The Strawbs were formed in 1963, but it took them a while to get going. They released their first album in 1969. They gained momentum, and by the time of this concert, they were near their peak of popularity. In 1973, they had their two biggest hits, "Part of the Union" and "Lay Down."
However, there was a problem. "Part of the Union," which went all the way to Number Two in Britain, was written by band members Richard Hudson and John Ford, while "Lay Down" was written by band member Dave Cousins. A power struggle ensued. Hudson and Ford left in 1973 and started their own musical duo, "Hudson Ford." They had a couple of big hits on their own. In fact, other band members left, leaving just Cousins, plus another member, Dave Lambert, to recruit more people to fill out the band again.
They released a new album, "Hero and Heroine," the same month this concert took place. That album would give them another Top Forty hit in Britain, "Shine on Silver Sun." But that would prove to be the band's last significant hit. The band would disband in 1980, a victim of changing musical trends. But they would reunite later in the 1980s, and stayed together in different permutations until 2023. Cousins, the clear leader and main songwriter, died in 2025 at the age of 85.
Here's the Wikipedia page if you want to know more:
I was surprised to see the band didn't perform "Part of the Union," since that was their biggest hit. But that made a lot more sense when I realized it was written by two members who had just left the band the year before. However, more surprising is they also apparently didn't perform "Shine on Silver Sun," the hit from the album released the exact same month as this concert. Oh well.
The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. It's been a while, but if I recall correctly, I think I boosted the vocals on all the songs (using the MVSEP program), since they were somewhat low in the mix.
This album is an hour and 15 minutes long.
01 talk by emcee (Strawbs)
02 talk (Strawbs)
03 New World (Strawbs)
04 talk (Strawbs)
05 Lay Down (Strawbs)
06 talk (Strawbs)
07 Autumn (Strawbs)
08 talk (Strawbs)
09 Tears and Pavan (Strawbs)
10 talk (Strawbs)
11 Just Love (Strawbs)
12 talk (Strawbs)
13 Out in the Cold (Strawbs)
14 Round and Round (Strawbs)
15 Lay a Little Light on Me (Strawbs)
16 talk (Strawbs)
17 Hero and Heroine (Strawbs)
18 talk (Strawbs)
19 The River (Strawbs)
20 Down by the Sea (Strawbs)
21 talk by emcee (Strawbs)
22 Why and Wherefore (Strawbs)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/3VG73ntm
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/DtGJ8dVsAbs5pyu/file
The cover image is taken from an appearance on the "Midnight Special" TV show, which aired on March 15, 1974.
Thanks very much. Imho a very underrated band. This was probably their best line up with Dave Lambert and John Hawken the later known from his work with Renaissance.
ReplyDelete