still by & large a great set.

[davidmjs]

As Ollie says, it is still by & large a great set.

Most assuredly...........

[Jules Gray]

Part of the problem- I would imagine- was that so little of the 1970 sessions existed in releasable quality. My hunch is that while Ashley Hutchings was still in Fairport, he supposedly made a point of asking BBC engineers for tapes after the sessions were completed (hence the arrival of Heyday as a privately released tape in the mid-70s) but, with him no longer in the picture, there was no one that organised enough in or around the band at the time to bother keeping stuff archived for the box set some 37 years on...

Yes, I think that your theory regarding the Ashley Hutchings factor is probably spot on.

Jules

[Shane (Skirky)]

Nice positive review in this month's The Word magazine, which doesn't reveal anything not already mentioned here, but does contain the splendid line "With Dave Swarbrick up front, the music begins to reek of loam and pewter."   Should be in your local newsagents shortly.

[Ollie]

Is RT playing electric guitar on Banks of the Sweet Primroses? I can hear electric and acoustic guitars so someone must be.

[Jules Gray]

Is RT playing electric guitar on Banks of the Sweet Primroses? I can hear electric and acoustic guitars so someone must be.

Simon probably overdubbed the electric.

Jules