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The Lady - A Homage to Sandy Denny

Venue: Philharmonic Hall
Town: Liverpool
Date: 19th May
Website: http://www.sandydennyofficial.com/

This was a dream come true. The chance to see and hear the music of Sandy Denny played live once more by an incredible array of talent ,assembled specially for this tour.

We had former bandmates of Sandy [Dave Swarbrick from Fairport and Jerry Donahue from Fotheringay and Fairport], contemporaries of Sandy [ Maddy Prior and PP Arnold] and some of the best young talent [Joan Wasser aka Joan as Policewoman; Blair Dunlop of the Albion Band ; Sam Carter and Lavinia Blackwall of Trembling Bells ]. Not to forget Green Gartside [ Scritti Politti] and Thea Gilmore and Nigel Stonier.

It is ,of course, Thea who should be credited ,in no small part ,for the recent upsurge in interest in Sandy's music . Thea was given access to Sandy's personal papers and was asked to expand on and interpret her unfinished works. The result was the superb album "Don't Stop Singing" which was released last year on Island Records ,Sandy's original label.

As if that were not enough, we had a "house band" of supremely talented musicians under the direction of Pete Flood of Bellowhead [who also played drums magnificently]. Also from Bellowhead were Benji Kirkpatrick on mandolin and guitar and Andy Mellon on piano and trumpet. Completing the line up were Ben Nicholls on electric and double bass and Nick Pynn on violin and viola. That's sixteen performers who were on stage at one time or another ,a great feat of organisation by the producers Andrew Batt [also the MC] and Tamsin Austin. By the way, if you made your way to the well-stocked merchandising table ,you were likely to be served by Fairport/Steeleye/Albion Band founder ,the Guv'nor himself ,Ashley Hutchings ,who was more than happy to chat [he and I discussed Fairport's appearance on Top of the Pops in 1969 ,the first time I saw Sandy on television]. Being of a certain age, I was lucky enough to see Sandy in person on three occasions- 1970 with Fotheringay [I also got to meet her backstage ] , in 1971 on her first solo tour [with Richard Thompson on guitar] and ,finally in 1975 ,when she had rejoined Fairport. Like many ,I was shocked and saddened by her death in 1978 but I have always had a special affinity with her music.

Thus, it was a great privilege to be at the first date on the current tour . The show was magnificent from start to finish and it is invidious to have to select certain highlights but I will try to do so ,otherwise this review would go on forever.

The concert got off to a great start with Lavinia Blackwall singing the groundbreaking [in terms of electric folk] "A Sailor's Life " from "Unhalfbricking". Lavinia is a wonderful singer and it was fantastic to have Dave Swarbrick playing fiddle , ,just as he did on that album, forty three years ago. Lavinia also did full justice to my favourite Sandy song ,the mysterious " Late November" but the highlight of her performance was a truly magnificent version of " The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood" ,sung a capella by Lavinia, Maddy Prior and Thea Gilmore ,with a moving violin coda by Dave Swarbrick . Very impressive.

Also impressive was singer-guitarist Sam Carter who did a lovely solo version of "Bushes and Briars" and a great version of one of Sandy's most underrated songs, "It Suits Me Well" ,accompanied by Dave Swarbrick's sprightly fiddle. This was especially poignant as Dave ,himself, did a fine version of the song on his 1981 album "Smiddyburn". Tonight's rendition was delightful ,as Dave wove a number of different fiddle tunes in amongst the verses of the song. Lovely stuff.

Joan Wasser was another "modern" artist who surprised and delighted. Her performances ,at the piano, of " The Lady" and "No More Sad Refrains" were superb. When introducing "The Lady", Joan said "This song scares me but tension makes music better". I certainly wouldn't argue with her ,because she captured the essence of the song beautifully.

The highlight of Maddy Prior's set was an appropriately thunderous version of "John the Gun" where drummer Pete Flood was outstanding. The song also featured one of the evening's great guitar solos from the excellent Jerry Donahue ,who added so much to Sandy's own recordings and live shows with Fotheringay and Fairport. Jerry has also done much work in keeping Sandy's music alive ,in the form of several releases of live material and the Fotheringay 2 album. An unassuming man but a true guitar legend.

Blair Dunlop has taken over the reins of the Albion Band from his father ,Ashley Hutchings and is doing a great job [check out their new album "The Vice of the People " ,it's really good]. Tonight he performed two of Sandy's greatest songs ,"The Sea" and "It'll Take a Long Time" ,which were very well received by the sold-out audience.

Legendary soul and gospel singer [and former Ikette] PP Arnold received a great welcome from the crowd and quite rightly so , because she is great artist [no stranger to folk music either ,as in the past she provided backing vocals for Nick Drake and Steeleye Span!]. PP worked her magic on three songs, " I'm a Dreamer" , "Like an Old Fashioned Waltz" and, best of all , " Take Me Away" . The latter was done as a big gospel number with the whole ensemble providing backing to PP's soaring, soulful voice. Magnificent. In fact, PP likes the song so much that she has recorded it and it is available as a free download on her website.

As I have already mentioned, much of the current interest in Sandy is due to Thea Gilmore's album of unfinished works by Sandy "Don't Stop Singing". Thea performed four songs from that album. The biggest cheer went up for "London" ,probably because it has received extensive airplay on daytime radio , particularly on BBC Radio 2. I doubt whether any song written by Sandy has received as much airplay in such a short period of time. Additionally, Thea performed the magical album opener "Glistening Bay" ,the beautiful "Long Time Gone and the title track "Don't Stop Singing". Of the latter, Thea said that she did not want to dwell on the bleaker aspects of Sandy's life but wanted to show the more positive side ,which she does in this song.

Inevitably, the final song was Sandy's classic anthem "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" ,for which the entire ensemble of sixteen took to the stage for a moving finale to what was a memorable and special event . We had twenty five of Sandy's sublime songs ,sung and played by some of the best singers and musicians in the world - what more could you possibly ask for? Nothing more.

Peter Cowley