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Not Quite
As Good As Being There Would Have Been...
The Cropredy Box
3 CD box; Live at their 1997/30th Anniversary Cropredy Festival
Fairport Convention
and a whole
mess of Other People
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Having managed to make
it to Cropredy for Fairport's twenty-fifth anniversary reunion [1992],
i
had
hoped
to
make
it
over
for
this
one
as
well...
but
it
was
not
to
be.
And, while my memories of that previous trip to Cropredy, when compared
to the CD version (The
Twenty-Fifth
Anniversary Concert, which is also worth having, {if you can find
it} to say the least) lead me to believe that this set is in no
way a satisfactory substitute for Having Been There, still it is,
withal, a fine and pleasing set of tunes and vocals, indeed.
There is not and never has been a band that can compare to Fairport in
doing what they do -- which is the effortless blending of the most
modern rock sensibilities with the most traditional of folk music and
everything in between, as well, and this set confirms it yet again.
It is wonderful to hear essentially every still-living member of the
band (save, i believe, Iain Campbell, who couldn't make it) getting up
there on the stage and re-creating the various line-ups one after the
other -- especially since there are no live recordings from some of the
more interesting versions of the band, and this set does a little to
fill that lack.
It's heart-warming, as well, to know that everyone there extended
well-wishes to usual MC Danny Thompson (who was in hospital, but, i
understand, recovered just fine), a fine fellow, excellent MC and
outstanding bass player.
Every time i listen to this set, it reminds me that i have pledged to
make it at least once more to Cropredy before all of us geezers (on
both sides of the mike) die or get too old to perform... |
| ((Also included is a phone recording of an April Fool
joke Simon Nicol played on Dave Swarbrick many years ago. It's
hilarious, but the little label that says "includes explicit
Swarbrick" is a warning to be heeded -- this is definitely *not*
something one could play on even FM radio without a little cleanup...))
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