My own history
with Fairport goes back thirty of their
thirty-five years -- or even thirty-one if you
count my being turned off by the cover of
"Full House" in the Navy Exchange in 1971 and
not buying it (though i corrected that
mistake a little later, see my "Full
House" review for more of that
story)...
Now, many Fairport albums and two trips to
Cropredy, Oxfordshire for their annual music
festival/reunion gig (one of which was 1992,
their 25th anniversary, memorialised in its
own 2-CD set, as was the 30th anniversary,
with a 3-disc box.)
Anyway, there i was browsing something
somewhere on-line, and i came across reference
to this set, which i immediately looked up on
Amazon to see if what i had read was true; as
it happened, Amazon told me that there was
Even More than what i had read suggested. Kate
happened to look over when i began whimpering
over the thought that i really couldn't afford
it, and asked me why i sounded as if i were in
pain. I pointed her to the description of the
album, and to the price.
She pointed out that my birthday was coming up
soon.
And two days before my birthday, there it was
in the mailbox.
{When i
posted this review on Amazon, everything
before this was cut by their
moderators.}
My birfday present it was, precious -- on my
birfday {well, almost}
it come to me... My Precioussss...
[EXIT, pursued by
an orc]
This is one of the most incredible boxed sets
i've had the good fortune to own; Free Reed
look rather like a British Bear Family on the
basis of this set and of others listed in the
catalog that came with it.
The 180-page book, which covers Fairport's
history from beginning to present (well,
presstime; given the band's background,
there's always the nervous feeling that any
listing of personnel more than about a day old
could be seriously out of date), including
commentary on each album at the appropriate
points. While certainly respectful of the
band's history and influential position, and
obviously friendly with the members, author
Nigel Schofield doesn't fall into the trap of
being overly reverential, and is not above
more-or-less gently twitting them when it is
obvious that they don their trousers
unipedally in a manner similar to the rest of
us.
The Cropredy memories book is a nice touch;
having been there in '90 and '92, i can attest
that it is A Lot Of Fun, even in a downpour
(and didn't we have one in '90).
Pete Frame's "Fairport Family Tree" is an
expansion of the one he did entitled
"Resolving the Fairport Confusion", which is
reprinted in his first
"Family Trees" book (and, in a
streamlined form, on the cover/inlay of the
"History of Fairport Convention" compilation)
and followed the band up till their breakup in
'79. In order, presumably, to get in all of
the most- directly-related data on Fairport's
lineups and its members' other projects, and
related bands and projects, some of the more
peripheral material included on the original
tree is MIA -- i find a minor mention in a
note of "The Bunch", but they do not appear on
the chart as such, and he doesn't number the
various incarnations of Fairport and Steeleye
Span referenced. All the same, a fantastic
piece of work (you have to see it to
appreciate how densely packed it is with
information); Pete's original seems to have
been about four feet by three feet, and he
packed every inch of that twelve square feet
with beautifully-lettered hand-printed
information, wisecracks and historical
sidelights. Even reduced as it is here, it's
readable and informative. He remarks at the
end that it's current as of when he did it --
and says "...if you change the lineup one more
time, you can find yourself another f***in'
genealogist!"
And the first 5000 (mine was
three-thousand-something) included a coupon
for another disc, featuring guest
stars from Cropredy. (Hope it includes the
long long version of "John Barleycorn" they
once did with Ian Anderson...)
Great package. Seems as if there ought to be
something else, though...
Oh, yeah -- the music!
Disc 1 -- "Fairport -- A History"; a
chronological overview
Disc 2 -- "Rareport Convention"; hard to find
and unreleased material form many sources,
including private collections and radio and TV
sessions.
Disc 3 -- "A Fairport History"; sixteen folk
tracks that take us back to various key
moments in British history
Disc 4 -- "Classic Convention"; which is rare
and non-standard versions of what is described
as the "core Fairport reportoire", including a
completely outrageous version of "Matty
Groves", which was created by editing together
a whole bunch of versions in chronological
order.
The sound quality on some the cuts on this set
is less-than-pristine (i noticed this
particularly on at least one cut which seemed
likely to have been recorded from an AM radio
broadcast, with severe peak distortion). This
can be a bit off-putting, but, since at least
one reason to have this collection is for the
historical/completist value of the
performances it documents, many people (i
confess to tending that way) will be happy
merely to have these 72 tracks in any form at
all.
That said, most of the cuts are at least
decent-sounding, ranging upward to pristine.
I, like any Fairport fan, can list a number of
items i would like to have seen included on
these discs, if only to have them all in one
place, but many or even most of them --
Simon's practical joke on Swarb, which appears
on the 30th Anniversary box set, for instance
-- are already available in more-or-less
accessible form, somewhere.
This set is, mostly, The Other Stuff... and
i'm glad to see it.
Now i can hardly wait for my bonus disc. |
