Review of the year 2008

(Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 1 December 2008. Photo: Chris Bates)

About eighteen months ago I published a post here on the topic ‘Cults and anniversaries’. My question then was whether the upcoming thirtieth anniversary of Sandy Denny’s death might be the trigger for a serious reappraisal of her work and a breakthrough to wider acceptance. Looking back over the past year, I have my answer. The tectonic plates of musical taste are definitely shifting, and to her advantage. Think how much has happened in the last nine months:

- April: tribute concert at the Troubadour Club, London, and one-hour documentary on BBC Radio 2.
- May: she makes a ghostly appearance on Jools Holland’s influential TV show in the middle of an interview with Robert Plant.
- August: tribute slot during Cropredy Festival, including a rare occurrence of Julie Fowlis singing in English.
- September: release of Fotheringay 2 after thirty-eight years in the freezer.
- November: ten-minute feature on Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4.
- December: tribute concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Add to that Robert Plant’s revival of ‘The Battle of Evermore’ on tour with Alison Krauss (introduced from the stage with due obeisance to an absent friend) and several newspaper and magazine articles, and you can’t help feeling something is astir. For me, this translates into the paradox that, whilst I personally have had a pretty bad year, culminating in bereavement in October, this long-deceased lady has had a remarkably good year, almost certainly her ‘best’ year since she passed over. All that’s required now is to keep up the momentum. Some of you may have heard rumours of a forthcoming TV series on British women musicians. Kate Bush, Dusty Springfield, Marianne Faithfull, Amy Winehouse and (so we thought) Sandy Denny. My mole on the inside tells me that Sandy has now been dropped from the series, on the grounds that she’s "not famous enough" and viewers of BBC1 (where the series will air) have “never heard of her”. It’s a shame, whichever way you look at it, as filming had already begun on the Sandy programme and this would have been a unique opportunity to place her in rightful company whilst bringing her to the widest audience.

(l-r: Lisa Knapp, Jerry Donahue, Mary Epworth, Johnny Flynn, Sam Carter, PP Arnold, Kristina Donahue, Jim Moray. Photo: Chris Bates)

Anyway, it's gratifying that both the tribute concerts this year happened in venues associated with her. While the QEH isn’t so redolent with associations as the Troubadour in Earl’s Court, it still has its place in her story. She performed there a number of times, notably twice in 1971 – at the Fotheringay ‘farewell’ concert in January, and again in September at her London ‘solo’ relaunch, an event recalled by those who were there as fairly disastrous, under-rehearsed, but redeemed at the last minute by a glorious a cappella ‘Lowlands of Holland’. Perhaps the next commemoration of this kind (and here’s hoping there will be more) should take place outside the capital, or even outside the UK? The LA Troubadour, perhaps? – another venue she knew very well. Closer to home, I notice that the the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival in Belfast is holding a ‘Sandy Denny night’ on 21 January 2009. The featured artist is Linde Nijland. It must be an ‘open mic’ night as well, as the advertisement says: ‘If you would like to perform a Sandy Denny song at this event contact [the Festival director] Sean@cqaf.com.’

As I write, the January/February issue of Rock’n’Reel plops through the letterbox. It contains, I’m pleased to see, not just my own retrospective piece on Fotheringay but also a poignant end-of-year message from Sean McGhee recalling that moment, so sacred to all of us, of first encounter with Denny’s work:

‘We rarely know what lies ahead for us. Little did I suspect back then, as I listened to her wonderful voice, that one day I’d be writing an editorial such as this, Sandy having long since sung her final song. Yet we’re still listening…’

Here’s to a wonderful 2009 filled with the very best sounds! Onwards and upwards!

South Bank triumph!

Once again the press awards four stars to a Sandy Denny tribute; this time it’s Robin Denselow reviewing the QEH concert in the Guardian. I was afraid his duties on the night as co-host might debar him from reviewing it as well and I’m glad to see that was not so.

For me there were many, many highlights with numerous great performances (plus one I’d rather forget). How wonderful to hear Swarbrick sing again, accompanied by Kevin Dempsey’s sensitive finger-picking guitar! What a find is Mary Epworth (whose lovely picture I can’t resist publishing below)! The variety of textures, ranging from full band to solo singer, ensured that songs emerged often in a new light. The great PP Arnold showed us how the big later songs could be opened out into soul numbers, while Johnny Flynn applied his quirky, Country-edged style to a pair of classics. I even changed my mind about Marc Almond; I marvel at how deeply he has taken these songs into himself, cherishing the lyrics and reimagining them for chamber ensemble.

I spoke to several people in the audience who knew little about Sandy Denny but left wanting to know a whole lot more. A triumph of organisation for Andrew Batt, I’d say, who pulled the whole thing together, and a major step in bringing this music to the widest possible audience. The concert was recorded for possible radio broadcast.

There were a few moaning Minnies, not present at the concert but keen to explain in cyberspace why they would not be there, preferring to stay at home and play her albums or savour the memory of seeing Denny live. One of them dismissed the whole thing as a ‘vanity project’ undertaken by the ‘nu-folk elite’ (whatever that may be), a comment so wide of the mark that it hardly merits a response. But a contributor to the BBC Folk and Acoustic Message Board (‘Bluecore’) surely speaks for the majority of the audience:

'Of course no single performer matched Sandy (that really wasn’t the point of the concert) but it was great to hear her songwriting acknowledged, see today’s young stars paying homage, and to be part of 1,000 people turning out on a Monday night to remember someone who died (largely unacknowledged) over 30 years ago.'

As for the illustrated souvenir programme – my main contribution to the event – it sold out before the concert even started, a victim of its own success. I know it was ‘sought after’ because, in the interval, some madwoman kept trying to buy my copy off me. Rest assured, we’re going to do a reprint and make it available by mail order. News of that to follow.


Set list, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1.12.08:

MARY EPWORTH
Come All Ye
Listen, Listen

JIM MORAY
Late November
Matty Groves

KRISTINA DONAHUE
Nothing More
John The Gun

SAM CARTER
Bushes and Briars

MARC ALMOND
The Northstar Grassman and The Ravens
Next Time Around
All Our Days

BABY DEE
The Lady
No End

INTERMISSION

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE OF FOTHERINGAY
Gypsy Davey

LISA KNAPP
The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood

DAVE SWARBRICK AND KEVIN DEMPSEY
It Suits Me Well
One Way Donkey Ride

LISA KNAPP
Reynardine

P.P. ARNOLD
I’m A Dreamer
Like An Old Fashioned Waltz

JOHNNY FLYNN
Stranger To Himself
It’ll Take A Long Time

MARY EPWORTH
Solo

KRISTINA DONAHUE
No More Sad Refrains

ALL
Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

[There is amateur video of Johnny Flynn's performance here and of Marc Almond, 'All Our Days', here. Audio of Mary Epworth's numbers is available here. On MySpace you’ll find an album of Chris Bates’s photos on the Sandy Denny page.]

Shame that NME darlings Florence and the Machine pulled out of the gig, especially as Florence Welch is telling interviewers that Sandy Denny is one of her favourite female artists (along with Diane Cluck, Grace Slick and Kate Bush).