Customer Reviews

What We Did on Our Holidays

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Fairport Convention celebrates its 35 anniversary this year, it has released dozens of albums...and this, the band's second album, is the best of them all, spilling over with perfect moments and climaxing with Richard Thompson's ultimate Fairport anthem "Meet on the Ledge". The songs are not as innocent as on the first album: Thompson's "Tale in Hard Time" starts with the line "Take the sun from my heart, let me learn to despise", while Sandy Denny's medieval-sounding "Fotheringay", which sounds at first like the story of a princess running away to escape the smothering palace life, turns out to be about Mary Queen of Scots awaiting her execution. Denny shares lead vocals with Iain Matthews, who left after this album, and both are in fine voice. Denny's singing on Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It with Mine" will leave your jaw hanging open. The band begins its journey into British traditional music with "She Moves Through the Fair". The musicianship and arrangements are first-rate, mixing rock and folk touches with expert balance, and the production is remarkably clear for a 1968 album.

Forget the Beatles , the best band in Britain in 1969 was Fairport Convention.

The group had already released its debut album prior to this release , but the legend starts here . This was the first Fairport album that the wonderful singer Sandy Denny appeared on , and, even at this early stage the astounding chemistry between the band members is clearly evident. Sandy was the catalyst that propelled the band into recording a trilogy of classic albums that should have made them superstars , but , alas , it was not to be.

The LP is a folk/rock mixture of self composed songs, covers, and old traditional folk tunes that gel together beautifully .The biggest compliment I can give about the self composed songs is that they are as good as the magnificent covers of the Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs that the band excel at on this album. "Fotheringay " and " Book song " are classics in any language but the most prescient and poignant song is Richard Thompson's " Meet on the ledge ", it's almost as if he could see the tragedies that lay ahead for some of the band members.Richard Thompson's virtuoso guitar performance matches Sandy Denny's stunning vocals, and to add icing to the cake, the rest of the band are on top form . The extended improvisational tracks that would be the highlight of their next two albums are missing here , these vibrant tracks are short but sweet .

Fairport Convention are still performing and have become something of an English institution , but for me , the magic that is in this LP and the other two seminal albums that they recorded in 1969 will never be surpassed . These albums are the equal to anything that was recorded in the sixties !

Oops, I nearly forgot ! The other two albums are " Unhalfbricking " and " Liege & Lief " .

If you're tired of the music industry's bland rubbish that it dishes out to the public , these albums will be a revelation !

When you think about it most artists make one good album and that is usually their first. Afterwards things may go downhill or they adopt a formula or in some cases they record almost the same thing with different words and only slightly different tunes. In very rare cases the second and subsequent albums just keep getting better. Such artists are rare indeed.

In the case Fairport had made a great debut with the album of the same name but the singer had left and was replaced with Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny, who later became known and loved as Sandy.

'What We Did On Our Holidays' in many ways is different to the first album. It is an album which displays a growing confidence and maturity far beyond the years of it's players and yet retains the links to the first of bringing the works of Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Nico to a wider UK audience.

What is also different about this album is the shift away from folk-rock to a more traditional style at least in sound, mainly throughthe influence of Denny and Hutchings.

The album begins with the wonderful 'Fotheringay' later to be the name of the band that she formed upon leaving Fairport. A self-penned song by Sandy this set the tone for the whole album. As the album progresses it is interesting to note a variety of styles which came under the Fairport umbrella which assumed a mantle of folkiness which led one commentator to pronounce that whatever they played Fairport made it sound like folk music.

Also of interest is the development of Richard Thompson's playing. The listener is offered tantalising glimpses of what was to come, in the studio and on the road, but there are no real opportunities on this album for him to let loose. His songwriting too was growing in maturity with 'Meet on the Ledge' now an almost permanent part of the band's repetoire, a poignant reminder of all those members who are no longer with us.

The songs themselves provide a discipline that helps to keep the band in focus. Although these would prove to be the springboards for live extended performances, here they seem to force the best singing and playing within a limited timeframe.

This album is superb. To think that such strides could be made in only a short time is itself outstanding. The best was yet to come.

Here's a CD I guarantee you'll never regret buying. Fairport Convention in 1969 were a young band touched by a sort of genius. This is an album of folk influenced pop and rock and it is difficult to say what makes so very appealing. It's something to do with the delicacy of the arrangements, the great ensemble feel of the group and the beautiful and other worldly sound of the voice of Sandy Denny. There's also it's lack of pretensiousness, the love of playing music for its own sake and well, there's no other word for it, charm. Poor old Fairport, they were a chaotic and unlucky bunch. What other group ended their first album with a track called "M1 breakdown" shortly before a fatal crash on this same road took the life of their drummer and a girlfriend of another band member. What other group toured to the Far East but neglected to arrange shippage of their massive sound system ("Stonehenge") ending up sending the whole lot at fabulous expence as "excess baggage" on a commercial flight. What other group indeed played New York, decided to go back to their midtown hotel rooms in the interval, were unable to hail cabs back, ran tens of blocks and were then refused entry by the door security to the venue (this one ended with petite Denny battering her fists on the chest of the doorman). These anecdotes I think give a sense of the slight kookiness of this group which is a definite part of their appeal (look at the dog asleep on the stage on the photograph on the back cover of this album). There's a final example of this in the original artwork to the album. Fairport were playing a university gig in England. During the gaps in rehearsals the group doodled away on a blackboard in a classroom. A week after the gig they were planning the artwork for this album when they suddenly remembered the blackboard. They hurriedly phoned the university and asked if the blackboard had been cleaned yet. It hadn't, so they sent a photographer down straight away. Another litlle bit of Rock history! Seriously thought this is a classic late 60s album with a great vibe that you can listen to again and again. Good songs, good performances, and fun. What more could you want?

This is the second Fairport album, released in late 1968 but the first to feature who is today generally considered the finest folk singer bar none - Sandy Denny. They are stil a young band searching for an identity here but the 40 minites captured here show scope and maturity that many band would never achieve.
With Denny giving the vocals a clarity the songs richly deserved, songwriter and guitarist was able to find the confidence to introduce 2 of his early classics to the listening public. "Meet on the ledge" retains its power to this day.The album closed originally with the wistful "farewell, farewell" but this reissue (which sounds great by the way) adds 3 bonus cuts. To be fair the only real one of interest is the original B side "throwaway street puzzle. Not a great album but a bonafide classic, lets make it 4.5 stars, just for opening with Sandys beautiful "Fotheringay" Anyone thinking of looking into Fairport Convention would do well to begin their search here.

Phil
Cambridge
ON

Bonus Tracks

Throwaway Street Puzzle: Sounds like an outtake from Surrealistic Pillow. You can understand where that "English Jefferson Airplane" rep came from. Richard Thompson gets psychedelic.

You're Gonna Need My Help: A Muddy Waters blues, of all things, recorded live at the Beeb. Ian Matthews sounds a little uncomfortable pretending to be black, but Sandy Denny sounds as at home as Janis did belting out lines like "I know you're gonna put me down." Nice slide guitar work by Richard Thompson.

Some Sweet Day: A tune by Country Music Hall of Famers Felice and Boudleaux Bryant that the band learned from an old Everly Brothers record. Ian Matthews sings lead with a little harmony by the group on the chorus. More Richard Thompson slide guitar.

Remaster: Cleaner, but not a revelation or anything, at least not on my inexpensive sound system. The individual instruments are more distinct in the ensemble passages.

The record: Seems a bit schizophrenic to me. Sometimes the band goes for a smooth, sunny "California Dreamin'"-type sound (Book Song, No Man's Land, Tale in Hard Times) and other times for a somewhat rootsier, folkier sound (Fotheringay, The Lord is In This Place, Nottamun Town, She Moved Through the Fair), which of course is the direction they ultimately took. Problem is Thompson's songs don't really lend themselves very well to a light touch. There's something really weird about backing a lyric like "Take the sun from my eyes/let me learn to despise" with a cute harpicord obligatto (Tale in Hard Times). Or having a hand-clappin' Partridge Family chorus like "Hey, c'mon make it easy/Hey, c'mon make it right") with a verse like "It's no use to be free/If lies are all the truth they seem/They'll screw up what you do when you're through". Still, it's pretty good. Perhaps definitive cover of Dylan's I'll Keep It With Mine, and only version anywhere of Joni Mitchell's Eastern Rain (gently psychedelic). Thompson proves he can play the blues on Mr. Lacey, even if it's a dumb song. And Meet On the Ledge is nicely anthemic. And She Moved Through the Fair is as haunting as anything Fairport ever did. Still it's no Unhalfbricking, let alone Liege and Lief.

Everyone should spend their holidays so well. Possibly most or everything you are looking for in a contempory English folk album. At least created atmosphere alone is perfect. Although the songwriting is stronger or more remarkable sometimes on Unhalfbricking (its eternal companion, they would meld well as a double lp), this is their most every-day playable album for me, and I think Sandy tried re-invoking the approach on something like Holidays when she chartered splinter group Fotheringay a couple of years later, but without the success of Fairport's sophomore effort (even the name of that group belied her revanchist direction, saluting the Fairport II aggregation). But perhaps it is more a re-genesis rather than a follow-up to the first album, because it is almost completely unlike that experimental debut, because suddenly, they really know what they are doing as if they had been at it for 10 years or more. And the reward is yours, dear listener, if you buy this.

This is the real Fairport Convention, and unlike more honest brokers like the Beatles, who broke up about the same time Fairport (really) did, who also did not attempt to market under the name after one of the essentials of their sound (Paul) left, Fairport redux in 1970 would have served their public more honourably by leading from another name, say, for example, "Pickin' Up The Pieces" as a name for the surviving segment sans Sandy (and sans Tyger); and thus enshrine the F.C. name forever with a great legend. Fairport the supergroup died in the 1960's folks, everything else has borrowed on the name. You have to wait until Richard & Linda Thompson's "Shoot Out The Lights" before anyone associated with this project reaches heights like these again after the denouement of 1969's Advent season (that is, unless you are the rare and lucky owners of Sandy's 1971-73 BBC Sessions or Ashley's "Son Of Morris On" project, those rarities of rarities, and the latter, though is something quite different). But what a legend! This is what a great folk album is and standard should be, and this is what most folk-music lovers are looking for when they go out to buy a record, but seldom do they end up with this kind of quality. You even get fully rewarded without the more active and concentrated listening the next two masterpieces require. What more could you ask for?

One of the all-time classic folk-rock albums, this one is a cornerstone in my collection. The combination of beauty, soulfulness, humor, and sadness is stunning. This was a band of artists, united only in their desire to make the music they felt in their hearts. Luckily for us, it's also brilliant.

This is definitely a 5-star album. Just a note, though: If you listen to the sample of "Mr. Lacey" (which inexplicably is the only audio sample available here) and wonder what all the fuss is about, please be aware that "Mr. Lacey" is probably the least typical song on the entire album. The rest are mostly quieter, folk-rock gems (although I don't like to use the term "folk-rock" to describe this. Seems too limiting for such a work of art).

This is the first Fairport Convention album I ever heard, and if that colors my judgement, so be it. Having BOTH Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews on vocals is what moves this up a notch from "Unhalfbricking" (but that one's essential too)to my ears. The Dylan cover "I'll Keep It With Mine" may be the best thing they ever recorded--not only those wonderful harmonies, but Richard Thompson's entirely sympathetic lead guitar, especially on the fadeout; just sublime. Follow that with the Joni Mitchell cover "Eastern Rain" which gives you an idea as to just what they lost when drummer Martin Lamble died. Sandy Denny's opener "Fotheringay" would have fit in with Liege and Lief, yet is perfect here. Richard Thompson's early compositions "No Man's Land"(very underrated), "Tale In Hard Time", and "Meet On The Ledge" sound as great as anything he's ever done. And Ian Matthew's own "Book Song", adds a gentle dimension to the overall sound that was sadly never to be repeated. The only cut that doesn't fit is Ashley Hutchings' "Mr. Lacey", and it's still amusing and fun. There are two traditional ballads, a spooky chant, and a nice instrumental that closes the original album. In short, a variety of styles that form a whole greater than the sum of the parts. What might have been.