'Fiddle House'/Post-'Gottle' touring line-up

[Keith E Rice]

Anyone know anything about this DVD?

Picked it up for a tenner while on holiday. Looks to me like it could be a bootleg. No booklet and the material looks (and sounds) like it hasn't been remastered in any shape or form. There are also no production credits.

The Baton Rouge and Maidstone material is familiar from YouTube and looks no better here. Glastonbury 71 and OGWT 73 are interesting but the real delight is the Rock Palast material of the post-'GOTTLE' line-up with Bob Brady, Roger Burridge and Dan Ar Bras.

It's relatively undocumented what went wrong with that line-up but here - billed as 'FC' rather than the abbreviated 'Fairport' - they're pretty hot.

'When I First Came Into This Country' with Swarb on autoharp is a real treat. Ar Bras doesn't get to do much on except on this number where he exhibits an interesting style that's closer to Maart's linear progressions than the twangy judders of Richard and Jerry.

Brady makes his presence felt with some nice keyboard interventions on the psychedelic bass'n'drums of 'Cropredy Capers' (better than on 'GOTTLE'). Brady then jerks couples out of the front row to dance to the uncredited follow-on, 'Frog Up The Pump'. It's here that the Burridge-Swarb twin fiddle stuff really comes into its own.

On 'Sir B MacKenzie', Burridge simply follows Swarb in unison. On 'Frog' he plays harmonies to Swarb and the effect is one of those spine-tingling moments. A precursor to the Ric-Chris twin fiddles of today...?

Makes me wonder if there's enough unreleased live material by this line-up in the archives for a CD, eh, Peggy...? Would be good to have a document of this lot. They were clearly very good!

Back to the DVD, if it is a bootleg, what chance of a remastered official release - perhaps adding the excellent OGWT 'BABBACOMBE LEE' material by the Farnell-Hill line-up that's also cropped up on YouTube?

[Ollie]

Sound's fantastic! What's the title of the DVD? I don't think it's on Expletive Delighted. Please, please please PLEASE put some on YouTube, because it sounds like you've got yourself a real rareity. BTW, where do you go on holiday  

[Chris]

It's a boot - so don't put it up on YouTube, they'll pull it.

[davidmjs]

It's a boot - so don't put it up on YouTube, they'll pull it.

What?  About three quarters of You Tube is made up of unofficial recordings of stuff....

[Keith E Rice]

Does indeed seem to be a rare boot judging from both Ollie's comment and  a 'private' message I've received.

Not at all sure YouTube would pull it. As a Doctor Who fan, I find loads of BBC DW serials there infringing BBC copyright. However, while I appreciate others putting material  there which I have enjoyed, as someone in receipt myself of royalties from copyrighted material I'm kind of iffy about putting material in the public domain that could now or in the future hurt the band's earnings.

What's FC's position on fans trading material? My other fave band, Jefferson Starship, turn a blind eye providing there's no commercial gain and material is kept strictly between fans. (It works really well most of the time; but when there is a commercial distribution of 'shared material', all hell breaks loose and it gets very nasty for a little while....)

[Chris]

Why don't you IM Simon N and ask his opinion?....

[Keith E Rice]

Chris, I've sent a message by the FC site 'contact us' form.

[Ollie]

Chris, I've sent a message by the FC site 'contact us' form.

Well, if it's anything like my experiance, they don't reply very quickly! IM Simon as well, just to be on the safe side

[Simon Nicol]

I've never heard of the existence of this rarity: but as a non-member at the time, I'm only guessing when I say it sounds like an odd euro-TV moment. That line-up only did a dozen gigs in 1975 - I was lucky enough to catch one at a Cambridge May Ball where Sandy (also ligging that night) drank the dressing room dry while they were on stage! What I can say for sure is that none of the guys who're in the band right now would have any objection to your placing this on YouTube or wherever. As someone older and wiser than I once said, there's no such thing as bad publicity. (as long as they spell your name correctly..)
Simoon Nichollls

[Keith E Rice]

Thanks, Simon

For your info (and others), ''FIDDLE HOUSE' is numbered SOLENOID-041. The front cover uses the purple interlaced border from 'L&L' and a piccie of the band sat down rehearsing at Farley Charlemane or whatever it was called that you rehearsed 'L&L' at. (Ashley to the front, Swarb and Richard across the room, your legs and guitar neck only in shot, DM and Sandy not in view.)

Full tracklisting:-
Morning Glory
Time Will Show
Reno
[All Bouton Rouge 1968]
Lark in the Morning/etc
Sir Patrick
Now Be Thankful
My Front Pages - Matthews Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort - MSC
Flatback Caper
Jenny's Chickens'/The Mason's Apron
[All Maidstone 1970 - the complete Tony Palmer film, I think!]
Dirty Linen
[Glastonbury 1971]
Brilliancy Medley (incomplete)
[OGWT 1973]
Sir B MacKenzie
When First Into This Country
Cropredy Capers/(uncredited) Frog Up The Pump
[All Rockpalast 1976]

I'll endeavour to get the Rockpalast stuff up on YouTube this evening - but it will be my first posting there so it may take time and stress!!!

[Ollie]

Please do post on here when you've done it!

[Keith E Rice]

Sorry, Ollie...best laid plans of mice & men, etc. I've learned it's in .vob format. With my VCL player I can convert it to .mpeg encoded in .wmv format - but, for some reason, Windows Movie Maker won't open the result.

So I've got a 119MB .wmv file lasting just under 14 mins - which is too much on both length and size for YouTube and no editing software.

As I write, I'm doing a simulation to see if I can copy it using Nero 6.0. If I can, I'll offer a copy to you or the first person who comes forward who's got the software to convert and edit it into YouTube-friendly format.

[Mindwarper]

I can do video, but I am Ntsc based.

I would love to see a official Airing cupboard type dvd of the odd video material.

[Keith E Rice]

Thanks for the offer, Mindwarper. I'll see if anyone on the list who's UK-based can/will do it before I set myself up for postage to sunny California.

I'm not up much on the PAL/NTSC thing - but the cover says the DVD is in NTSC - and it plays fine on both my PC and my DVD player.

I've managed to make a copy of the DVD's .vob files using Nero 6.0 but the menu doesn't work so it just plays right through as one 115-mins DVD!! Don't have the know-how, probably not the software and certainly not the time to edit it.

So...anyone UK-based got the kit, time and know-how to edit it and put the 3 RockPalast tracks up on YouTube? The copy DVD is yours to keep for your personal use if you'll do it.

[Mindwarper]

If no one else can or wants do it, just make a copy (using dvddecrypt or dvdshrink) of the dvd and send me a copy. I can post the three tracks to youtube.

[PLW (Peter)]

Back to the DVD, if it is a bootleg, what chance of a remastered official release - perhaps adding the excellent OGWT 'BABBACOMBE LEE' material by the Farnell-Hill line-up that's also cropped up on YouTube?

A pedant writes: it's Mattacks, not Farnell on the OGWT clips.

[PLW (Peter)]

I saw the post-Gottle line up at Cheltenham and it was astonishingly good. I hadn't been expecting it to be so good as the previous time I'd seen them had been the Fairport Live line-up with Sandy, Trevor, Jerry et all.

Obviously something in the chemistry didn't work, though.