Fairport Convention: House Full: Live at the L.A. Troubadour [June 1986]
This "new" release was recorded live by the Full House lineup of Fairport on September 4-6, 1970. The original release contained eight selections, including some material that had previously appeared on a previous Live at the L.A. Troubadour album in 1977 (long since deleted). (The 2001 re-release of this disc featured two more cuts from the earlier album).
What is amazing in these post-Sandy Denny recordings is the extraordinary sense of high-wire energy and capacious abandon of these highly skilled musicians. Stateside fans of the group’s records, while possibly disappointed by the absence of the band’s female singer must have been equally shocked and exhilarated by the charismatic lunatic drive of this band performing this strange old music with such mad intensity. The response from the Troubadour crowd certainly bears this out.
Both Fairport and Richard Thompson fans are highly recommended to check out this exciting document - this thrust into the past, both upon its release as well as today. There is nothing else in Fairport Convention’s catalog that indicates quite the intensity with which this amazing group performed live.
The list of band personnel is a virtual testament to the "Who’s Who" of British folk rock, making this particular configuration a virtual supergroup: Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, and Dave Mattocks. What follows is a brief recapitulation of what the album contains:
"Sir Patrick Spens" - This Middle English sailing ballad (which appeared on Full House) was printed in my college Anthology of English Poetry textbook, but it didn’t rock like this. Thompson and Swarbrick trade swarming fists of flying notes, as the rhythm section pounds relentlessly and contrapuntally. The same sense of nihilistic fatalism from the written text fortunately remains the same.
"Banks of the Sweet Primroses" - This traditional ballad of a gentleman’s encounter with an unknown woman who accuses him of abandoning her at the alter is set at a medium slow tempo. The sound is reminiscent of the Byrds - if they were English, that is. (Remixed; original version first appeared on Live at the Troubadour.)
"The Lark in the Morning Medley" - Also known as "Toss the Feathers." This amazing suite of a lightning-fast jig and a crashing electric waltz is very familiar to me, but I can’t quite say where I know it from. Swarbrick is amazing, and Thompson thrills with the doubling of his blinding runs. Mattocks splashes great fills everywhere. Amazing to think that no one had done amplified Celtic music like this before - it’s absolutely stunning. (Originally appeared on Live at the Troubadour.)
"Sloth" - Swarbrick and Thompson’s amazing epic gets its well-deserved live workout here. A strange, seductive blend of traditional folk, psychedelia, nascent progressive rock and the savage droning of the Velvet Underground are all present in all the windings of this little-heard classic. (Thompson also adds some lead guitar that would fry Neil Young’s hair.) Those were the days - but if you couldn’t be there, you can still listen to this. (Different performance from the one appearing on Live at the Troubadour.)
"Staines Morris" - This is a traditional Morris Dance number, a ritualized British group step dance tradition that goes back at least to the 15th century. Swarbick and Thompson join in on lyrics that celebrate the coming of May, and Thompson adds a lovely touch by playing dulcimer. The entire effect is equally historical and strangely abstract.
"Matty Groves" - Taken at a faster tempo than on Liege & Lief, this incomparable song takes on a more brutal, mad sense of hurried fatality, especially with Thompson bluntly singing the lead rather than Denny. The closing section is even more spectacular than the record version, sound being whipped around in angry circles. Intense stuff. (Originally appeared on Live at the Troubadour.)
"Jenny’s Chickens/The Mason’s Apron" - These two fiddle reels are played at a breakneck tempo with flashing, syncopated drums pushing them ever harder. Thompson takes over for Swarbick on a solo that makes his fingers blur. Amazing how hard the band could push this stuff - they were the first, and I’ve never heard anyone doe it better. (Originally appeared on Live at the Troubadour.)
"Battle of the Somme" - This is an old Scottish ballad - complete with lyrics on Thompson’s web site - but done instrumentally here. It sounds more like the backing for a vocal track, as it slides along languidly. The repetition begins to sound more and more abstract, once again reminiscent of the Velvet Underground (if not The Magic Band.)
"Bonnie Kate/Sir B. McKenzies" - Another reel and a jig that Swarbick pushes to the limit of his speed and ornamentation. Few bands have ever sounded rougher and rowdier in backup support. (Bonus cut on the 1986 re-release.)
"Yellow Bird" - This silly, parodic version of the popular calypso pop song from the early 1960s is actually quite lovely until the vocals enter. It’s a deft reminder that Fairport Convention was a band that could (and sometimes would) play anything.
Taken as a whole, House Full is a tremendous document of one of the world’s most ground-breaking and undervalued rock bands, performing at their instrumental peak. The sound is good for the day (though inferior to their studio albums, of course), and quite worth the investment for any Fairport lover. What perhaps is most exciting (and yet frustrating) is the incredible revelation that such adaptation of an older form of music to a new world was done so well and so excitingly - yet is still unknown by most of the pop population. Fairport takes their native mythic heritage and transmutes it to the present day, mythologizing their very selves along the way. It would be interesting to know if they had more influence in Britain and what their status is - outside of their still-living, raving cult, of course.
Fairport Convention: Heyday: BBC Radio Sessions (BBC 1968-69) [1987]
Heyday, the second release of the period, is possibly an even richer collection for fans of the early band, as it collects a large number of performances over Fairport’s most important era, recorded for BBC radio.
Both albums are enjoyable and interesting in their own right, but I find it difficult to classify either of them as definitively "canonical" for either Fairport Convention or Richard Thompson collectors. This does not at all mean that they are not worth owning, as my brief reviews demonstrate.
More pertinent in the development of Richard Thompson’s music in the mid/late 1980s were the appearance of two more-or-less "experimental" releases that allowed the musician to take some fruitful deviations from his chief solo project. The first appeared in 1987, with the formation of the group French Frith Kaiser Thompson. To quote from Wikipedia:
"Experimental United States musicians, guitarist Henry Kaiser and drummer John French (‘Drumbo’ from Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band), began collaborating in 1987. They invited English musicians, Fred Frith (experimental guitarist from Henry Cow) and Richard Thompson (folk-rock guitarist from Fairport Convention) to join them to make an album."
French Frith Kaiser Thompson - Live, Love, Larf & Loaf [1987]
It goes without saying that I would love to have this CD in my collection - or at least to hear it. I have tried in vain to order it, but it no longer appears to be in print. The band released a second album, Invisible Means, in 1990, which is also deleted. Necessarily, I will have to withhold any commentary until such time as a copy comes into my possession. (I have one cut from this album - "Bird in God’s Garden"/"Lost and Found,": which is available on the 1993 box set collection, Watching the Dark - which I will set aside until I cover that collection.)
The second Thompson-related release from 1987 is the first of what will be several soundtrack recordings:
Robert Thompson & Peter Filluel: The Marksman (Music From the BBC TV Series) [1987]
I have never heard any of this album, and it remains out of print. At this time, I cannot make any comment or assessment of this or any of Thompson’s soundtrack work, nor can I make a determination whether such recordings such be regarded as canonical or not.
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