Simon Nicol
Album: Before Your Time… & Consonant Please Carol
Label: Talking Elephant
Tracks: 8+13
Website: http://www.talkingelephant.co.uk

The longest serving member of Fairport Convention (in there right at the very beginning, well over four decades ago!), and IMHO a bit of an unsung hero, Simon only finally got round to releasing a solo album in 1987. Before Your Time, which appeared on the band's own Woodworm label, was a landmark collection, well-balanced almost to a fault, on which Simon was backed by the sturdy, trusty Peggy & Mattacks, also benefitting from the musicianship of Ric Sanders, John Kirkpatrick and keyboardist Peter Vettese, with isolated appearances by Maartin Allcock and Gerry Conway. It wasn't quite a latter-day Fairport album, then, but at times it sounded a bit like one.

Simon's rich singing voice was very much at the forefront, however, as were the songs themselves. For the set turned the spotlight on a generous handful of contemporary folk compositions, some of which were being aired in the Fairport sets of the time. Huw Williams' Rosemary's Sister was much in vogue, as was Julie Gold's From A Distance. To these were added a gently persuasive take on Stuart Marson's evocative Over The Lancashire Hills and, most memorable of all, John Richards' extraordinarily powerful Deserter.

The title (instrumental) track paired a traditional air with a, archetypal folk-rock strut through Merry Sherwood Rangers, while the album also boasted a couple of items involving Linda Thompson: first as writer (Insult To Injury), and second as lead vocalist (a delicious rendition of the traditional I Live Not Where I Love). An enjoyable and decidedly satisfying collection all round, and that despite a few mild 80s-style over-indulgences on the keyboard front.

Consonant Please Carol, however, was an altogether less substantial set, for although it contained plenty of reliable playing and singing from all concerned (including of course the revised rhythm section of Maart and Gerry), the actual material just wasn't up to the standard of that on Before Your Time… five years earlier. Even the John Richards number, How Do You Sleep?, felt distinctly lightweight compared with Deserter on the previous record, and the inclusion of no fewer than four Huw Williams compositions (which I'm afraid I find merely "folk-lite" and at times over-sentimental) did the overall mix no favours, while rock-lite numbers like Evidence proved entirely forgettable.

The snappy instrumental contribution this time was a medley of Gershwin and Telstar - entertaining enough, but at barely two and a quarter minutes little more than a makeweight and arguably worthy of a touch more development. In my opinion, the album was redeemed only by the inclusion of Tim Goosey's excellent Maiden Voyage and a slightly idiosyncratic, floridly decorated and quite dramatic rendition of the traditional False Knight On The Road backed only by keyboards (Maart on Roland and Beryl Marriott on electronic piano) and taken at an unusually measured pace. There was also a pleasing cover of Mary Chapin Carpenter's wistful The Moon And St Christopher with lead vocal taken by Maggie Reilly, but these three tracks aside it was a curiously unsatisfying collection, whose overall title hinted rather strongly that the listener would be likely feeling in the mood to "countdown" to its end probably rather more swiftly than Simon himself had ideally anticipated.

These albums have been unavailable for some years - their last appearance on CD was as a Woodworm label double-disc set quite a few years ago which sported the umbrella title of The Solo Excursions 1986-1992 - so it's good to see them reissued again, by Talking Elephant, here as two separate single discs and complete with all their original booklet note material.

David Kidman