“You should start writing a blog,” my brother Sam mentioned to me while we were sitting at a festival one afternoon in the Summer of 2013 discussing the various bands we’d each seen recently.
Darren and Sam (right) at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention
I told him the thought had vaguely crossed my mind but it was something I could give more thought to the following Spring once my lengthy stint as a local councillor was coming to an end. My evenings would then be freed up, giving me time to start seeing more gigs and, crucially, sharing my thoughts online about what I’d just seen.
I’d always written a lot about politics and current affairs and I’d never exactly shied away from blatant self-publicity, ever since I got the local paper to run a front-page feature about me doing a stand-up gig in the local pub when I was 16. But I’d never really written about my lifelong love of music before.
Although I’d seen tons of bands during my teen years and early 20s, by the time I got into my mid-20s I seemed to have constant overdrafts and less money available to spend on concert tickets. In my 30s and 40s, with my chosen career by now pretty well-established, I found that although I had the money for gigs I no longer really had the time. Once I approached my late 40s, however, I was finally in the lucky position of having both the time and the money. It’s fair to say I went for it…
Darren meets members of Uriah Heep
Looking back atmy first month of combining gig-going with blogging, it was quite a busy one. I reviewed concerts by Uriah Heep on 4th March, the Young ‘uns on 5th March, Fairport Convention on 9th March, Judy Dyble on 16th March, Graham Bonnett on 19th March, The Elizabethan Session on 22nd March, Status Quo on 28th March and Peter Knight’s Gigspanner on 29th March. Phew!
That first month pretty much summed up my approach. I didn’t want to get too hung up on genre. I didn’t want to do a classic rock blog or a folk blog or any other sort of genre-specific blog (although there are some great ones out there). Rather I wanted to write about all of the artists that happened to interest me, whether heavy metal, glam rock or folk. If others enjoyed reading that, then great, but the starting point was about any music that happen to please me.
Over time, I started added album reviews as well as gig reviews, along with interviews, book reviews, music history and discussion of iconic songs.
Fairport Convention’s Simon Nicol is interviewed for Darren’s Music Blog
New album: A Drop Of The Morning Dew: Live At Bacca Pipes Folk Club released 1 March 2024
Distilling both folk and country influences and performing a heartfelt mixture of self-penned and traditional songs on 12-string guitar and banjo, Serious Sam Barrett was raised in the Dales village of Addingham and began performing in and around Leeds in 2004. With the release of his debut album Close To Home in 2009, word began spreading further afield and Sam was soon grabbing the attention of audiences both around the UK and in the US.
Having performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2010, he has toured the US widely, usually in the company of friends and fellow skaters The Pine Hill Haints. Along the way, Sam has shared stages with the likes of Martin Carthy, Dave Burland, Katherine Tickell, Lucero, The Young Un’s, Frank Fairfield, Deer Tick and Karine Polwart, and received airplay and praise plaudits from the BBC’s Bob Harris, Marc Riley, Mark Radcliffe and Mike Harding.
Recorded live at a gig at a celebrated Keighley folk club in January 2023, Sam’s forthcoming album A Drop Of The Morning Dew: Live At Bacca Pipes Folk Club includes eleven self-penned highlights from his career, along with his own arrangements of a further seven traditional songs. A folk club has existed in Keighley in one form or other since the early 60s, adopting the name Bacca Pipes during the early 70s and playing host to a long line of notables such as Mike Harding, Swan Arcade, Julie Felix, Peter Bellamy, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy and many more. It was a tradition into which Sam Barrett was born.
Serious Sam Barrett:“Folk clubs have always been part of my life. My parents met in one and I was taken to the clubs and festivals from a young age. The clubs have always been a massive source of inspiration for my music. The magic that happens week in and week out is impossible to put into words. Sometimes the experience is almost transcendental. The old pubs, the reverence for the singers, the jokes, the raffle, the stories and the music. There’s nothing like it.”
When I asked for a quote for this piece, Sam came straight back:
“What an honour to be part of Darren’s Music Blog!! Thanks so much I can’t wait! I’m in some very esteemed company there!!! Can’t believe I’m getting to play the world famous Liverpool philharmonic!! What an honour. And it’s all thanks to Mellowtone!!”
Ahead of Fairport Convention’s 2024 Winter Tour, starting in February, I catch up with Simon Nicol. We discuss Dave Mattacks’ return to the Fairport fold, the forthcoming tour, this Summer’s Cropredy and why he won’t be retiring any time soon.
So you’re obviously looking forward to the Winter Tour then which starts early next month. What can fans expect this time?
Well, for those who didn’t catch DM (Dave Mattacks) with us last year, you’re in for a different kind of musical experience than the last twenty-five years with Gerry. That’s one thing. But the other thing that’s happened with DM, it’s not just the style of playing, it’s the way it’s easily opened up a lot of the repertoire that Peggy and I, and Ric, and DM kind of all know. Because that line-up from ‘85 to ’98, when DM moved over to America, created a lot of its own material. But, of course, Ric was easily able to adapt to much earlier material so it’s really only a case of Ric and Chris now having to learn old stuff if we want to go back to the early days of when Peggy joined. It’s suddenly opened up a huge tranche of the back catalogue which, I’m happy to say, we’re having a look at this year. We’ve been dusting off the old LPs and we’ve found some things that have never really been in the repertoire at all. So it’s going to be an adventure for us and a real voyage of discovery for some of the older – well the more mature members of our audience who perhaps remember us from college days and are now in retirement. They’ll be hearing some stuff that they haven’t heard for decades. And a lot of that will be brand-spanking-new for newbies.
Excellent. So there’s going to be quite a few surprises, then?
Yeah! I hope so! All good ones. You say it’s quite soon but I’ve got a daunting number of things to do before we all actually get together and start practicing under the one roof. Because we all live miles apart. Peggy’s in France when he’s not in this country, he’s over there. DM, obviously, he only comes over a few days before from Boston. I live down in East Kent. So we don’t actually see each other very much considering we’re kind of based in north Oxfordshire.
Has it all slotted in place, in terms of working together. Does it feel very comfortable having Dave Mattacks back?
Yes. We’re used to planning a repertoire in this way. There’s a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and discussions on the phone and WhatsApp groups, where we chew the fat. And then people go off and listen to the songs in question and we end up with a big rag-bag, a bucket of songs if you will. And Chris is the clever one. He sits down and tries to work it out – “Let’s put this one here. Let’s put that one there.” And then there aren’t too many instrument changes and not too many things in the same key and a bit of a rise and fall to the shape of the two sets.
Yeah, we’re very much looking forward to it and we’re used to working that way so when the time comes and we get together in the studio for the rehearsals – two days of that – everybody’s on the same page and there’s not much to be worked out. Just – “Does this still work in this key?” That’s one of the big questions (laughs) because obviously voices and so forth change.
Voices change over the decades! And talking of Dave Mattacks coming back, you never seem to have suffered the sort of rancour with former members that have often bedevilled other bands. That seems to suggest that Fairport Convention has always been a relatively happy working environment. Is that true?
Well, it’s many things. It’s a band. It’s an environment. It’s a family in many ways. I’m closer to the guys I’ve been working with for fifty years than I am to my own immediate family really – I spend more time with them! Been through more adventures! It’s been said before but no-one gets out of Fairport alive. You may stop coming to the gigs but, you know, underneath it all, if you scratch deeply enough do they not bleed Fairport?
So you’ve never really had any of those Noel and Liam Gallagher moments?
Oh.. well. Obviously there are hearty and firm disagreements occasionally and there have been moments when you haven’t spoken to people but there’s a parallel there going back to the family thing or in any small office. Occasionally there’ll be frictions but basically, if you’re a band and a band-member kind of person, I don’t get it. If you’re at daggers drawn and you don’t cut each other slack all the time then you’re probably in the wrong band. You’re probably working with the wrong collection of people because you’re just making life unpleasant for yourself.
Yes, it seems an incredibly sensible philosophy but it seems to evade quite a few bands.
Well I think there’s the famous difficulties which brothers always have when they form groups. There never seems to be a seamless happy bunch of brothers. I mean the Finn Brothers seem to do ok but what do we know about their.. they just make wonderful records. But the Kinks were at it when they were kids. And the Gallaghers dear oh dear. And even the Everlys used to travel to gigs separately and have their own managers and their own lawyers. They would talk to each other through their lawyers and they’d come on to the stage. One time I saw them they came on from different sides and when they went off they didn’t look at each other and they walked off separately…
So Fairport’s a largely happy family rather than a dysfunctional one then..
I don’t want to be all Pollyanna-ish about it but, you know, I think we’re all cutting each other slack all the time and happy to do so.
And moving on, from Fairport Convention’s vast back-catalogue, what album are you most proud of?
Oh God, I don’t know. It’s that favourite child question again isn’t it? I think it’s more of a repertoire to me. A performance on one album enshrines a particular place and a time and a collection of people at that point in their lives. But, you know, we’ve had ‘Crazy Man Michael’ in the repertoire, along with ‘Matty Groves’, since they first surfaced on Liege & Lief in 1969 and I don’t think there’s a definitive version of either of those songs. Certainly, there isn’t in my head when I go to sing that song. If I see it on the list and it’s coming up, I’m not thinking, “Oh, the definitive version of this was recorded on this particular album. This is what I’m going to try and emulate now and try and make it as close to that as possible.” You now, I’m not a human juke-box and the band doesn’t feel like that. We’ve got this song. We all know where it starts and finishes, what key it’s in, what tempo it is. And on the count of four, we’ll start playing it and what comes out that night will be tonight’s performance. It’ll have the same structure as last night’s performance but it’s not the same song. Because my mind will be somewhere else in this song. The person standing next to me playing will be on their own little passage from note one ‘til the end. And I’m sure it’s the same with actors. They perform the same play every night but every night is a first night for that play and that song because it’s a performance.
Fairport Convention’s second album where ‘Meet On The Ledge’ first appeared
Even ‘Meet On The Ledge’ – probably your most well-known song from the live repertoire – that’s evolved massively over the years from the quite gentle and understated song when it first appeared to the rousing anthem for live performance now.
That’s right. It was just a ‘no-big-deal’ song on the second album. It was tucked away on Side Two, Track 4 which is a bit of a graveyard slot for most songs. It wasn’t what you heard when you dropped the needle but it has grown in the telling. It’s a song that’s grown in the telling and it’s acquired more reasons to perform it every year. And I know it means the world to people at Cropredy when we come to it – and not just because we can all go home soon! But because of what it’s come to mean to all the people who are there.
Yeah, it’s gathered extra meaning along the way for the audience and gathered more and more meaning over the years.
You also recently announced the final line-up for Cropredy this year. What are you most looking forward to? (apart from your own set of course!)
That’s another bit of a favourite child isn’t it! I’m looking forward to seeing the reactions of the audience who, implicitly, trust our judgement in selecting the bill and you always get the positive feedback and you always get… it’s a bit like TripAdvisor. You hear the best reviews and you hear the worst ones, you know? And you have to disregard the complete outliers because those aren’t a good ship to follow. And some acts you just know are nailed-on. They’re going to be an absolute banker in terms of the reaction. People’s response to them is just.. that’s why you book them. They’re a certainty. But the funnest acts or the ones that create the most warm feelings at my time of life are the ones that are largely unknown or perhaps under-exposed to the audience. And they go on and they’ve got this huge stage, this wonderful setting to perform to and an audience which is trusting and agog and waiting to be entertained. And you put somebody that’s not had a go before or maybe only has a hundred-and-fifty friends in the audience and then ten minutes later they’ve got the whole audience. Ten thousand new best friends! And that’s a wonderful feeling. And I can think of the Travelling Band having that experience happening to them and, of course, the Pierce Brothers
The Pierce Brothers, they were incredible.
If you weren’t there, I feel sorry for you!
I’d actually seen them, I think a week or so before at Womad and they were just on a small stage with maybe a hundred or so people and I thought, “There are going to go down pretty well at Cropredy.” But yeah it was just incredible.
They went down so well we booked them the next year which is, you know, an absolutely unique experience. Buy yeah, that’s like if you go back to last year for instance, we knew that Chic would be an absolutely 24-carrat performance. But what surprised me was the act before them. Because Toyah and Robert (Fripp) were a little bit of an unknown quantity. You had no idea what their repertoire would be derived from and then they came on and they just tore the place up. It started with ‘Paranoid’ I think, just the set-list from heaven and the performance was just… everything was turned up to the right level and it just absolutely cooked. So I had that same experience. I knew it was going to be ok. It might be great but it was better than both.
This year though, we’ve got some unexpected people, unknowns. And I can tell that you know the Spooky Men’s Chorale. I think that they are going to surprise a lot of people who wouldn’t have come upon them. And they’re so different. What they do is just absolutely heart-stoppingly beautiful and so funny and so moving and you can get all of that in the space of about ten seconds. He’s a brilliant showman, Steve, and I’m really pleased we managed to get them.
Photo credit: Simon Putman
Other bands have run their own festivals over the years. The Levellers have been doing Beautiful Days for about 20 years I think, but I can’t think of a single one that’s lasted anywhere near as long as Cropredy. What do you think the secret is?
I don’t know but if I could put it in a bottle I could sell it. No, it’s great and all festivals have to confront the same logistical situations. The same questions have to be answered in many different ways. But there are more questions that set Cropredy apart really than make easy parallels with other festivals. It’s just the way it’s grown out of something that was in the village. It wasn’t started as a commercial thing. It literally was the village hall committee asking us if we’d perform for them after the village fete. So it got it’s roots down deep into the heart of the village at the very beginning rather than being something that was imposed on the village. So it’s always been welcomed and enabled by everybody in that postcode. And the fact it’s just grown little by little, almost just incrementally.
Photo credit: Simon Putman
A big change was going from the one day, the Saturday thing, to incorporate the Friday. And that happened after quite a while and it was just such an obvious thing to do. It didn’t feel that weird because people were camping anyway in advance of it. Similarly, we moved again, changed it into a three-day festival but instead of incorporating a Sunday, we thought we’d go back again and bring people to the village a little early and everyone gets a relaxing free day to go home on the Sunday. Most festivals end on the Sunday night and there’s definitely a different feeling from ending a festival on a Sunday morning. That’s one thing that makes it stand out. And the fact that we’ve always tried to look at it as a punter would. You know, your experience from arriving. You see some festivals where people have to go and park half a mile west from the village and then they have to carry everything to a campsite a mile-and-a-half the other side of the village. Whereas at Cropredy we’ve got enough land to play with and the right size, with the smaller number of people attending. It means people can actually camp next to their car. But it’s just a practical thing like that. And because we wouldn’t want to stumble around on an unlit road, we light the village. We put our own lighting in because it’s safer and it’s practical. And road closures and things like that, we try to make it as good an all-round experience as we can.
Indeed, I’ve been going for years but I went with a friend who had not only never been to Cropredy but had never been to a festival before. I think this was two years ago, the first one after Covid. And he’d done loads and loads of camping so he knew campsites inside out and the drill with that but he’d never been to a festival before and he was like, “Oh, it’s really well-organised. It’s not what I was expecting at all. It’s like proper camping!”
Well, you can always improve things so every time you try and tweak things. The glamping has really taken off. So every year we expand that and it still sells out immediately, however many tents we put up. Because I suppose the demographic is not getting any younger, same as the band. So yeah, we try and make things comfortable but, you know, if you change anything in a way that’s noticeable there’ll be uproar! It’s like tinkering with the broadcast time of The Archers. You can’t do it quietly!
Fairport Convention’s Dave Pegg up on the big screen (Photo: Simon Putman)
Wonderful. Is there anything else you want to tell us, ahead of the tour and ahead of Cropredy?
You can just take it from me that I appreciate every tour more as I get older. And I look forward to every Cropredy more and more. But after the two lockdown years, the two missed Cropredies, that period of enforced retirement made me value all the more what this band and this lifestyle and this business, this fellowship of people, has given me. And if I was ever thinking of retiring, making a choice to step away, that thought was sent to the bottom of Davey Jones’ locker big time. Because I would just miss it so much. And I love what I do and I love the people I work with and I’m so grateful for the opportunity when I wake up every morning and I can wriggle my toes and fingers and look forward to the van pulling up then it’s alright with me.
Fairport Convention’s Winter Tour begins on 6th February 2024
Away Beyond The Fret is the third album from husband-and-wife folk duo, Lucy and Jon Hart, and the follow-up to the highly-enjoyable Journey Through The Roke, which I reviewed back in 2021.
Lucy Hart:“Many of the songs on this album focus on our Suffolk home and the close bonds of family, friendship and community.”
Fresh-sounding, slightly genre-hopping and once again deeply rooted in the history, culture and landscape of their Suffolk homeland, Away Beyond The Fret is delivered with the duo’s characteristic elegance and beauty. The highly-talented duo of Lucy and Jon Hart continue to delight and this, their third album, is proof that Honey & The Bear have blossomed into something truly magnificent on the UK folk scene.
Three Galleys is the debut album from Holly & The Reivers, a project formed back in 2017 that brings together Holly Clarke (vocals/guitar), Merle Harbron (vocals/fiddle) and Bertie Armstrong (vocals/banjo).
Holly & The Reivers:“Three Galleys reaches into the depths of the darker side of folk song and brings forth the messages in the songs that are deeply rooted in human experience through history. Each track has been meticulously arranged to help interlace the story with a musical setting that enthrals listeners to submit and be swept away in a journey of rich storytelling.”
This is an older live video but still carries their instantly-recognisable signature sound based around the trio’s banjo, fiddle and guitar and their contrasting but complimentary vocals. Beautifully atmospheric soundscapes combine with stunning interpretations of traditional ballads that tend dwell on the darker side of human existence, borne of an enduring fascination of folk horror cinema. In Three Galleys, Holly & The Reivers have served up a highly impressive debut album.
Martinmas is the fourth and final release in Gavin Marwick’s Quarterdays series, and this one sees the Scottish fiddle-player and composer team up with pianist and accordion-player, Phil Alexander. The two have played together both socially and professionally over a number of years.
Gavin Marwick:“Martinmas celebrates the life of St Martin of Tours, the only actual historical figure to appear in the Quarterdays canon. Born in what is now part of Hungary, serving in the Roman army and ending up as Bishop of Tours and ultimately one of the patron saints of France, Martin offers a very broad European vision of the spread of the early church across the continent during this long ago fourth century period.”
Marking the final season of the year and celebrating the life of St Martin of Tours, whose feast day is marked on November 11th, the six tune-sets, all composed by Marwick, distil Scottish, Eastern European and French traditional influences alongside more contemporary ideas. Once again, Marwick hits us with more wonderfully expressive fiddle and he and Alexander deliver some nicely evocative tunes that perfectly capture the time of year. Quarterdays has been a fascinating project and Martinmas is a worthy finale to the series.
Playing in bands such as Paper Tiger, Unspeakable Acts, Delicious Houdini, Bamboozle, Tom Houston and the Keltic Band and davesnewbike as well as working as musical director in theatre, Tom Houston has also had a prolific solo career and Everything In The Delicatessen is his sixth solo album. His current work encompasses spoken word, soundscapes, stories and songs.
“Everything In The Delicatessen attempts to give the listener that ‘up close and personal’ experience with ‘local produce’ of high quality,” promises the accompanying press publicity.
An album that transcends musical boundaries and is brimming with drama and musicality, great lyrics and great melodies, Everything In The Delicatessen is the kind of album you’ll come back to again and again and always find something new.
Aberdeen-based musician and songwriter, Colin MacDuff, says he “dabbled” in music and poetry when family and career commitments allowed time but things got more serious upon his retirement when he enrolled on Boo Hewerdine’s and Findlay Napier’s mentorship scheme for aspiring songwriters. With their encouragement he soon found he had more than a dozen original songs and his debut album, The Past In The Sky, was released in 2022 to positive reviews. Separations is the follow-up.
Colin MacDuff:“During the past year I wrote a lot of new songs and got thinking about whether some might fit together in an album. At first, I thought they were very disparate. But, aided by a glass or two, I had the revelation that they were all songs about different aspects of separation.”
The theme of separation in the songs extends across a range of subjects, from relationship break-ups, to bereavement to economic displacement. The main accompaniment is MacDuff’s own acoustic guitar-playing but he’s joined by Angus Lyon (accordion), Jenna Reid (fiddle) and Hugh Halton percussion, with pianist Maria Quinn also providing some beautifully eloquent piano on three tracks. With his gentle vocal and engaging storytelling, Separations acts as an excellent showcase for Colin MacDuff’s fine songwriting.
A Happy New Year to one and all. My thanks to everyone who has visited Darren’s music blog during 2023. As usual an eclectic mix of musical genres feature in this year’s top ten most viewed posts of the year – from blues to classic rock, to prog, to goth, to punk, to new wave, to folk – and much more in between! Here’s to 2024 which will mark ten years since I first started this blog back in March 2014.
1. So farewell to Butlin’s Rock & Blues weekends, Skegness 13-15 January 2023
For more than a decade an out-of-season trip to Butlins has been a fixture in my diary at least once each year: numerous trips to Minehead for the Giants Of Rock weekends, several trips to Skegness for the Great British Folk Festival and a handful of additional trips to the same resort for the Rock & Blues weekends. But now it was finally all coming to an end. My review of the final ever Rock & Blues weekend.
2. Live review: Francis Rossi – ‘Tunes & Chat’ at White Rock Theatre, Hastings 3/6/23
Always quite a Quo fan since being a young teenager, I’d originally booked to see Francis Rossi on his ‘I Talk Too Much Tour’ back in 2020. Covid came along and that got rescheduled and then cancelled altogether but Rossi finally made it to Hastings’ White Rock Theatre on his follow-up tour, ‘Tunes and Chat’.
3. Goth without the gloomy bits: five cheerful, upbeat and joy-inducing songs by goth bands
My affectionate but somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at some of my favourite tunes from goth bands. Features Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cult, Sisters of Mercy and The Cure.
4. Live review: Steeleye Span at the Old Market, Brighton & Hove 23/11/23
This tour saw Steeleye Span promoting a new album The Green Man Collection. The band revisit some of their past material with a mixture of songs written by members of the band at the time and some traditional numbers. The new album also includes a newly-composed song from Maddy Prior, a couple of well-chosen covers and something that was written for the band by (the sadly now recently deceased) Bob Johnson back in the ‘80s, committed to tape and then completely forgotten about for the next four decades.
5. Notes from the Lust For Life Tour – Feb/Mar 2023
The Lust For Life tour brought together Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop), Clem Burke (Blondie, Iggy Pop), Katie Puckrik (Pet Shop Boys, Sparks), Kevin Armstrong (Iggy Pop, David Bowie), Luis Correia (Earl Slick) and Florence Sabeva (Heaven 17). Having had the immense privilege of spending the past few months working on the PR campaign for the tour it was a joy to finally witness the band live, not just in a professional capacity but most importantly as a fan, of both that glorious Iggy Pop album and of the individual players in the band, too. The band are back for a new tour in Feb/March 2024.
6. Live review: Graham Nash at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill 30/8/23
Billed as ‘Sixty Years of Songs & Stories’ the ten-date UK tour celebrated Graham Nash’s six decades of writing, recording and performing. I’m aware of his hits with The Hollies in the early days, of course, and (courtesy of a couple of compilations) I’m also pretty familiar with some of the best-known songs by both Crosby, Still & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I can’t claim to have followed his solo career in any great depth but, nevertheless, I felt confident that this tour was going to be something rather special and something I didn’t want to miss.
7. Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2023
Following an enforced two-year break due to Covid, going to last year’s Cropredy festival almost felt like a novelty. This year, though, it very much felt like being part of an annual fixture once more, the two-year gap now but a distant memory. With various combinations of friends and family over the years, I’ve been going to Fairport Convention’s annual bash in rural Oxfordshire since 2010 so it’s been part of my summer for a good chunk of my life now.
8. Live review: Iggy Pop, Blondie, Generation Sex, Stiff Little Fingers & Buzzcocks at Crystal Palace Park 1/7/23
One thing I like about the music scene these days is how much less tribal it all is compared to when I was a teenager. The intense rivalry between punks and metalheads has certainly dissipated since I was at school in the late 70s and early 80s. The passage of time, for many of us, has led to a much broader appreciation of rock and roll in all its many guises. As a teen, I was firmly in the hard rock/metal camp rather than the punk/new wave camp but looking around at those attending what has been billed Dog Day Afternoon today, there doesn’t look to be much difference in appearance between all the crop-haired, ageing punk fans clad in regulation khaki shorts and black T-shirts and all the crop-haired, ageing metal fans clad in regulation khaki shorts and black T-shirts.
9. Absolute Beginner: Interview with Bowie/Iggy guitarist Kevin Armstrong
Kevin Armstrong has played alongside icons like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Thomas Dolby, Sinéad O’Connor and many others. We catch up to talk about his forthcoming autobiography Absolute Beginner which came out in October; as well as the Lust For Life project which has brought together the likes of Clem Burke, Glen Matlock and Katie Puckrik to celebrate the classic Iggy album; plus our mutual love of the live music scene down here in Hastings.
10. Live review: John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest at Salle Pleyel, Paris 19/11/23
I was fairly late coming to Barclay James Harvest. I was aware of the likes of ‘Mocking Bird’, of course, but picked up a second-hand compilation from a charity shop in about 2019 and my fasciation grew from there. By the time lockdown came, I found myself tracking down the band’s entire back catalogue on ebay. When I saw that John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest were doing their final tour I decided I just had to be there. With only one remaining UK date I wasn’t particularly keen on a trek all the way up to Huddersfield from my home in Hastings and so I hit on the idea of a trip to Paris. I could meet up with friends and make a long weekend of it.
Hot on the heels of his stunning 2023 studio album, Glass Knight, released back in August, genre-fluid glam-prog-folk singer-songwriter, Joshua Burnell, follows it up with a new live album in time for Christmas.
Glass Knight, which Burnell launched when he performed on the main stage at Fairport’s Cropredy festival, picked up tons of good reviews – including from Darren’s Music Blog where I described it as “Hunky Dory-era Bowie meets folk rock meets prog” and hailed it as a bona fide twenty-first century masterpiece. Rather than giving us ‘stadium-ready’ renditions of the songs from Glass Knight, however, Live At The Crescent (recorded in the intimate setting of a gig in York in October 2022) takes us back to before Glass Knight was recorded, when many of the songs were still being worked up in readiness for the studio.
Opening with the then un-released ‘Where Planets Collide’, Burnell goes on to share with the audience a number of embryonic versions of songs that would later appear on Glass Knight, as well as some older material, including three songs from its excellent, albeit more folk-leaning predecessor, Flowers Where The Horses Sleep.
In addition to live versions of other classic tracks from Burnell’s back catalogue, there are also songs like ‘Some Things Aren’t Eroded’ and ‘Slow-Burning Cigarette’ that are yet to appear on any studio albums, giving us a tantalising glimpse of what might be coming next.
Joined by his regular band of Nathan Greaves on electric guitar, Oliver Whitehouse on bass, Ed Simpson on drums, Frankie Archer on violin and Frances Sladen on vocals; the album is a complete, unabridged recording of his concert at The Crescent that captures the immersive atmosphere of a Burnell gig.
After a hugely-successful three and a half decades together Steve Knightley and Phil Beer announced this year that Show Of Hands’ days as a touring unit would finally be drawing to a close. The recent Autumn 2023 tour marked their final outing as a trio (with Miranda Sykes) and a spring tour planned for next year will be their final hurrah as a duo. To coincide with this fond farewell, they have a new compilation out. Intended as a companion piece to their original 2007 Roots‘Best Of’ of compilation, Roots 2 offers up a whopping 31 tracks across two discs.
Steve Knightley: “We’ve always strived to evolve and experiment with our sound,, all the time staying true to our folk roots. We hope the diversity of this album demonstrates that and it will be a noteworthy addition to our discography.”
Immediate proof of just how long-overdue this follow-up compilation is, immediately comes in hearing just how many of my favourites from Show Of Hands can be found on this new collection: ‘Haunt You’, ‘The Long Way Home’, ‘Now You Know’ and, of course, ‘Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed’.
The earlier material isn’t neglected completely though. There’s a new version of ‘Country Life’, for example, recorded live in Exeter and reimagined as a gentle, reflective ballad rather than the rousing twenty-first century rural folk anthem we all love and know. And things are brought up to date with a gloriously celebratory live version of their 2021 ‘lockdown’ single, ‘The Best One Yet.’
Moving, poignant, rousing, anthemic (no-one does anthemic quite like Show Of Hands after all), Roots 2 is a sterling late-career retrospective of one of the most important UK folk outfits of the past four decades.
One of the really nice things about seeing Steeleye Span live (and there are many) is that on each new tour there are always a few surprises to look forward to. It’s never just a ‘greatest hits’ set of the most obvious crowd-pleasers plus a few songs thrown in to plug whatever happens to be the latest album. Obscure songs from the band’s bulging back catalogue are dusted down and given a new lease of life. New arrangements are tried out by what is often a very different line-up from the one that originally recorded it. Or sometimes an entire album is revisited and performed in full. Meanwhile, to make way for a constantly-evolving setlist, old stage favourites are often gently retired and given a rest for a few years.
This current tour sees Steeleye Span promoting a new album The Green Man Collection. Here, the band revisit some of their past material with a mixture of songs written by members of the band at the time and some traditional numbers. The new album also includes a newly-composed song from Maddy Prior, a couple of well-chosen covers and something that was written for the band by Bob Johnson back in the ‘80s, committed to tape and then completely forgotten about for the next four decades.
The latter song, ‘Green Man’, is the one that opens the show. The symbolism of the Green Man has obviously been a mainstay of English folk traditions for centuries but here the lyrics address ecological concerns – then very current in the 1980s when it was first written and, alarmingly, even more current now. Dark, brooding and slightly mysterious, it’s a classic slice of Steeleye Span and a superb opener. Indeed, it’s a complete mystery how the band managed to forget about such a magnificent track. Both the original version and the newly-revisited version appear on the new album.
Alongside familiar numbers like ‘The Dark Morris Song’, ‘New York Girls’ and ‘Tam Lin’, the first half of the set also sees the band take on two songs written by former bass-player, Rick Kemp, ‘Low Flying’ and ‘Genocide’. The former featured on the 1990 Rick Kemp & Maddy Prior album Happy Families whilst the latter appeared on Kemp’s solo album Escape.
The second set opens with a surprising but hugely poignant cover of Elvis Costello’s ‘Shipbuilding’. This is then followed by a newly-written song from Maddy Prior – the excellent ‘Hey Nonny Violence’, which very much follows in the Steeleye Span tradition of seemingly jolly songs tackling much darker themes. Another new song (well new for Steeleye Span, anyway) is the band’s interpretation of the traditional ‘The Sound of Drums’.
That’s not to say there aren’t a few more familiar favourites as well. One song I would have been disappointed to see dropped was ‘Hard Times of Old England’ and, as Prior points out in introducing it, it’s sadly as relevant today as it ever was. For those familiar with the Mike Batt-produced version on the All Around My Hat album, this new interpretation is even more of a rocked-up boogie-fest than the original recording. This is no surprise as none other than Status Quo’s Francis Rossi makes an appearance on the new album guesting on this track, and the band bring some of the spirit of the mighty Quo to their stage performance tonight. There’s also some equally lively fiddle from newcomer, Athena Octavia, who slots in alongside the old hands beautifully.
All the band are on fine form, Prior’s voice is in top-notch shape and Steeleye Span continue to surprise and delight. When the band exit the stage to huge applause towards the end of their second set all that is left is for them to come back on for a riotous, sing-along version of ‘All Around My Hat’ and we can all leave with a spring in our step.
Setlist – first set: Green Man The Dark Morris Song Sir James the Rose When All The World The Gardener New York Girls Low Flying Genocide Tam Lin
Setlist – second set:
Shipbuilding Hey Nonny Violence Black Jack Davy The Sound of Drums The Weaver and the Factory Maid Jack Hall Hard Times of Old England Bonny Black Hare Dodgy Bastards All Around My Hat
I first came across Jack Rutter when three precociously-talented but slightly nervous teenagers took the stage at Fairport’s Cropredy festival back in 2011 as that year’s BBC Young Folk Awards winners as the trio Moore Moss Rutter. Since that time, Rutter has made a major mark on the UK folk scene. As well as periodic albums with Moore Moss Rutter, there have been collaborations with the likes of Sam Sweeney, Seth Lakeman and Molly Evans, plus his own solo career.
Jack Rutter:“Folk songs and music captivate me and make me happy. This album is a love letter to the music and the whole folk scene that has been a constant in my life and so many other lives down the generations and I hope it stirs something back into the big folk melting pot.”
The third in a trilogy exploring British folk songs and featuring nine songs in the trad. arr. cannon, this latest offering is yet further evidence of Jack Rutter’s growing stature as a performer. Now un-disputably, one of the finest singers and interpreters of traditional material on the UK folk scene today, This Is Something Constant is a truly excellent album from Jack Rutter.
Hot on the heels of What Are We Trying To Say, released back in March of this year, husband-and-wife duo, Stu and Debbie Hann, have another new album out, this time in collaboration with playwright, Kieran Knowles. Described as a “play with songs” The Herald began life as a short UK tour telling the story of a small-town local journalist, with Knowles providing the spoken-word parts and Megson delivering the songs. Following the success of the tour, the three teamed up once more to produce an audio recording of the show.
Megson: “It has been a fascinating process to take part in and observe the many parallels between scriptwriting and songwriting. The outcome of the project is something we are immensely proud of.”
Linking the songs, Knowles delivers a well-written and convincing narrative that serves as a worthy tribute to the finest traditions of local journalism: holding those in power to account, giving a voice to the local community and standing up against injustice. And what superb songs and superb storytelling we have from Megson here, some of which will surely develop a life of their own outside the format of this particular project.
Picking up best newcomer award at the BBC Folk Awards back in 2012, Lucy Ward went on to have an impactful career on the UK folk scene but things have been rather quieter in recent years as her attention has turned to her family. Unanswered is actually her first new album to be released in five years and she’s teamed up with fellow singer-songwriters, Svavar Knútur from Iceland and Adyn Townes from Canada.
Lucy Ward:“It’s the true story of an old telephone, clearly disconnected for many years, that still sometimes rings… though no-one ever dares to answer to the ghostly caller.”
A multi-national collaboration borne out of lockdown and two years of Zoom exchanges and finally recorded at a remote location on Iceland’s northern coast, the album brings together three performers with their own unique styles to create an innovative slice of contemporary indie-folk. Stark and melancholy as befits the subject matter, there’s an intimacy and a tenderness to the songs on this album, the three contrasting voices melding with some incredible musicianship to produce something memorable and highly creative.
Notching up ten years and five albums together, The Colour Of The Night is the latest from Ninebarrow, the duo of Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere. It follows the excellent A Pocket Full Of Acorns, released in March 2021 just as the UK was heading into lockdown.
Jon Whitley:“The world has certainly felt a bit topsy-turvy since our last album but we are lucky to have received wonderful support that kept our spirits high – some of the songs here reflect that sentiment.”
The Colour of Night comprises five original songs and one instrumental piece, alongside several covers, an adaption of a Victorian poem and one traditional song. The duo’s signature vocal harmonies are set against the lush instrumentation of cellist, Lee MacKenzie, double-bassist, John Parker and percussionist, Evan Carson, alongside the duo themselves on piano, mandola and reed organ. A beautifully-uplifting album, Ninebarrow once again deliver their trademark folk magic.
An award-winning Uilleann Piper, flautist and composer, Calum Stewart has chalked up an impressive musical cv working with the likes The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Julie Fowlis and Nitin Sawhney, in addition to pursuing his solo career. His most recent albums; True North (2023) and Tales from the North (2017) bring together traditional melodies and lyrical compositions, inspired by the landscape and heritage of the north of Scotland.
Calum Stuart:“Through this collection of music, I aim to pay tribute to the traditional tunes that have stood the test of time, while also expressing my personal connection with the north of Scotland through self-penned tracks. The songs reflect the memories, experiences, and encounters I’ve had in this captivating region.”
Featuring five traditional tunes and five new compositions from Calum Stuart, there’s a vibrancy and a freshness about True North which makes for an exhilarating celebration of Scottish traditional music and the timeless beauty of the Uilleann pipes.
The self-styled ‘Gaelic Supergroup’, who have now been around some twenty-five years, are back with another new album. Sula was recorded on the Hebridean island of Bernera and captures the band in fine form performing a mix of traditional Gaelic songs and new band compositions.
Dàimh: “SULA is the old Norse name for the Gannet, the largest seabird in Northern Europe. As graceful soaring above the waves as they are swimming far beneath them, Gannets find strength by gathering together in close knit communities on isolated windswept outposts and perfectly embody Dàimh’s enduring connection to the Hebrides and their surrounding waters.”
Evocative bagpipe-led instrumentals, exhilarating fiddle-playing and the captivating Gaelic-language vocals of Ellen MacDonald, this is another album that wonderfully captures the beauty, vibrancy and resilience of the Gaelic music scene.
Described in the press publicity as being “the Dad’s Army of the current folk scene” the double disc album of veteran folkie, Ian Bruce, features a host of musical guests: Barbara Dickson, Bob Fox, Jez Lowe, Allan Taylor, Mike Silver and Alastair McDonald to name but a few.
Three years in the making, this ambitious project encompasses thirty-three tracks and over one hundred collaborators and initially came about as a crowd-funded lockdown project when the Covid pandemic denied Bruce his regular income as a working, gigging musician.
Ian Bruce:“Together Forever delves into personal preferences, influences and loves of the music I grew up with.”
Although there’s an acoustic folk sensibility at its heart, this is an album that spans many influences. The selections range from traditional Scottish ballads, to songs written by stalwarts of the folk revival, like the late Rab Noakes, to an impeccably tartaned-up version of Peter Sarstedt’s ‘Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?’. The comforting familiarity of many of these songs will put a smile a smile on your face and give you a warm glow inside.
Classically-trained, professional harpist, Sarah Deere-Jones, performed for many years with symphony, opera and ballet orchestras but, latterly, she has turned her attention to performing her own arrangements of traditional songs and creating original music.
A keen environmental campaigner, Deere-Jones was inspired to put her love of nature and concern for the future well-being of the natural world at the heart of A Little Piece of Eden.
Sarah Deere-Jones:“This album particularly reflects my personal feelings on the changes in rural life, from my childhood in north Dorset, to where I live today in rural Cornwall – the crash of biodiversity, the diaspora of small communities and the damage of intensive farming, these are all changes that I have witnessed with my own eyes – but in recent years the growing rewilding movement gives us hope that these problems can be solved.”
Featuring four original songs alongside eleven traditional songs and tunes and with accompaniment from guitar, gazuki and melodeon player, Phil Williams, A Little Piece of Eden is an inspiring showcase for both Sarah Deere-Jones exquisite harp-playing and her bright-burning passion for a more sustainable future.
Gareth Williams is an Irish-born composer and singer-songwriter based in Scotland. As a musician he has always sought to work across musical boundaries, from musical theatre to pop, from chamber music to opera.
In using literature as its inspirational starting point, Williams’ latest project is not unusual for a folk-based album. What does appear to be a unique approach, however, is in merely using the final line of each story as the starting point for a song.
Gareth Williams:“These songs all have one thing in common – they begin on the final page of a book. And, all the books I chose for this collection also have something in common – when I read them, I didn’t want them to end. So I took what I found in the final lines, with no words added and none taken out, and built verses, choruses, bridges, and refrains. Stories never stay on the page anyway – these ones just became songs.”
In the hands of someone less talented this could have fallen flat and risk taking us into the realms of gimmickry. But in Songs From The Last Page, Gareth Williams pulls off something that is both thought-provoking and musically interesting. Some of the books referenced I knew (Sherlock Holmes and Treasure Island – for example). Others I was completely unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, Williams’ skills as a songwriter and musician were enough to draw me in, his somewhat sombre piano providing the main musical backdrop to each of these literary flights of fancy.
Always entertaining on stage, Blazin’ Fiddles (a project that initially started out as one-off collaboration for a short five-day tour) mark their twenty-fifth century anniversary with a new release.
Recorded as-live in the studio with the aim of capturing the spontaneity of a concert performance, the album features a line-up of Bruce MacGregor, Rua Macmillan, Jenna Reid and Kristan Harvey on their respective fiddles who are joined by Anna Massie on guitar and fiddle and Angus Lyon on piano.
Blazin’ Fiddles: “Our purpose as a band has been to promote the fiddle styles of the highlands and islands and you will find the melodies of these traditions are to the fore. We’re also a band that loves to travel and absorb cultures, so we have melodies from our trips and adventures as well as a number of new compositions by band members.”
XXV is an invigorating music celebration from a band who have more than earned their place as a fixture of the Scottish traditional music scene this past quarter of a century. Highly enjoyable.
Darren's music blog 