Customer Reviews

Gold Dust: Live At The Royalty Theater

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
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Prospecting for Gold Dust - the untold story It's a miracle this album ever came out. The story begins with Marcel Rodd, whose Saga records label had been the first to feature the then undeveloped but already exciting voice of the young Sandy Denny. In the 70s I was publishing Folk News, and Rodd approached me to ask if I could help him find some of the exciting new folk talent everyone was telling him about. He turned down every one of the fairly trad performers I recommended to him, until I remarked that Sandy was emerging from pregnancy and childbirth to go back on the road, and would be concluding her tour in London in November. Sandy's decade-long deal with Island Records had come to an end, and so she might be available. He jumped at the chance to get her back on to his label, and asked me to set it up. I hired the Fairport recording genius, John Wood, to master the concert and one Sunday night he was ensconced in the Island mobile off Kingsway, getting it all down. But when we played back the tapes . . . disaster! There was a nasty whistle right across every track. Where it had come from, nobody could say. Woodsie assured us he could remove it, but Rodd was adamant: he wasn't going to pay for them, so the tapes languished. I had the monitor mix of the event, with all the dropping in and out as Woodsie punched his buttons, and I came to love it, warts and all. Because it's got to be admitted that these performances weren't Sandy's best. She'd had a bad cold for most of the tour, and at this final concert she was very, very tired. Her voice showed it. Her relationship with Trevor, always stormy at the best of times, was not going well, and she wasn't happy. However, Sandy had always been able to sublimate her emotional feelings into her music, and this event was no different from others, when she could tear out of her very soul music to touch the heart like no one ever has, before or since. But after her death, when Trevor was assembling the excellent 'best of' album, I urged him to include at ! least some tracks from the concert. He persuaded Island to buy the tapes, gave them a listen, and rejected them as not being good enough to stand as a memorial to her work. I thought he was wrong then, and I still do, on listening to this very cleaned-up and slightly 'improved' (with overdubbed backing vocals from Simon Nicol and Chris Leslie) CD. Frankly, my grotty monitor mix has Sandy's voice more prominent (whatever happened at the beginning of I'm a Dreamer, in which she sounds as if she's singing the theatre foyer?) Even so, listening to them again still makes my blood run cold, and the hairs stand up at the back of my head. Singing, just singing, was never meant to be as intense as this. I can hardly bear to listen. When I was assembling The Electric Muse (the original four-album set with the Shirtsleeve Studio artwork, not the travesty 're-release' put out last year by Castle Communications), David Betteridge of Island gave me privileged access to the Island vaults, to listen to a whole lot of unreleased product (including the never-released Maverick Child single from Fairport VI, with Roger Hill on the vocals). Alongside brilliant alternative readings of stuff like the inevitable Sloth and a great Calvary Cross, were some traditional renditions of ballads like Lord Bateman, with a whole range of backings, including Steve Winwood on keyboard on one version. Unfortunately, Sandy's was merely a guide track for the musicians, not even properly on mic. I urged her several times to go back and record the vocals properly, but she said she regarded it as past history, something she couldn't get to work. However, those tracks are still there, somewhere, wherever Polygram (or Seagram's whisky, the label's new owners) have stashed them. Who knows, someone might be able to work a miracle and bring her vocals to centre stage. They can do wonders with electronics, these days. Oh well . . . perhaps not.

I was not really expecting a great sounding recording after reading how the the old master tapes from Sandy Denny's final performance had deteriorated over two decades. I have to say that I was more than pleasantly surprised when it arrived. Great care was taken to add new guitar and backing vocal tracks. The sound is wonderful with the exception of the first verse on "I'm A Dreamer" She sounds like she's singing about 20 feet away from the microphone. Her voice is a bit strained on a couple of tracks, (She was battling a nasty cold at the time) but there are some moments here where she outshines the studio renditions. "The Sea" is spellbinding and the version of "John The Gun" is even better than the one found on "Live Covention". "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" is absolutely haunting.
If you have not yet had the opportunity to listen to this wonderful singer/songwriter I would recomend that you start with the import "Sandy" or perhaps one of the Fairport Convention albums that feature her. If you like any of that then I'm sure you will be drawn to this

Obviously, as you can gather from the other reviews here, some major reconstructive studio and electronic magic had to be conjured to even bring this concert to us at all. When you add in the caveats about Sandy battling a bad cold and a failing marriage (and a complaint I heard elsewhere about her chain smoking already starting to do to her voice what Joni Mitchell has lived long enough to do to hers), it's a wonder this is even listenable. And yet I think it is a triumph and I would hardly have noticed it's shortcomings unless someone had gone to great lengths to point them out to me. I'm old enough to remember when live performances by most of your favorite bands or artists usually sounded absolutely awful in person and even worse on tape or vinyl. I once tried recording gigs for a rock band in Austin--a likely deservedly long forgotten and unlamented group whose major distinction was that their biggest competition for work was from Stevie Ray Vaughan and his brother--in the very early 1970's using a 2-track Radio Shack 909A reel-to-reel tape recorder, and had more luck than most major bands had during the same years. So I've never expected live recordings to be anything but fraught with glitches and sub-par performance, muffed notes, etc. But if the essence of the artist was strong enough, even those poor quality recordings could be transfixing, and this concert is, at least to me, one such performance, and the problems with it minor compared to what we get from it--a portrait of one of the best singer-songwriters of our times, who voice even when ravaged could melt your heart effortlessly. The fact that it sounds halfway decent is just pure gravy. As a long time fan of Sandy's I can only be humbly thankful to the people who managed to bring us this recording, and even more grateful that is sounds as good as it does. Their work honors hers.

To my great detriment I was unaware of this last concert recording of Sandy Denny until a few weeks ago! How many hours of listening have I missed out on?! True, her voice is a little altered, a little less pure, but no matter - the soul, the subtlety, the power of this great and wonderful singer is there for all to hear. And those songs of hers! It just doesn't get much better than this.

I remember discovering this in the shops when it was first released in the late 1990s. Being a massive Sandy fan, and struggling to find much of her work (at the time most of it was either out of print in the US or only available as imports) I immediately bought it. Some ten years later, I've still not heard the "undoctored" version of this concert, but I don't think it matters. What does matter is that this is an amazing disc. It's rough around the edges in places, but that's part of what makes it feel so real. From what I can tell the "fixed" vocals and guitar were done very tastefully.

I really like the more muscular-sounding takes on "Gold Dust", "For Shame Of Doing Wrong", and "Take Me Away" found here, compared to the studio versions. And, the performances of "Stranger To Himself" and "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" found here have become my go-to versions, especially in the case of the latter... it's heartbreakingly beautiful. I don't think Sandy knew this would be her last gig ever, but one gets the feeling that she was going to put her whole heart into singing this song one last time, and it pays such dividends. An auto-buy for sure.

Unless you're a recording engineer, just ignore other reviewer's remarks about the technical plusses and minuses of this CD. Sandy is gone; how many other opportunities will we have to hear her? Just buy it, listen to it, and treasure it. It doesn't even matter that it's Sandy's last concert. The sound isn't 20-takes-in-the-studio perfect--but it's a live show with all the raw beauty of a love-in between audience and performer. Even the very few imperfections just make the CD more of a treasure--more real. This is a real woman putting herself up on stage and doing her best to deliver a first-class show--and she sure does. If you were at the show and sneaked in a tape recorder, you'd be ecstatic when you got home. You'd have a keepsake for the ages. Perfect? Setlist? A few glitches? Who cares? You were there, it was Sandy Denny, and you will enjoy your recording forever. That's exactly the feeling I had listening to this CD, like I was right there with great seats. Sandy just opened her heart and her songbook that night, and it seemed like she didn't hold anything back. Part of me wants to say that maybe Sandy knew it was her last show; but, I think what's more important to a prospective buyer is simply this: It's a grand show with depth, intimacy, and masterful musicianship. I'm so glad I bought it.

This concert turned out to be Sandy Denny`s last. This fact might make it quite sad to listen to it, but fortunately the music is so great that you forget the sadness, and remember Sandy for the great music she created, as a singer and composer. The fact that the CD has been released is a small miracle in itself; Sandy`s voice was not in the best condition, as she had caught a cold during the tour; so the tapes had been shelved for years. When the release of the concert was reconsidered, the tapes were in bad condition, but fortunately they were restored; and the result is really magnificent. Even though her voice is not in optimal condition, she is still great; and the band is terrific.

The concert covers her career from her early masterpiece "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" till her final album "Rendezvous" from 1977. Most of her classic songs are here; some of the performances are maybe even better than the studio versions.

My favourites are "I`m a Dreamer", "Take Me Away", "It`ll Take a Long Time", "Solo", "Tomorrow is a Long Time", "One More Chance" and "No More Sad Refrains"-

I was surprised to learn only after several listens that there had been serious problems with the master tapes of this concert. I had noticed that some of the vocals on a song or two were not as loud and clear as they could have been, and the ending to "Take Me Away" stumbles, but other than that, it's not easy to spot problems. Since there isn't a lot of live Sandy Denny material available to begin with, I'd recommend this CD without hesitation. Despite the conditions described by other reviewers under which this recording was made, it is still immensely enjoyable as an album and I've listened to it as much as the Fairport albums and her box set. The band sounds great. And considering the high price of imports, the unavailability of much of Sandy's material in the USA, and the low price of this album, I would say if you already like Sandy, you can't go wrong with this album. I have to wonder what a live recording from more favorable conditions would have yielded, but it might have been a classic.

If you're not already a Sandy Denny fan, this CD will not make you one. It's not Sandy at her best, and her voice is often overpowered by the instruments. However, if you are already a fan, this CD is a wonderful chance to hear the old favorites sung differently. Her singing on the live version of Stanger to Himself is far better than on the previously recorded version. Despite the imperfections, this is a compelling CD that I have played over and over.

I was surprised to learn only after several listens that there had been serious problems with the master tapes of this concert. I had noticed that some of the vocals on a song or two were not as loud and clear as they could have been, and the ending to "Take Me Away" stumbles, but other than that, it's not easy to spot problems. Since there isn't a lot of live Sandy Denny material available to begin with, I'd recommend this CD without hesitation. Despite the conditions described by other reviewers under which this recording was made, it is still immensely enjoyable as an album and I've listened to it as much as the Fairport albums and her box set. The band sounds great. And considering the high price of imports, the unavailability of much of Sandy's material in the USA, and the low price of this album, I would say if you already like Sandy, you can't go wrong with this album. I have to wonder what a live recording from more favorable conditions would have yielded, but it might have been a classic.