Fotheringay
Subject: Pre-Fotheringay/Poet & the one man band
From: [email protected]
Date: 25 Nov 1997
A couple of years ago, See for Miles records has issued a CD By Head, Hands & Feet, called 'Home from Home- The Missing album'. The Compiler claims it is a long-shelved, never-issued album of 1968 by Head, Hands & Feet, but if you pay attention to the Line Up: Tony Colton, Albert Lee, Pat Donaldson, Ray Smith, Pete Gavin, Mike O_Neill and Jerry Donahue, you realise it is not an early Head Hands & Feet, but actually a Poet & the One man Band album.
Poet and the One Man Band was Donaldson & Donahue (& Albert Lee)_s Pre-Fotheringay Band. They made an album on the Paramount Label in the sixties,which has its good moments. Pete Frame writes that the label folded right after that. This might be the reason why these recordings were not released before 95. Poet & the O.M.B. became Head, H & F when Donaldson & initially Albert Lee, then Donahue left to start Fotheringay with Sandy, Trevor & Gerry Conway.
BTW, Donahue & Donaldson also recorded for Johnny Halliday, during the late 6Os. Born in Belgium, Halliday was (& still is, although older than Mick Jagger) the incarnation of French Rock Music, even if (Like, e.g. Peter Maffay in Germany) he is not an exportable product at all. Johnny Halliday used to have his recording sessions in London at the time. Among others session (& stage) musicians, were Mick Jones (later of Foreigner, not Clash), and even Hendrix is rumoured to have played on Halliday_s cover of Hey Joe.I cannot give you a detailed list of these albums, not being a big fan of Johnny Halliday (to put it mildly).
Subject: Fotheringay BBC
Date: 8 Jan 1998
From: Martin Jonas
There has been some discussion here on and off about the unreleased second Fotheringay album and the BBC sessions that feature much of the material that Fotheringay prepared for the album but never got around to recording in the studio, as the band broke up at the time. Some of you know that Jerry Donahue (with a little help from yours truly and many kind and enthusiatic people worldwide) has been seriously trying for a while now to reconstruct this album the best it can after all this time with a view to a possible commercial release.
The BBC does not appear to have kept any of the session tapes themselves. We do have decent quality stereo transfers of some of the transmitted material, but some tracks are quite distorted by time and wear. Jerry has asked me to issue a general appeal: if anybody has *clean* and *high-quality* tapes of any of the Fotheringay radio broadcasts, in particular of the songs that were not on the original issue of the first LP, *please* contact me by private e-mail.
Obviously, stereo tapes would be best (but hard to get by, as the material was broadcast in mono), but if someone has a *clean* mono recording taped from the radio, it would be very useful as well. The same goes for any live recordings of Fotheringay material, in particular any soundboard tapes. Instrumental flaws and drop-outs can be mended and overdubbed, but we need decent vocal takes.
The songs we most urgently need better quality tapes of are: Bold Jack Donahue John The Gun Wild Mountain Thyme Two Weeks Last Summer (alternatives to the released studio version) Go Your Way Silver Threads and Golden Needles Lord Bateman But any other material will be more than welcome as well, so that a potential release can really draw from the best possible sound sources available.
Subject: Re: Banks of the Nile (Condamine)
Date: 22 Feb 1998
From: Martin Jonas
> I don't know if this has been discussed before, but "The banks of the Nile" is also an old
>Australian folk song called "Banks of the Condamine" It's about "Willy" leaving his
>love "Nancy" to go mustering,and meeting again on the banks of the "Condamine",
>a river in Queensland. I first heard "The Banks of the Nile" on the "Attic tapes" CD
>earlier this year, and having a fairly strong background inAustralian folk music, was
>surprised to hear another, probably more original version of the song.
>Does anyone know the history here?
The Banks of the Condamine is a 19th Century Australian parody of The Banks of the Nile, sung to the same tune. Trevor Lucas first recorded it on his 1966 album Overlander, and I'm fairly certain that he based the Fotheringay arrangement of Banks of the Nile on that earlier version, as the tune differs a bit from that used by other UK folk acts (e.g. The Young Tradition). Lyrics to The Banks of the Condamine are in the Digital Tradition (www.deltablues.com).
Subject: Re: "Poems From Alexandra" CD
Date: 28 Sep 1998
From: [email protected] (Brent W Burhans)
"Poems From Alexandra" unhappily suffers from very poor sound quality. Variable amounts of hiss, tinny sound. It's unfortunate as it's mostly BBC sessions, with some otherwise unreleased Fotheringay tracks: 'Broomfield Hall', 'John (sic; should be Jack) Donohue', 'John The Gun', and 'Silver Threads And Golden Needles'; plus 8 more of the usual suspects, one ('Too Much Of Nothing') being from The Beat Club, Bremen, Germany, 1970. Tell me if you want the other titles. Curiously, the disc ends with the studio versions of 'Two Weeks Last Summer', "Gypsy Davey' and 'Late November'. Not without interest, but perhaps not for the more casual fan. Subject: Poems From Alexandra Date: 29 Sep 1998 From: say what? Its credits list BCC sessions execpt for track 7, which it says is live from the "Beat Club" in Bremen, Germany, and tracks 13-15, which are the same two old studio tracks we've had since the Sandy box came out, and the RT-less Late November. Sound quality is iffy, but listenable, but the versions of John The Gun and John Donohue make it worthwhile in my book. The studio tracks are in pretty good sound, as they should be since these can be had directly from a CD. Track listing: 1."Broomfield Hall" (Eppy Morey) 2.Gypsy Davey 3.John Donohue 4.Lowlands Of Holland 5.Ballad Of Ned Kelly 6.Banks Of The Nile 7.Too Much Of Nothing 8.John The Gun 9.Silver Threads And Golden Needles 10.The Way I Feel 11.Nothing More 12.The Sea 13.Two Weeks Last Summer 14.Gypsy Davey 15.Late November
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