Back in the good old days, dear reader, libraries had books and nothing else in them. Except for the record library at the bottom of Upper Duke Street in Liverpool, where in the 1970s, my dad had membership (for a fee) and used it to widen his classical music knowledge.
I inherited his joy of collecting music, without his love of the classical. Apart from on Hex Enduction Hour, but that's for later
Of course, there were none of the pop LPs I wanted there – us scruffy pop lovers would have scratched them and damaged them (incidentally, my dad did suggest to me, in all seriousness, that my music would damage the stylus on his state of the art turntable). But there were cassettes that we could be trusted with, and Dad would send me there with a list of what he wanted, allowing me to choose one item for myself. So, on one visit I’m attracted by a colourful insert (remember kids, the 1970s was in black and white) featuring what looked like a group of ragged hippy travellers, no doubt with communal kids and a dog, which if taken out of the forest would have a lead made of string. It was like Camembert Electrique in bright colours and I was entranced.
And the strange music they made! I think I had a vague awareness of the band – John Peel had done a show on Fairport Convention and related bands (August 1976, thanks, internet!), so my ears had been opened to the folk rock idea – but I really wasn’t prepared for what I heard. I fell for Heron and Williamson’s simple vocals and minimal ‘round the campfire’ backing and have returned to this album repeatedly over the decades. The first half features the strongest songs, Koeeaddi There, the bonkers Minotaur’s Song, and Mike Heron’s Very Cellular Song, but it’s yet another album that suffers from a side two lethargy, where the humour and the brightness of side one is left behind, with Waltz of The New Moon and Three Is A Green Crown sounding overlong and underdeveloped. And while Nightfall is a lovely ending to the album, I do hope Robin Williamson never sang it as a lullaby to his kids if he wanted a peaceful night.
3* - I wanted this to be 4, but there’s just too much of the second half that fails to hold my interest.
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