Notes

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audience master cassettes

From Fairport's site:

"The '85 line-up -
We also invited Ric Sanders to come along to play on the album. I'd known him for years: we'd met in musical circles in Birmingham. Ric is from Solihull, I'm from Acocks Green, which are on the same side of Birmingham and my dad had been the caretaker at a school where Ric's dad taught.

Ric plays very differently to Swarb, of course, a completely contrasting violin style, a fantastic player. He came along and played on the recording sessions and it was great. So that was the 'Gladys' line-up. Richard came and guested on one track and Cathy Le Surf on another. It was fun to make, we put it out, the punters seemed to love it. People started saying we should be playing live, get the band together again.

So I asked Ric if would do it and he was delighted. Then I asked Martin Allcock to join the band. Martin's a really great musician. He used to turn up to the festivals, he was always up for the craic, always ready to get up and play. I knew he could play almost anything and that he would be a good guitarist and multi-instrumentalist for the band.

We rehearsed for three days solid, working from a list of Fairport stuff that everybody knew. We went off to do a gig in London, just to see if it would work out, and ending up playing for four-and-a-half hours! It was so good, it was just joyful. We had a really fantastic night. I realised we had the makings of a great band here; the continuity of the old-timers (me, Simon and Dave) combined with the new blood (Ric and Maart)."

This is that gig, which has never been circulated. They did not play for 4 1/2 hours, it was more like 2hrs 35 minutes, containing cockups and false starts - hey, it's Fairport!!, but a great evening at the Sir George Robey.


Simon Nicol guitar/vocals
Dave Pegg bass/vocals
Dave Mattacks Drums
Ric Sanders fiddle
Martin Alcock guitar