The Boots box set

[davidmjs]

This is not actually about the box but I think it fits here as a companion piece. The Live At Rock City, Nottingham 1987 set is another radio broadcast from the era which had a digital release vis Angel Air records two or three years ago just before they went out of business. It has now had a vinyl only (for the time being at least) physical release.

What appears to have happened is that Angel Air bought the rights to all of the Rock City live broadcasts and issued one or two on CD, including a Richard Thompson set, before they went out of business. Cherry Red then bought the entire Angel Air catalogue, most of which they are yet to reissue, though there are notable exceptions such as the Stackridge reissue campaign which is continuing this autumn. They now seem to have licensed the Fairport set to Trading Places for a vinyl release, as they have done with a few other things. I picked this up this week from WH Smith of all places for £20 for the double vinyl set which is £5-£10 cheaper than I found it for from any other retailer. Amazon don't have it at all for some reason. I wouldn't have paid a fortune for it but £20 seemed reasonable for two slabs of vinyl. It arrived yesterday, offers nearly an hour and three quarters of music, has era appropriate artwork and photography (the front cover art is actually an enlargement of the artwork used for the 1987 Meet On The Ledge single) and guess what? It sounds fantastic.

I am not an obsessive collector of Fairport live performances. There are a lot appearing on grey market releases and some eras are over represented. But apart from a few non Cropredy tracks on the new box, there is not much available from this early era of the Maart/Ric line up. It is fascinating to hear this show, not least of all because the album being promoted is Expletive Delighted so it is a heavily instrumental set. With the exception of a very peculiar performance of Jams O Donnells Jig that I don't need to hear again in a hurry it is a really enjoyable and energetic performance. When did they stop playing the jigs with this level of vigour? Anyway, given the contemporaneous nature and high quality of the recordings, this set sits nicely alongside and complements the box well.

It never made it to CD then, Al?

No. I don't know whether it was intended to when the digital version came out. As I say, Angel Air did manage to put a few Rock City performances out on CD before they disappeared. I presume this fell victim to their demise. Any CD release now will I guess be at the discretion of Cherry Red.

Thanks...Sorry for the questions, but are the digital files still officially available anywhere?  I can't find them...

[GubGub (Al)]

This is not actually about the box but I think it fits here as a companion piece. The Live At Rock City, Nottingham 1987 set is another radio broadcast from the era which had a digital release vis Angel Air records two or three years ago just before they went out of business. It has now had a vinyl only (for the time being at least) physical release.

What appears to have happened is that Angel Air bought the rights to all of the Rock City live broadcasts and issued one or two on CD, including a Richard Thompson set, before they went out of business. Cherry Red then bought the entire Angel Air catalogue, most of which they are yet to reissue, though there are notable exceptions such as the Stackridge reissue campaign which is continuing this autumn. They now seem to have licensed the Fairport set to Trading Places for a vinyl release, as they have done with a few other things. I picked this up this week from WH Smith of all places for £20 for the double vinyl set which is £5-£10 cheaper than I found it for from any other retailer. Amazon don't have it at all for some reason. I wouldn't have paid a fortune for it but £20 seemed reasonable for two slabs of vinyl. It arrived yesterday, offers nearly an hour and three quarters of music, has era appropriate artwork and photography (the front cover art is actually an enlargement of the artwork used for the 1987 Meet On The Ledge single) and guess what? It sounds fantastic.

I am not an obsessive collector of Fairport live performances. There are a lot appearing on grey market releases and some eras are over represented. But apart from a few non Cropredy tracks on the new box, there is not much available from this early era of the Maart/Ric line up. It is fascinating to hear this show, not least of all because the album being promoted is Expletive Delighted so it is a heavily instrumental set. With the exception of a very peculiar performance of Jams O Donnells Jig that I don't need to hear again in a hurry it is a really enjoyable and energetic performance. When did they stop playing the jigs with this level of vigour? Anyway, given the contemporaneous nature and high quality of the recordings, this set sits nicely alongside and complements the box well.

It never made it to CD then, Al?

No. I don't know whether it was intended to when the digital version came out. As I say, Angel Air did manage to put a few Rock City performances out on CD before they disappeared. I presume this fell victim to their demise. Any CD release now will I guess be at the discretion of Cherry Red.

Thanks...Sorry for the questions, but are the digital files still officially available anywhere?  I can't find them...

For streaming or download? They are definitely on Amazon Music and I believe I saw them on 7digital too, with different artwork.

https://uk.7digital.com/artist/fairport-convention/release/live-at-rock-city-nottingham-1987-32327945?h=10&d=1

Tracks 18 to 20 are all a single track on the vinyl, as they should be (albeit slightly misnamed on the sleeve).

[David V B]

Was surprised that WHS still sell music as haven’t seen any in stores for some years. (Can’t even see a store in Blackpool now.) managed to get a copy from the online store so thanks for the tip.

[davidmjs]

For streaming or download? They are definitely on Amazon Music and I believe I saw them on 7digital too, with different artwork.

https://uk.7digital.com/artist/fairport-convention/release/live-at-rock-city-nottingham-1987-32327945?h=10&d=1

Tracks 18 to 20 are all a single track on the vinyl, as they should be (albeit slightly misnamed on the sleeve).

Sorry, I meant as a high quality download.

[GubGub (Al)]

For streaming or download? They are definitely on Amazon Music and I believe I saw them on 7digital too, with different artwork.

https://uk.7digital.com/artist/fairport-convention/release/live-at-rock-city-nottingham-1987-32327945?h=10&d=1

Tracks 18 to 20 are all a single track on the vinyl, as they should be (albeit slightly misnamed on the sleeve).

Sorry, I meant as a high quality download.

Other than the FLACs on the 7digital site I wouldn't know. I haven't looked for it. I only happened to see it there as I was looking for the recent A Live Recording set in half decent quality as I have not been able to lay my hands on a CD copy (not having seen the band live this year).

[davidmjs]

For streaming or download? They are definitely on Amazon Music and I believe I saw them on 7digital too, with different artwork.

https://uk.7digital.com/artist/fairport-convention/release/live-at-rock-city-nottingham-1987-32327945?h=10&d=1

Tracks 18 to 20 are all a single track on the vinyl, as they should be (albeit slightly misnamed on the sleeve).

Sorry, I meant as a high quality download.

Other than the FLACs on the 7digital site I wouldn't know. I haven't looked for it. I only happened to see it there as I was looking for the recent A Live Recording set in half decent quality as I have not been able to lay my hands on a CD copy (not having seen the band live this year).

I missed the fact there was lossless there - that's what I'm after - cheers.

[GubGub (Al)]

I'm currently enjoying CD11, which appears to be mainly the line-up of Red and Gold (Or 'My line-up' as this was the line-up when I 'found' the band.)
Lots of energy in these tracks.
And electric guitar.

I'm glad I picked up this box set. I just need to to sort out that replacement disc!

I understand only in retrospect how much I loved the Maart era band despite always being a little underappreciative of them at the time (having fallen in love with the 4-piece Swarb/Bruce interregnum band).  Energy and electric guitar...aye, that's exactly what Fairport were always about to me - and haven't been for over a quarter of a century now.  Fwiw, I'm convinced now the key to what Fairport have become was there for us all to see in Simon's solo albums.  I remember getting the first one at the point of release ('87 or '88 or whatever it was) and having a long conversation with a folk-rocking mate about how this was excellent, but was definitely 'Radio 2 (as was) music'.  For whatever reason, as I've got older I've never changed my opinion.  Things are what they are.  I often reflect how difficult it must be for Fairport to keep everybody happy when they've been around as long (and in as many variations) as they have.  In the circumstances they do a pretty good job of it to be fair - new stuff and mostly acoustic gigs for fans of the current band (winter tour is 50/50 I suppose), lots of archival releases for those of us stuck in the past etc etc.

This is not actually about the box but I think it fits here as a companion piece. The Live At Rock City, Nottingham 1987 set is another radio broadcast from the era which had a digital release vis Angel Air records two or three years ago just before they went out of business. It has now had a vinyl only (for the time being at least) physical release.

What appears to have happened is that Angel Air bought the rights to all of the Rock City live broadcasts and issued one or two on CD, including a Richard Thompson set, before they went out of business. Cherry Red then bought the entire Angel Air catalogue, most of which they are yet to reissue, though there are notable exceptions such as the Stackridge reissue campaign which is continuing this autumn. They now seem to have licensed the Fairport set to Trading Places for a vinyl release, as they have done with a few other things. I picked this up this week from WH Smith of all places for £20 for the double vinyl set which is £5-£10 cheaper than I found it for from any other retailer. Amazon don't have it at all for some reason. I wouldn't have paid a fortune for it but £20 seemed reasonable for two slabs of vinyl. It arrived yesterday, offers nearly an hour and three quarters of music, has era appropriate artwork and photography (the front cover art is actually an enlargement of the artwork used for the 1987 Meet On The Ledge single) and guess what? It sounds fantastic.

I am not an obsessive collector of Fairport live performances. There are a lot appearing on grey market releases and some eras are over represented. But apart from a few non Cropredy tracks on the new box, there is not much available from this early era of the Maart/Ric line up. It is fascinating to hear this show, not least of all because the album being promoted is Expletive Delighted so it is a heavily instrumental set. With the exception of a very peculiar performance of Jams O Donnells Jig that I don't need to hear again in a hurry it is a really enjoyable and energetic performance. When did they stop playing the jigs with this level of vigour? Anyway, given the contemporaneous nature and high quality of the recordings, this set sits nicely alongside and complements the box well.

Just a quick amendment to this as my understanding of what has happened does not seem to be quite correct. Angel Air seem to be still trading, albeit with a much reduced catalogue. They are even showing a few new releases and still selling their own pressings of Stackridge albums that have subsequently been reissued by Cherry Red. Very weird. It remains the case though that much of their historic catalogue is now to be found on Cherry Red's website, albeit that many of them are shown as unavailable. It is all very strange. None of it however changes the status of this album being shown on all the current digital sites as being released by Cherry Red and on the vinyl issue as being licensed from them. Just thought I had better clarify in case anyone from Angel Air comes to this site. I don't want to be accused of spreading misinformation. I am bored with being accused of stuff by record industry insiders this week.

[Will S]

Thanks for the download link, Al

[RobertD]

Some extended, but random thoughts on the set.

Overall layout-The quality of the box and the book is terrific. I'm glad I don't have to access the CD's (other than the DVD) constantly as the foam grips are difficult to manage and one one wonders if they were in constant use how they would hold up over time. I would have preferred individual sleeves placed in the hard front and back, similar to the Blondie box set method, or what I call the envelope style...where the CD's are slipped in a fold.

The book-I wish it were more extensive! But these things have budgets and I'm happy with what is there. Most of all for the outstanding photos of Dave Peabody. I'm ashamed that his work has escaped me to this point. I have seen a few before I suppose (or different photos from the same concert or photo session), but I never noticed the name, so my hats off to him. He really captured the people and the history.

Slight check against for not including something equating a track by track, or at least disc by disc elaboration of the music. Yes it is there at the end, but it could and should be more thorough. It is also confusing in its layout. One striking error is on the top of page 56...'Personnel for CD 4, track 32. Oh really? Missing a few there!

I also really dislike when sets like these claim 'never released' tracks.This is a falsehood. The original cassette series notwithstanding, some of the other tracks were released on the Free Reed sets- such as To Althea From Prison (minus dialogue) and Day Trip To Bangor. or the fantastic version of Head In A Sack (which was on the US version of the Third Leg) Someday I'm going to make a spreadsheet using the Cropredy Chronicles list of songs every year versus what I actually have on CD between various sources.

Which I suppose leaves me to the music itself, which is outstanding, and other than the by now well noted technical flaws are a treasure. Unlike the Free Reed sets I appreciate the chronology, and what a delight it is when the Ric/Maart era comes in for the first time on Disc 6 and 7. Though I have thought about this transition, and of course have many examples of it in the collection...to actually hear the transition is really powerful, especially when reading Ric's feelings about the change and how it was viewed. Not to forget Maart of course, whose work shines, and what a delight it is to hear his tasty guitar playing on tracks like Set Me Up, The Noise Club and the Australian version of Sloth...my goodness. I also love the little snippets of Fairport not quite Convention-the handful of Simon solo tracks, the ones with Ric, or the acoustic session on Disc 10. Definitely a treasure and so many of my favorite tracks from that era are represented. With the exception of Ginnie and Molly On The Jetty, I only wish a few more from The Five Seasons could have been found, but I know it is depending on sources. Great to hear the Trevor Lucas tracks, and though I have never been a big fan of Cathy LeSurf, I find myself enjoying most of the performances by her on these discs. Also the Dan Ar Braz track is terrific!

The DVD is wonderful. Most of these I have seen on YouTube previously, and similar to the 2 discs included in the Horslips set, in a sense I didn't need them, but there are times when clips disappear from YouTube due to copyright, so it is great to have them as restored, full screen permanant performances to enjoy. I only wished that they had included even one or two from the Ric/Maart era on the DVD just to complete the cycle. Would have been nice, and I didn't really need the miming segment from OGWT of the repeated takes from Babbacombe Lee.

So all in all, flubs, faulty recordings, and mistakes in the book, I am very happy to have it. And like all the other box sets I own it is chiefly for the music, though as a fan it is nice to have all the extra content contained in a box. This one may not be perfect. It may have been rushed. It may have had a small budget. It might have been useful to run it past a few other people not affiliated with the band review and catch some of these things (like the Fiddlestix error) or to suggest a few tweaks, but it will hold a pride of place in my Fairport collection, which is by itself the largest segment of my entire music collection. And as I type we are working on moving to New Jersey, and once it is official, I will get that autographed poster framed!

[GubGub (Al)]

Some extended, but random thoughts on the set.

Overall layout-The quality of the box and the book is terrific. I'm glad I don't have to access the CD's (other than the DVD) constantly as the foam grips are difficult to manage and one one wonders if they were in constant use how they would hold up over time. I would have preferred individual sleeves placed in the hard front and back, similar to the Blondie box set method, or what I call the envelope style...where the CD's are slipped in a fold.

The book-I wish it were more extensive! But these things have budgets and I'm happy with what is there. Most of all for the outstanding photos of Dave Peabody. I'm ashamed that his work has escaped me to this point. I have seen a few before I suppose (or different photos from the same concert or photo session), but I never noticed the name, so my hats off to him. He really captured the people and the history.

Slight check against for not including something equating a track by track, or at least disc by disc elaboration of the music. Yes it is there at the end, but it could and should be more thorough. It is also confusing in its layout. One striking error is on the top of page 56...'Personnel for CD 4, track 32. Oh really? Missing a few there!

I also really dislike when sets like these claim 'never released' tracks.This is a falsehood. The original cassette series notwithstanding, some of the other tracks were released on the Free Reed sets- such as To Althea From Prison (minus dialogue) and Day Trip To Bangor. or the fantastic version of Head In A Sack (which was on the US version of the Third Leg) Someday I'm going to make a spreadsheet using the Cropredy Chronicles list of songs every year versus what I actually have on CD between various sources.

Which I suppose leaves me to the music itself, which is outstanding, and other than the by now well noted technical flaws are a treasure. Unlike the Free Reed sets I appreciate the chronology, and what a delight it is when the Ric/Maart era comes in for the first time on Disc 6 and 7. Though I have thought about this transition, and of course have many examples of it in the collection...to actually hear the transition is really powerful, especially when reading Ric's feelings about the change and how it was viewed. Not to forget Maart of course, whose work shines, and what a delight it is to hear his tasty guitar playing on tracks like Set Me Up, The Noise Club and the Australian version of Sloth...my goodness. I also love the little snippets of Fairport not quite Convention-the handful of Simon solo tracks, the ones with Ric, or the acoustic session on Disc 10. Definitely a treasure and so many of my favorite tracks from that era are represented. With the exception of Ginnie and Molly On The Jetty, I only wish a few more from The Five Seasons could have been found, but I know it is depending on sources. Great to hear the Trevor Lucas tracks, and though I have never been a big fan of Cathy LeSurf, I find myself enjoying most of the performances by her on these discs. Also the Dan Ar Braz track is terrific!

The DVD is wonderful. Most of these I have seen on YouTube previously, and similar to the 2 discs included in the Horslips set, in a sense I didn't need them, but there are times when clips disappear from YouTube due to copyright, so it is great to have them as restored, full screen permanant performances to enjoy. I only wished that they had included even one or two from the Ric/Maart era on the DVD just to complete the cycle. Would have been nice, and I didn't really need the miming segment from OGWT of the repeated takes from Babbacombe Lee.

So all in all, flubs, faulty recordings, and mistakes in the book, I am very happy to have it. And like all the other box sets I own it is chiefly for the music, though as a fan it is nice to have all the extra content contained in a box. This one may not be perfect. It may have been rushed. It may have had a small budget. It might have been useful to run it past a few other people not affiliated with the band review and catch some of these things (like the Fiddlestix error) or to suggest a few tweaks, but it will hold a pride of place in my Fairport collection, which is by itself the largest segment of my entire music collection. And as I type we are working on moving to New Jersey, and once it is official, I will get that autographed poster framed!

Yes, there are a few errors in the book and trhe musician credits are a bit of a mess, especially when it comes to guest vocalists. I have had to ho back to the the original boots Woodworm releases, which handled this aspect much better, to check some of them. I agree with you about Cathy LeSurf. I have the same aversion but her contributions here are fine.

I haven't done the full Cropredy setlist cross check but I have just made a Cropredy History playlist featuring one track from every festival where an official recording has been made available, either on VHS, CD, DVD or official stream (plus two years where I used preserved radio broadcasts). There is a lot of stuff available for almost every year from 1981 to 2003. The exceptions are that there is only a single officially released track from 1985 (Walk Awhile) and 1995 (I Heard It Through The Grapevine). After that there are a quite few missing years in terms of official releases.

[Will S]

Some extended, but random thoughts on the set.

Overall layout-The quality of the box and the book is terrific. I'm glad I don't have to access the CD's (other than the DVD) constantly as the foam grips are difficult to manage and one one wonders if they were in constant use how they would hold up over time. I would have preferred individual sleeves placed in the hard front and back, similar to the Blondie box set method, or what I call the envelope style...where the CD's are slipped in a fold.

The book-I wish it were more extensive! But these things have budgets and I'm happy with what is there. Most of all for the outstanding photos of Dave Peabody. I'm ashamed that his work has escaped me to this point. I have seen a few before I suppose (or different photos from the same concert or photo session), but I never noticed the name, so my hats off to him. He really captured the people and the history.

Slight check against for not including something equating a track by track, or at least disc by disc elaboration of the music. Yes it is there at the end, but it could and should be more thorough. It is also confusing in its layout. One striking error is on the top of page 56...'Personnel for CD 4, track 32. Oh really? Missing a few there!

I also really dislike when sets like these claim 'never released' tracks.This is a falsehood. The original cassette series notwithstanding, some of the other tracks were released on the Free Reed sets- such as To Althea From Prison (minus dialogue) and Day Trip To Bangor. or the fantastic version of Head In A Sack (which was on the US version of the Third Leg) Someday I'm going to make a spreadsheet using the Cropredy Chronicles list of songs every year versus what I actually have on CD between various sources.

Which I suppose leaves me to the music itself, which is outstanding, and other than the by now well noted technical flaws are a treasure. Unlike the Free Reed sets I appreciate the chronology, and what a delight it is when the Ric/Maart era comes in for the first time on Disc 6 and 7. Though I have thought about this transition, and of course have many examples of it in the collection...to actually hear the transition is really powerful, especially when reading Ric's feelings about the change and how it was viewed. Not to forget Maart of course, whose work shines, and what a delight it is to hear his tasty guitar playing on tracks like Set Me Up, The Noise Club and the Australian version of Sloth...my goodness. I also love the little snippets of Fairport not quite Convention-the handful of Simon solo tracks, the ones with Ric, or the acoustic session on Disc 10. Definitely a treasure and so many of my favorite tracks from that era are represented. With the exception of Ginnie and Molly On The Jetty, I only wish a few more from The Five Seasons could have been found, but I know it is depending on sources. Great to hear the Trevor Lucas tracks, and though I have never been a big fan of Cathy LeSurf, I find myself enjoying most of the performances by her on these discs. Also the Dan Ar Braz track is terrific!

The DVD is wonderful. Most of these I have seen on YouTube previously, and similar to the 2 discs included in the Horslips set, in a sense I didn't need them, but there are times when clips disappear from YouTube due to copyright, so it is great to have them as restored, full screen permanant performances to enjoy. I only wished that they had included even one or two from the Ric/Maart era on the DVD just to complete the cycle. Would have been nice, and I didn't really need the miming segment from OGWT of the repeated takes from Babbacombe Lee.

So all in all, flubs, faulty recordings, and mistakes in the book, I am very happy to have it. And like all the other box sets I own it is chiefly for the music, though as a fan it is nice to have all the extra content contained in a box. This one may not be perfect. It may have been rushed. It may have had a small budget. It might have been useful to run it past a few other people not affiliated with the band review and catch some of these things (like the Fiddlestix error) or to suggest a few tweaks, but it will hold a pride of place in my Fairport collection, which is by itself the largest segment of my entire music collection. And as I type we are working on moving to New Jersey, and once it is official, I will get that autographed poster framed!

Yes, there are a few errors in the book and trhe musician credits are a bit of a mess, especially when it comes to guest vocalists. I have had to ho back to the the original boots Woodworm releases, which handled this aspect much better, to check some of them. I agree with you about Cathy LeSurf. I have the same aversion but her contributions here are fine.

I haven't done the full Cropredy setlist cross check but I have just made a Cropredy History playlist featuring one track from every festival where an official recording has been made available, either on VHS, CD, DVD or official stream (plus two years where I used preserved radio broadcasts). There is a lot of stuff available for almost every year from 1981 to 2003. The exceptions are that there is only a single officially released track from 1985 (Walk Awhile) and 1995 (I Heard It Through The Grapevine). After that there are a quite few missing years in terms of official releases.

I have made some groupings in iTunes of Cropredy performances (which I own), and have one little correction to what Al said above - there are a few other tracks released from 1995 on the Cropredy Capers and Fairport Unconventional sets - Midnight Special (CC2), All The Dance Numbers (CC3), Bridge over the River Ashe/Barwick Green (Cropredy - Best and the Guests), Jewel In The Crown (FU3), and Slipjigs and Reels (FU4).

[GubGub (Al)]

Some extended, but random thoughts on the set.

Overall layout-The quality of the box and the book is terrific. I'm glad I don't have to access the CD's (other than the DVD) constantly as the foam grips are difficult to manage and one one wonders if they were in constant use how they would hold up over time. I would have preferred individual sleeves placed in the hard front and back, similar to the Blondie box set method, or what I call the envelope style...where the CD's are slipped in a fold.

The book-I wish it were more extensive! But these things have budgets and I'm happy with what is there. Most of all for the outstanding photos of Dave Peabody. I'm ashamed that his work has escaped me to this point. I have seen a few before I suppose (or different photos from the same concert or photo session), but I never noticed the name, so my hats off to him. He really captured the people and the history.

Slight check against for not including something equating a track by track, or at least disc by disc elaboration of the music. Yes it is there at the end, but it could and should be more thorough. It is also confusing in its layout. One striking error is on the top of page 56...'Personnel for CD 4, track 32. Oh really? Missing a few there!

I also really dislike when sets like these claim 'never released' tracks.This is a falsehood. The original cassette series notwithstanding, some of the other tracks were released on the Free Reed sets- such as To Althea From Prison (minus dialogue) and Day Trip To Bangor. or the fantastic version of Head In A Sack (which was on the US version of the Third Leg) Someday I'm going to make a spreadsheet using the Cropredy Chronicles list of songs every year versus what I actually have on CD between various sources.

Which I suppose leaves me to the music itself, which is outstanding, and other than the by now well noted technical flaws are a treasure. Unlike the Free Reed sets I appreciate the chronology, and what a delight it is when the Ric/Maart era comes in for the first time on Disc 6 and 7. Though I have thought about this transition, and of course have many examples of it in the collection...to actually hear the transition is really powerful, especially when reading Ric's feelings about the change and how it was viewed. Not to forget Maart of course, whose work shines, and what a delight it is to hear his tasty guitar playing on tracks like Set Me Up, The Noise Club and the Australian version of Sloth...my goodness. I also love the little snippets of Fairport not quite Convention-the handful of Simon solo tracks, the ones with Ric, or the acoustic session on Disc 10. Definitely a treasure and so many of my favorite tracks from that era are represented. With the exception of Ginnie and Molly On The Jetty, I only wish a few more from The Five Seasons could have been found, but I know it is depending on sources. Great to hear the Trevor Lucas tracks, and though I have never been a big fan of Cathy LeSurf, I find myself enjoying most of the performances by her on these discs. Also the Dan Ar Braz track is terrific!

The DVD is wonderful. Most of these I have seen on YouTube previously, and similar to the 2 discs included in the Horslips set, in a sense I didn't need them, but there are times when clips disappear from YouTube due to copyright, so it is great to have them as restored, full screen permanant performances to enjoy. I only wished that they had included even one or two from the Ric/Maart era on the DVD just to complete the cycle. Would have been nice, and I didn't really need the miming segment from OGWT of the repeated takes from Babbacombe Lee.

So all in all, flubs, faulty recordings, and mistakes in the book, I am very happy to have it. And like all the other box sets I own it is chiefly for the music, though as a fan it is nice to have all the extra content contained in a box. This one may not be perfect. It may have been rushed. It may have had a small budget. It might have been useful to run it past a few other people not affiliated with the band review and catch some of these things (like the Fiddlestix error) or to suggest a few tweaks, but it will hold a pride of place in my Fairport collection, which is by itself the largest segment of my entire music collection. And as I type we are working on moving to New Jersey, and once it is official, I will get that autographed poster framed!

Yes, there are a few errors in the book and trhe musician credits are a bit of a mess, especially when it comes to guest vocalists. I have had to ho back to the the original boots Woodworm releases, which handled this aspect much better, to check some of them. I agree with you about Cathy LeSurf. I have the same aversion but her contributions here are fine.

I haven't done the full Cropredy setlist cross check but I have just made a Cropredy History playlist featuring one track from every festival where an official recording has been made available, either on VHS, CD, DVD or official stream (plus two years where I used preserved radio broadcasts). There is a lot of stuff available for almost every year from 1981 to 2003. The exceptions are that there is only a single officially released track from 1985 (Walk Awhile) and 1995 (I Heard It Through The Grapevine). After that there are a quite few missing years in terms of official releases.

I have made some groupings in iTunes of Cropredy performances (which I own), and have one little correction to what Al said above - there are a few other tracks released from 1995 on the Cropredy Capers and Fairport Unconventional sets - Midnight Special (CC2), All The Dance Numbers (CC3), Bridge over the River Ashe/Barwick Green (Cropredy - Best and the Guests), Jewel In The Crown (FU3), and Slipjigs and Reels (FU4).

Yes I should have said pure band performances without guests, though my ITunes does not show me the last two as '95 and of course Grapevine has guests.

[GubGub (Al)]

Yes I should have said pure band performances without guests, though my ITunes does not show me the last two as '95 and of course Grapevine has guests.

Just to clarify what I meant in the above post which was hurriedly scrawled on the bus earlier, all of the other Cropredy Capers songs from 1995 are guest spots, prominently featuring other musicians on the lead instrument or vocal, apart from Bridge Over The River Ashe which I confess I overlooked. The two tracks from Unconventional, according to my ITunes metadata were recorded at Oxford Apollo, not Cropredy but I will check the sleeve notes on the box.

My rationale when I was putting together my playlist was that I only wanted to feature tracks performed exclusively by Fairport line ups in whatever combination of past or present members (I did make an exception for a couple of Sandy stand ins). 1995 proved problematic in that respect but Grapevine is essentially a full band performance with RT on vocals, albeit Roy Wood is also present on rhythm guitar and of course his brass section feature prominently.

[Will S]

Yes I should have said pure band performances without guests, though my ITunes does not show me the last two as '95 and of course Grapevine has guests.

Just to clarify what I meant in the above post which was hurriedly scrawled on the bus earlier, all of the other Cropredy Capers songs from 1995 are guest spots, prominently featuring other musicians on the lead instrument or vocal, apart from Bridge Over The River Ashe which I confess I overlooked. The two tracks from Unconventional, according to my ITunes metadata were recorded at Oxford Apollo, not Cropredy but I will check the sleeve notes on the box.

My rationale when I was putting together my playlist was that I only wanted to feature tracks performed exclusively by Fairport line ups in whatever combination of past or present members (I did make an exception for a couple of Sandy stand ins). 1995 proved problematic in that respect but Grapevine is essentially a full band performance with RT on vocals, albeit Roy Wood is also present on rhythm guitar and of course his brass section feature prominently.

You are right about those two tracks, and I apologise (and have corrected my own playlist accordingly).  I fully understand that rationale too.