Vinyl log 18 - 10 July

Day	Month	Year	Artist	Title
10	July	1974	Fairport Convention	Nine
10	July	1974	Sandy Denny	Like an old fashioned waltz

This is an easy one to remember: I bought this pair of records in an arcade opposite Cardiff Castle. This was my first shopping expedition after returning home from my 'gap year' in Israel; it probably took me a  day or two to recover before I ventured out from what was my new but old home (this is the house we lived in when I was a baby, but then we lived on the ground floor whereas now we were on the second floor).

I was underwhelmed by the Sandy record; I didn't like the the 1930s ambience of the record and the strophic nature of the songs didn't help (see here). There are two songs which have stayed in the playlist: 'Solo' and 'Carnival'. This is actually the second song that Sandy wrote called 'Carnival': there is a much earlier song which didn't get past the demo stage. I have a copy of it somewhere.

The Fairport record was at least interesting: the Fairport+Fotheringay line up had coalesced into something unexpected with English, American and Australian influences coming to light. Unfortunately, their songwriting was not at the same level as their instrumental prowess, otherwise this could have been an excellent record.

I first attended the Cropredy Festival in 1989, 15 years almost to the day after purchasing these records. When I arrived at the Brasenose Arms pub in the village, I was somewhat bemused to find myself at the place where the photographs for the album had been taken. There is also a promotional video shot in the garden of the same pub.