Intelligent Music Project, the Bulgarian-based supergroup comprising world-famous rock musicians, is set to launch their much-awaited eighth album, Miracles Beyond, on May 15th.
The band recently released their first single from the album, offering a fascinating preview of the musical journey that awaits. While the album boasts the presence of globally celebrated rock stars, it’s noteworthy that the lead vocalist for the single ‘Shine for You’ is none other than Slavin Slavchev. Serving as the band’s primary vocalist in live performances, Slavchev, also an X-Factor winner, emerges as the driving force behind the track with his exceptional and powerful vocal prowess.
As mentioned, Miracles Beyond features an ensemble of legendary musicians, including Simon Phillips (TOTO, Protocol, The Who, Judas Priest), Joseph Williams (TOTO), John Payne (ex-Asia), and Carl Sentence (Nazareth), each bringing their unique flair to the project. The artwork shared on the band’s Facebook page has already ignited curiosity and excitement, hinting at the magic Miracles Beyond is poised to deliver.
Intelligent Music Project captured attention as Bulgaria’s representative at Eurovision 2022 in Turin, showcasing their versatility on the international stage with their song “Intention”.
Milen Vrabevski, MD, producer, songwriter, founder of the project, and the mastermind behind the band, expressed his joy at the collaboration with top-notch musicians. He shared,“I’m so happy to present our eighth album with yet another magnificent line-up!! So great to have all these musicians on board again. This is Simon Phillips’s 6th album with us, John Payne’s 5th and Joseph Williams’s 4th. Such a star turnout is a special privilege for me, and I hope I truly hope to bring to the audience some delight in those strange times. Enjoy our next world-class product!”
The Miracles Beyond line-up includes also the Grammy Award Nominee Ernest Tibbs and the producer’s favourite Richard Grisman.
Besides the aforementioned musicians, over the years the band has seen a stellar lin-eup, including John Lawton (Uriah Heep, Lucifer’s Friend), Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, Michael Schenker’s Group), Nathan East (Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Toto, Stevie Wonder and more), Tim Pierce (Joe Cocker, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper and more), Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow, Black Sabbath), and Todd Sucherman (Styx).
‘Shine For You’ available digitally via the following platforms:
Having worked on the PR for the first Lust For LifeTour last year (featuring Clem Burke on drums, Glen Matlock on bass; Katie Puckrik on vocals, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, Luis Correia on second guitar, and Florence Sabeva on keyboards), it was a real privilege, not to mention a huge load of fun, to be asked to do the same again for this year’s tour.
“Tom Wilcox has these amazing concepts of bands that he’d like to see put together. And some of them work and some of them go on to have a bit of a life and other ones just crash into the dust – however good they are. I recall the one we did with Richard Strange, and Lou Reed material, which I thought was very, very good but only a very few people came to sees it. But this one caught fire. Which is good really because it was originally billed, as you know, around Tony Sales – the Tin Machine bass-player and early Iggy bass-player.”
Kevin Armstrong – Photo credit: Carl Allen
Tony Sales wasn’t able to tour in the UK in the event. He was duly replaced by Glen Matlock at the eleventh hour and from then on the whole thing really developed a life of its own. The response was so overwhelmingly enthusiastic, with every venue on the 2023 tour completely sold-out, it was almost inevitable that there’d be a repeat.
The 2024 tour has seen the band playing some larger venues and, as well as some new additions to the set-list there were some other notable changes, too.
Stuart Fiddes, who performs under the name of Fifteen Lions and did support slots for a couple of dates on the previous tour, was now brought in as support for the whole tour. Influenced by the likes of Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears and Orlando Weeks, singer-songwriter Fiddes opened proceedings with songs from his moodily cinematic debut album The Picture House, which was released last year.
Start Fiddes, Fifteen Lions – Photo credit: Carl Allen
But as Stuart’s set was drawing to a close each night, things would take a leftfield turn as he welcomed Waveney Wilcox to perform the last song with him. Combining the earthy swagger of Ian Dury, the punk-era attitude of John Lydon and the debonaire cool of the late Charlie Watts, Waveney entertained the crowds with his debut solo single ‘Sociology’ which he’s just released at the age of 71.
Waveney Wilcox – Photo credit: Carl Allen
Next up each evening was the wonderful Suzi Ronson, wife of the late guitar legend and ex-Spider, Mick Ronson, talking about her evolution from Beckenham hairdresser to Bowie stylist and inventor of the iconic Ziggy hair-do. I knew she’d be hugely entertaining but spoken-word sets are notoriously difficult to pull off at a rock gig. “I’m a bit nervous,” Suzi confided when we did a Zoom ahead of the tour. Would the crowd listen? No fear! From the first night in Colchester you could hear a pin drop and she was brilliantly, brilliantly entertaining. A really inspired choice.
Suzi Ronson – Photo credit: Carl Allen
Then it would be time for the main event: the Lust For Life Band performing Iggy’s Lust For Life album in full, as well as revisiting songs from across the individual band members’ careers with legendary artists including Blondie, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols.
One of the real delights of this entire project has been what an off-the-Richter-scale revelation Katie Puckrik has been to all of those who have witnessed her on stage for the first time. As Mick Burgess, reviewing the band’s North Shields gig, puts it:
“Former presenter of TV’s The Word, Katie Puckrik had the unenviable task of covering Pop’s vocals and on paper, seemed the weakest link. Any such doubts were instantly expelled with an absolute whirlwind of flamboyant energy and a seriously impressive vocal performance which suited the songs perfectly. Puckrik simply, stole the show.”
Katie Puckrik – Photo credit: Carl Allen
It’s as if Katie was pre-destined to do this. What a brilliantly unexpected move at this stage in her career and what a stroke of absolute genius by creative director Tom Wilcox who headhunted her to front the Lust For Life band.
Of course, any project that has musicians of the calibre of Glen Matlock, Clem Burke, Kevin Armstrong, Luis Correia and Florence Sabeva in it (not to mention the incredible back catalogue of iconic songs that they bring with them) is bound to result in a hugely-entertaining series of gigs. It was last year, of course, but things ramped up even more this year.
Luis Correia, Glen Matlock and Katie Puckrik – Photo credit: Carl Allen
This year saw the metamorphosis of Lust For Life from a project into a living, breathing bona-fide band, with a unity of purpose and an unstoppable momentum who went on to deliver an outstandingly memorable tour. A brilliant band and an unforgettable run of gigs. And this is borne out in review after review.
Lust For Life Tour – What They Say:
“Whoever had the inspired idea to ask broadcaster Katie Puckrik to take the place of James Newell Osterberg on this tour performing the Detroit fire spirit’s classic second solo album should take a bow.”Gus Ironside, Louder Than War
“Six world-class musicians who have all worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry, rocked Colchester for an unforgettable night of live music.” – Cameron Poole, Colchester Gazette
“The full Lust For Live album is expertly showcased but for many in the venue the highlights were the various covers of songs by Bowie, The Sex Pistols and Blondie.”John Brown, Scottish Music Network
“An absolutely stunning evening of Punk fuelled Rock ‘n’ Roll performed by some genuine legends and exceptional musicians made this a strong contender for gig of the year already.” – Mick Burgess, Metal Express Radio
“Glen, Clem, and the rest of the band looked so at ease playing together. It was a masterclass to watch. Kate was up front and, wow, you can absolutely see why!” – Phil Wright, Wall Of Sound
“Puckrik declaimed in her deep alto range on Tonight and channelled some of Debbie Harry’s irreverent cool on the roistering Success.”Fiona Shepherd, The Scotsman
“Through their musicianship and dedication, the band not only paid homage to a punk legend but also reminded us of the enduring power of live music to unite and inspire. While the night may have ended, the memories and the music will undoubtedly linger on in the hearts of those who were there to witness it.” – Waqas Arain, BNN Breaking
“As ‘tribute’ bands go tonight was by far the greatest I’ve seen and why wouldn’t it be, the pinnacle of punk is still rocking away as good as ever.” – Neil Winward, RGM Press
“Puckrik owned the stage from the first note of ‘Lust for Life,’ her enthusiasm absolutely contagious. The band ripped through the entire album, from the ferocious adrenaline rush of the title track to the garage rock of ‘Fall In Love With Me” – Andy Von Pip, Von Pip Musical Express
“It may seem somewhat excessive to attend both 2024 nights at the Arts Centre, but when the music and musicians on stage are this good you would be foolish to miss even a second of the greatest show on earth.” – Carl Allen, Music Venue Man
“Lust for Life are true to the album that they pay tribute to: a simultaneous blast of fuck-it energy and the cognisant reflection that saying fuck-it can actually be of primal importance.” –Raph Pour-Hashemi, Far Out Magazine
“Albums as iconic as Lust for Life don’t come along too often and it takes some iconic performers to do them justice in this kind of tribute format and the Lust for Life band do exactly that.”Frank Ralph, V13
“As soon as they hit the stage it was clear that we were going to get a couple of hours of some of the most fun and exciting live music around.” – Chris Hillman, Reading Today
“Lust For Life, well, the word Down On The Street, Tonight is we had a Funtime and no one said I’m Bored, an unqualified Success. Seriously, if you get the chance to see them, go do it. ” – John Welsh – Into Creative
“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
“I’m a blues guitarist but not necessarily a blues artist,”Joanne Shaw Taylor confides in the De La Warr audience at one point in the set, explaining her desire not to be boxed in too much by the constraints of genre labels. And that pretty much sums up her whole approach on stage tonight. From the pounding rhythm and blues of show-opener ‘In The Mood’ to the heart-wrenching classic blues of the Albert King cover ‘Can’t You See What You’re Doing To Me’, to the polished pop-rock of recent single ‘Wild Love’ to the elongated ‘60s-style freak-out of ‘Watch Em Burn’ to the funky licks of ‘Diamonds In The Dirt’ to the mellow, acoustic beauty of ‘Fade Away’ we get a taste of many things tonight.
Photo credit: Marty Moffatt
At the heart of it all is the incredible talent of Joanne Shaw Taylor, her soulful voice and great song-writing much in evidence, alongside her much-praised guitar wizardry. Discovered and mentored by The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart at just 16, she has uncanny ability to harness the passion, raw emotion, and sheer exhilaration that great blues guitar-playing can engender and then take that and place it in pretty much any setting.
And the results are spectacular – with a packed-out De La Warr Pavilion showing its appreciation throughout. Shaw Taylor is ably assisted, of course, by a hugely-talented band (Shane Sanders – bass, Joey Spina – second guitar, Eric Savage – drums, and Phil Whitfield – keyboards). Whitfield, in particular is a delight to watch, taking us from lush, exquisite, soulful keys to pounding, energetic honky-tonk piano during the course of tonight’s show.
Photo credit: Marty Moffatt
With an eagerly-anticipated new album coming out in June we get a taste of what’s to come via a couple of songs tonight (‘Sweet ‘Lil Lies’ and ‘Wild Love’) alongside more established favourites from her, by now, extensive back catalogue.Heavy Soulwill be Shaw Taylor’s twelfth album since her 2009 debut, White Sugar and tonight’s show is proof as to just how much she’s established herself as blues rock royalty these past fifteen years. An absolute masterclass of a performance.
Heavy Soul is released 7th June 2024. For Joanne Shaw Taylor website visit here
Set-list:
In the Mood
Keep On Lovin’ Me
All My Love
If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody
Can’t You See What You’re Doing to Me
Dyin’ to Know
Wild Love
Won’t Be Fooled Again
Watch ’em Burn
Diamonds in the Dirt
Fade Away
Runaway
Sweet Lil Lies
Bad Blood
Going Home
Connor Selby – support
A shout-out, also, for the young blues-roots, guitarist singer-songwriter, Connor Selby, the one-man support act for this tour. The polite, well-mannered introductions to his songs belie a vocal delivery of real depth and grit, some nifty blues guitar work and some impassioned song-writing. Definitely one to be added to my ones-to-watch list, he entertained with a highly enjoyable set in his allotted 30-minute slot.
‘Sociology’ by Waveney Wilcox: digital release 1 March 2024
At the age of 71, Suffolk-born singer Waveney Wilcox has recruited an all-star line-up of stellar musicians for the release of his debut solo single, ‘Sociology’ on 1st March this year.
Waveney Wilcox: “I wrote this song in the late ‘70s whilst playing in the band Plazma from Halstead, Essex. All these years later, living in the Black Forest in Germany, it has been exciting to remake/remodel it for my first single release.”
‘Sociology’ was inspired by a long conversation with a man Waveney shared a night in a police cell with back in the late 1970s. The man had been in institutions most of his life and claimed to just want to be put in a cell and forgotten about; having no interest or belief in joy, love, and a normal life of societal conventions. The horror of those stark nihilist statements made a deep impression on Waveney – then a father of young children – that has lasted for almost 50 years.
Waveney Wilcox, a complete unknown in the music world, made this record with world class musicians – multi instrumentalist and producer Paul Cuddeford (Ian Hunter, Steve Harley, Bob Geldof) and saxophone player Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey, Gallon Drunk, Yoko Ono) – who volunteered to work on the project on the strength of the song and the vocal delivery.
Waveney will be performing ‘Sociology’ with Fifteen Lions (AKA Stuart Fiddes) on all dates on the Feb/March 2024 Lust For Life Tour: https://www.lustforlifetour.com/
Friday evening saw me make a whistlestop trip to the capital to catch up with my old friends The Pouk Hill Prophetz, who were performing a gig at London’s Water Rats.
Coming together through a shared love of Slade and a determination to celebrate the glam era in their own unique fashion, The Pouk Hill Prophetz have been around for a decade now. Never far away from anything Slade-related and raising a ton of money for various charitable endeavours along the way, they’ve long been a fixture at various Slade conventions (which is where I first caught them back in 2016). They even performed at my own Slade book launch last summer which was a huge load of fun.
The band have built up quite a dedicated following over the last ten years and the venue was nicely packed-out for them, their first gig in the capital with new drummer, James Hannington, who joins established Propheteers Nigel Hart and Martin Brooks.
I’ve seen many glam-inspired tribute acts and numerous glam covers bands over the years, but what really sets Pouk Hill Prophetz apart is that they don’t just restrict themselves to the most obvious foot-stomping big hits. You get a good blast of those, of course. But as far as their love as Slade goes, you can always expect a liberal smattering of obscure B-sides, carefully-chosen album tracks and archive material from the early pre-glam days thrown in as well.
Accordingly, tonight starts with a stomping version of ‘Know Who You Are’ – Slade’s last non-hit single before they struck gold with ‘Get Down and Get With It’. ‘Gudbuy Gudbuy’ from Slade’s classic Slayed album makes an appearance, as does ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ and ‘In Like A Shot From My Gun’ from the much-celebrated Slade Alive album.
It’s not just Slade though. They also give us a blast of The Sweet’s ‘Hellraiser’ and T Rex’s ‘20th Century Boy’ and later on a suitably pounding sing-along version of the Bay City Rollers’ ‘Shang-A-Lang’. It’s not even just the glam covers either. We get some great hard-rocking version of ZZ Top’s ‘Tush’ and Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’.
Things slow down for an acoustic segment mid-way through, with guitarist Martin Brooks moving on to keyboards for heartfelt renditions of Slade’s ‘Everyday’ and its lesser-known cousin ‘She Did It To Me’ alongside ‘Dapple Rose’ and a highly emotive ‘Old New Borrowed And Blue’. Although taking the title of a Slade album, the latter is not a cover version at all but an original composition cleverly taking fragments of various Slade lyrics from across their career to create a unique and utterly sincere musical love-letter to the famous foursome from Wolverhampton.
A few more raucous classics to round off the evening, including ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ and ‘Born To Be Wild’ as well as a Slade-inspired vintage rock and roll medley, and then it’s time for me to say some hurried goodbyes and make a swift exit in time to get the last train back to Hastings.
In February and March 2023 an all-star line-up convened to celebrate the forty-fifth anniversary of the release of Iggy Pop’s classic Lust For Life album. Legendary Blondie drummer, Clem Burke, was joined by former Sex Pistol and punk pioneer, Glen Matlock on bass; broadcaster and Pet Shop Boys dancer, Katie Puckrik on vocals; Iggy Pop and David Bowie collaborator, Kevin Armstrong on guitar; Luis Correia, who’s toured internationally with Earl Slick on second guitar together with classical pianist, composer, and touring member of Heaven 17, Florence Sabeva on keyboards.
Lust For Live, recorded live over two exhilaratingly riotous nights at London’s Lexington on 11th and 12th March 2023, sees the band perform Iggy’s Lust For Life album in full, as well as revisiting songs from across the individual band members’ careers with legendary artists including Blondie, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols.
Lust For Live is available as a 19-track, limited edition, double-gatefold, live album as well as being released digitally. One disc will be pressed in opaque white with the other in opaque yellow, in a limited-edition pressing of just 1,000 copies.
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!!”
Well it’s not every day you get to the chance to see Steve Harris from Iron Maiden performing in a small upstairs venue above a bar on a wet Tuesday night in Hastings. But it seemed like an extremely promising choice for my first gig of 2024. Strictly speaking, it was actually my first ticketed gig of the year because I did see the impressive Lost Asylum in the Carlisle (Hastings’ main rock pub) a few nights back.
Blackbox is a great small venue but it can sometimes take quite a while to fill up. Not tonight though, as the place is completely packed-out as I walk in and the support act has already just taken the stage. Multi-instrumentalist and singer-song-writer, Tony Moore, was very briefly in an early line-up of the fledgling Iron Maiden but remained friends with Steve Harris over the years which landed him the support slot. He tells the crowd that as a kid he got to see Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Ziggy Stardust. And he ended up wanting to be all of them. His multi-media one-man show ‘Awake’ is a flamboyantly bombastic mix of prog-meets-glam-meets-rock-opera. It’s slightly bonkers and absolutely glorious. Hugely entertaining, moving and packed full of great songs, it was not what I was expecting at all as the opener tonight but I’ve definitely added Tony Moore to my list of people worth seeing again.
I’d long been aware of British Lion, Steve Harris’s side-project which originally started out as a solo album and then evolved into a fully-fledged touring band . But in terms of actually seeing them live or hearing either of their two albums they had completely escaped me. I turned up, therefore, without any familiarity with the material and with a completely open mind about what to expect.
It is said that Harris formed the band as both an opportunity to pursue different writing styles, away from the Maiden-esque long epics, and also to get up close and personal with audiences playing the small, sweaty clubs. I’m completely won over a few seconds into the first song and although British Lion is obviously a very different beast to Iron Maiden, they do come across as being very much a Steve Harris vision of what a successful rock band should be about. And that is meant as a compliment. There’s some real power-house rhythm, front and centre of the band’s sound, a great collection of songs with some shit-hot memorable melodies and while it’s all done on a miniscule scale compared to Maiden, the whole thing just oozes energy and charisma.
The band themselves (Richard Taylor – lead vocals, David Hawkins and Grahame Leslie – guitars and Simon Dawson – drums, alongside Harris on bass) work great together. This looks and feels like a proper band not just an occasional side project and the crowd clearly contains many dedicated British Lion fans, not simply Iron Maiden fans wanting to get a glimpse of Harris in the flesh. Every song from across the band’s two albums (plus a couple of newbies) is greeted like an old friend and I came away thinking I had some catching up to do. The merch desk didn’t seem to have any CDs for sale and Amazon drew a complete blank as well but I’ve just ordered their first album off ebay. I have got some serious catching up to do. British Lion are superb!
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
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