Talking Elephant 2025
In 1981 There Was:
Live In Concert
Caught between “Full House” and “Streets Of London” but feeling free enough, rustic-rock royalty have a jolly good time.
When three erstwhile Fairporters – Richard Thompson, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks – and Ralph McTell decided to form what amounted to a folk-minded supergroup, it was to have fun, rather than perform music the public expected from them; otherwise, it would have been too close for comfort for the foursome’s day job. As a result, the four concerts they played in 1981 went far beyond traditional fare, and fans still recall those shows as special occasions and cherish the official bootleg that appeared, in a limited run, ten years after as a great memento of those moments. Fast forward four decades from those heady days, and another recording of the quarter’s short trek surfaced, allowing Nigel Schofield to remix and remaster the old tapes and compile this: a definitive document of the band’s repertoire.
The producer’s exhaustive, even exhausting, notes about both the combo’s set list and his work that fill the booklet here give aficionados a context for the American staples the veterans unleashed on the unprepared punters with a lot of gusto, yet there’s no need to dig deep in order to see delight in the ensemble’s takes on quite a few perennials, some already covered on their records. Yes, a bunch of Thompson and McTell’s numbers made it to the stage, but with the latter’s mellifluous “Zimmerman Blues” logically followed by a mighty delivery of Dylan’s “Going, Going, Gone” and the former’s rollicking “You’re Gonna Need Somebody” succeeded by THE EVERLY BROTHERS’ tremulously sweet “Take A Message To Mary” alongside Hank Williams evergreens and Motown classics, not enjoying the collective’s jive ‘n’ jigs is not an option. From twangy opener “Red Apple Juice” on, to the finale of “Cut Across Shorty” which comes from their one-off 1997 reunion, the friends’ merriment and energy are palpable, with the coupling of raucous “Saturday Rolling Round” and finely filigreed instrumental “Barnes Morris” creating an exhilarating dynamic, where the two Daves’ telepathic rhythms shine.
And though their overtly sentimental handling of old-timey “Save The Last Dance For Me” and “Together Again” – voiced, respectively, by Ralph and Richard – border on histrionic, their dipping into proto-soul on the punchy “(Come Round Here) I’m The One You Need” and the groovy epic “Don’t Do It” as well as their marriage of such country tear-jerkers as “I Fall To Pieces” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” to English dryness work wonders. Still, it’s the blistering “Steel Guitar Rag” whose wordless onslaught is stunning that highlights the group’s power, which the soft “Hang Up My Rock ‘n’ Roll Shoes” – that features Pegg on vocals – and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” can’t help but underscore.
Of course, given the album’s provenance, the sound isn’t perfect here, yet its flow only add to the live atmosphere, rendering this inspired relic extremely riveting. A must-have souvenir.
*****
