Thursday, November 26, 2020

Fairport Convention - One More Chance - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: 1973-1975

I just posted an album of Fairport Convention at the BBC, from 1971 to 1973. This follows that one. In my opinion, 1971 to 1973 wasn't a great time for the band, since they'd lost both Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny and didn't find anyone worthy of filling those very big musical shoes. But in 1974, Denny came back. She didn't stay long, only through 1975, but her presence helped revive the band for a while. 

This album roughly corresponds with her second time in the band. She shows up from the fourth song through the last one. She sings most of the songs she was present for.

The previous album in this BBC series was easy to put together, since all but two of the songs came from the "Live at the BBC" box set. This one was considerably more tricky. Only four of the songs come from that. Some weren't performed for the BBC per se, but were done for other radio or TV shows. Of those other songs, five come from album bonus tracks, and one comes from a different box set. 

That leaves just one song that remains officially unreleased, "One More Chance." It was performed for a Dutch TV show, and the sound is pretty good.

Denny left the band again at the end of 1975 or early 1976, along with Trevor Lucas and Jerry Donahue. In my opinion, that marks the end of the band's best years. The adopted a much lower profile for the rest of the 1970s and pretty much didn't appear at the BBC during those years. So I'm ending the BBC series here.

01 Brilliancy Medley - Cherokee Shuffle [Instrumental] (Fairport Convention)
02 George Jackson (Fairport Convention)
03 Six Days on the Road (Fairport Convention)
04 John the Gun (Fairport Convention)
05 The Devil in the Kitchen [Fiddlestix] [Instrumental] (Fairport Convention)
06 Rising for the Moon (Fairport Convention)
07 Down in the Flood (Fairport Convention)
08 Breakfast in Mayfair (Fairport Convention)
09 Farewell to a Poor Man's Son (Fairport Convention)
10 One More Chance (Fairport Convention)
11 White Dress (Fairport Convention)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15115462/FairprtC_1973-1975_OneMreChanceBBSessionsVolume7_atse.zip.html

I had a really hard time finding any good photos of the band from the years Denny rejoined. I had to resort to taking a screenshot of a brief clip of the band playing on "The London Weekend Show" in 1975. The picture is somewhat low-res. If you know of a better one I can use, please let me know.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for these. On another note, I came late to your blog and found a lot of great music on it. Now it's a daily visit for me. I like the comps you put together and I especially like your write-ups. I went back and picked up older comps but was surprised that all the old Fairports have dead links where those by other artists are still going strong.
    I guess the band doesn't approve?
    Anyway, great music, thoughtfully presented, so thanks for that. I support the artists by buying their official merch but really enjoy these live recordings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you're enjoying the site. Re: Fairport, the problem is they aren't popular enough. Zippyshare links die if nobody downloads them within 30 days. I found three dead links, for the albums "Night in the City," "How to Treat Another Heart," and "Eastern Rain." I just uploaded new links for those. So you should be able to grab all their albums now.

      Delete
    2. Hey thanks for that, Paul. I particularly like Sandy Denny's vocals so I'm looking forward to the tracks with her.
      On another note have you ever listening to Thea Gilmore. She's got a bit of a similar tone to Denny and in fact recorded an album of Denny songs called Don't Stop Singing. And if you're interested in a female take on Dylan she did her own version of the whole John Wesley Harding album.

      Delete
    3. I've never heard of her name before, but I'll remember it now.

      Delete