Search - Fairport Convention :: Heyday: BBC Radio Sessions 1968-69

No American band can do these songs equal justice

Michael Crowley | Albany, CA USA | 03/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Amazon reviewer neglected to mention what else producer Joe Boyd said in his liner notes: "And of course, now I am forced to admit it is hard to find an American band who can do these songs equal justice."



Indeed. Anything Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson did during their brief association is worth hearing, particularly their work together in Fairport--they really did have a kind of Billie Holiday/Lester Young sympatico thing going. Fairport was famous in it's early days for it's eclectic taste in covers, and this CD was released partly to show that off. Lots of highligts, among them the slightly bizarre acid-rock version of Joni Mitchell's I Don't Know Where I Stand; Denny singing Leonard Cohen, although she only gets to sing half of each song, sharing the lead vocal with Ian Matthews-- her contribution to Bird on a Wire is especially great, she really has a feel for Cohen's sensibility; Denny's gorgeous a cappella intro to Percy's Song; the beautiful harmony singing of Matthews and Denny on Cash's I Still Miss Someone, the Everly Brothers Gone Gone Gone, and ex-Byrd Gene Clark's Tried So Hard, to name but a few. Reno, Nevada shoulda been a Top of the Pops hit.



This "Extended" version includes material from the entire span of the Denny-Thompson edition of Fairport, including--in addition to songs that never appeared on an official Fariport release--live versions of two songs from What We Did on Our Holidays, four songs from Unhalfbricking and two songs from Liege and Lief. The latter were a bit of a disappointment to me--Raynardine is good, although very much like the version on Leige and Lief, but on Tam Lin they sound a little stiff compared to the record version, that is up until the very end, when they start jamming (Ashley Hutchings warns in the liner notes that these were "very early outings for these traditional songs"). Still, well worth having if you like this sort of thing."

An absolute must for all Fairport fans

Junglies | Morrisville, NC United States | 07/05/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have just traded my original copy of Heyday in now that I have this one. The value of this album is the live versions of the songs that the band recorded on their studio albums and which have not been generally available.Fairport Convention in performance have often been an entirely different animal to the studio band and I can testify to that having seen them in such disparate venues as Fusion, Sunderland and Newcastle Poly.Tracks 1 through 12 sound good but the style does not suit the band in retrospect. Importing new and upcoming songwriters' songs certainly brought a breath of fresh air to the British scene and served an important purpose in reawakening our own roots but despite the beauty of the singer's voices, the approach is still borrowed and although sounding authentic does not really gel. Please don't mistake me, I love those songs and the performance but I prefer the later material.My greatest joy in owning this CD comes from having a live version of Tam Lin which I have always preferred to the crowd favourite of Matty Groves. It is a little different to the studio version but is awesome. Other standout tracks are Autopsy and Reynardine. Later period Fairport with probably their most powerful lineup is a joy to listen to even when they are playing their Top of the Pops Si Tu Dois Partir. The playing is a delight, the singing amazing and the tightness of the band and their empathy with the other band members is clearly evident.An excellent album and an absolute for all Fairport fans."

For fans of Fairport's singer-songwriter period

woburnmusicfan | Woburn, MA United States | 11/10/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a pleasant but non-essential souvenir of Fairport Convention's early days, when a large part of their repertoire was covers of American singer-songwriter material. The recordings were made for BBC radio broadcasts. Ten of the twelve songs are cover tunes, of which two (Dylan's "Percy's Song" and Joni Mitchell's "I Don't Know Where I Stand") have previously appeared on Fairport albums. There's some Leonard Cohen, some Everly Brothers, a little Byrds... A highlight is "Some Sweet Day". Of all the Fairport albums, this one has the least connection to the band's later folk-rock sound.(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)"