Customer Reviews

Fine Old Tom

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

People seem to give out five stars for any old thing nowadays, but believe you me, this is one album that is worth 'em all. I listened to the record as a wee lad and I still have no idea where my dad got the righteous tip; but anyhow I have always had the sense that this was an ultra-obscure release and that I was lucky to have come across it. I asked a record buyer about it once; he didn't recognize the name but only said, "Oh, yeah, Virgin put out a lot of weird little things in the mid-70's..." Well now I learn that Tom Newman was part of the very creation of that label, as the producer for Virgin's virgin release, Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells."
Fine Old Tom shows Newman's level of comfort around a recording studio. It is a carnival ride through as many popular genres as there are tracks on the album. The production is rich and inventive, clean and warm on every one.
Better still, the songs themselves are great. A reggae Superman; the clanging hard rock Poor Bill; the droning a capella She Said She Said; the demented psychedelic dissonance of Ma Song; the lilting country reel of Penny's Whistle Boogie... it's all here people, and more! Deserves your love too.

Early Virgin - V2000 to V2050 - was a classic progressive label to rank with legends like Dandelion, Dawn, Neon, Nepentha and Vertigo. It's USP was that it was way more experimental than any of these others. This approach led to masterpieces by Henry Cow, Hatfield and the North, Robert Wyatt, David Bedford and others. However, while risking cutting edge stuff no-one else would touch, Virgin also had a wayward side, releasing some terrible records of symphonic europrog, but also, even worse, a load of totally perplexing bog-standard pub-rock. Kevin Coyne was partly rescued by psychodramatic content; Boxer were poodle-permed sexist pub bores hardly redeemed by a sense of humour (post-Patto Halsall, the brains of the band, had sadly `gone straight' on guitar). However, worse than any other Virgin transgression is this record, `Fine Old Tom'.

The opener, `Suzie' is a dreadful sentimental rock'n'roll pastiche that makes you long for Link Wray's appalling `Beans and Fatback'. This is followed in short order by something worse than anything on Boxer's `Below The Belt', where Tom seems to think he's Mike Patto (Patto comes off looking good - some feat). Then comes `Will You Be Mine', an off-kilter Byrdsy psych-piece without vision, grace or motion. Fourth up is `Ma Song', a really terrible bit of sub-Coyne skronk. Then, after all this nonsense, God help us a twelve bar blues - `Penny's Whistle'. Now, for the life of me I have never understood the enduring popularity of this musical form, which was absolutely done to death in the 70s. Did we really need a leading edge label like Virgin to give us another? I don't think so - leave that to `The Quo'. `Side One' is rounded out by a cover of `She Said She Said', a droney acapella disaster sounding like party night at the morgue. It is bad enough to make you wish death on all cover artists. At this point I usually rip off the record in desperation, screaming `Bring on Punk! NOW!'. `Side Two' (Track 7 onward) is hardly any better, getting into Irish folkie sonorities a bit like `Ommadawn' (no great recommendation). Avant giants Cutler and Frith from Henry Cow sleep through the proceedings, doing absolutely nothing for or against their reputations.

After this, Newman's follow-up, `Live at the Argonaut', remained unreleased, suggesting Virgin had seen sense (even tho' the label was in for permanent quality demise anyway). Sorry Virgin fans, but `Fine Old Tom', despite originally having a nice die-cut cover (still its main selling point), is a real clunker. I could not recommend it even to the most hard core of you.