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~ Settled back in Jersey, heart still in Ireland….

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Category Archives: Music

Richard Digance on Sandy Denny

16 Monday Aug 2010

Posted by Roy McCarthy in Music

≈ 1 Comment

It’s a first for me to frantically switch back from the sport on 5Live to catch the second half of Richard Digance’s folk presentation on Radio Devon.  If, like me, you default to 1026MW you get BBC Jersey which switches without warning to either 5Live or the West Country local stations.  Radio Jersey has advanced in light years since its first cringeworthy year of operation but still retains many amateur aspects.  But that’s for another day.

I was about to head out at 5pm today (Sunday) when Digance’s regular programme came on.  He announced an edition dedicated to Sandy Denny, whereupon I immediately changed my plans, turned up the volume and listened intently.  Now I’m not a ‘folkie’, that strange breed of Englishman that delights in traditional songs played in the traditional ways, but I do like a bit of electric folk as performed by Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and the like.  The two-hour programme paid tribute to Denny who Digance credited with leading the British divergence away from the American-led folk movement in the 60s.

We learnt that Denny was a London girl who was a trainee nurse when she began performing in a duo.  Digance is understandably proud of the time when the young Denny accepted a lift home from his brother late one night, via his mother’s kitchen and a bacon roll!  The young prodigy was spotted by one Dave Cousins who asked Denny to join a new outfit called The Strawbs; this was well before these guys became popular.  We further learned that they were originally known as The Strawberry Hill Boys.  The programme included two recording from those early Strawbs sessions in Copenhagen.

Soon enough Denny joined an embryonic Fairport Convention and, probably unwittingly, they started something memorable.  Digance played the superb A Sailor’s Life and mercifully left in the extended outro which features the fusion of the band’s instruments at their best.  But in the first half of the song Denny’s voice (which I assume was untrained) is displayed at its remarkable and controlled best.

Denny moved on to an outfit called Fotheringay before returning to Fairport and periodically performing solo work.  But Digance mentions ‘alcohol and cigarettes’ and indeed legend suggests that the beautiful and enchanting performer led a pretty wild life out of the public eye.  Denny’s final public performance (though no one then knew it) was at the Royal Albert Hall on 27th December 1977.  Digance played a couple of tracks from that gig (including the lovely Solo which I hadn’t heard before)  at which she was accompanied by many of her musician friends.  Digance observes that Denny’s voice was, by then, faltering but to me it was as enchanting as ever.

Denny died some months later after a fall and resulting brain haemorrhage.  She was 31. 

As this blog witnesses I am devoted to the rock-powerful voices of Elkie Brooks, Carol Decker and Stevie Nicks.  Sandy Denny was a different kind of singer.  I’m a layman in these matters but to me her voice was less powerful and had a limited range.  However it was beautiful, strange and perfectly controlled and Denny had every song and every audience in the palm of her hand.  We are privileged to have been given so much in so short a life and well done Digance for showcasing it so memorably.

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Come All You Roving Runners…

31 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by Roy McCarthy in Jersey local history, Music, Running

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Another steady running week. I’ve settled into a pattern of four morning runs per week – Tues/Wed/Thurs/Sat, with the Saturday one being the ‘long’ one. (I put ‘long’ in apostrophes as it’s not so long really compared with the marathon training earlier this year.)

I headed off to Gorey via the coast road again today. You’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve almost nailed this Jersey Eastern Railway thing. I don’t know what I’ll find to obsess about next once I’m satisfied. Perhaps doing a similar thing with the railway lines that the Germans constructed during the Occupation, up to St John and down to Val de la Mare. We’ll see.

Anyway, I’ve pinpointed where the line crossed the main road at Le Bourg. At La Petite Sente past a property called Station House. Ha ha, no shit Sherlock. And a little further along, in Rue du Pont by the Fisherman’s Chapel, a sign on a wall saying Place de la Gare signifies La Rocque Station. My main difficulty now is ascertaining exactly where the line ran between Pontac & Le Bourg – behind the houses or what? I made a little diversion onto the sea wall at Pontac and it seemed obvious that the line followed the sea wall…but then that comfortable theory is dashed as the sea wall turns abruptly inland at a right angle; I don’t recall any tragedies relating to trains plunging into the sea.

I popped on the iPod for a change this morning. I heard a great tip to deal with the tugging and dragging you get from the earphone cords – clip the cord to the top of your T-shirt. Works a treat. I ran through my old favourite Pierce Turner’s collection. An excellent balladeer for our times, plying his not-very-lucrative trade in the spirit of the wandering troubadours of old. The only time he’s made me frown is when he picks on The Eagles as the type of band he doesn’t want to be. I’ll give Pierce the benefit of the doubt and I guess he just plucked them as one of many popular rock combos. Pierce, just ‘cos they’re popular doesn’t mean they don’t make great music. And Joe Walsh is a genius in this and any other age.

Then a few tunes from Fairport Convention. It crossed my mind that I’d like to go to their Copredy festival next month. But I’m not really festival material. I’m not into ‘bonding’ with other people yet I don’t want to sit by myself like a twat. I like my hotel comforts and only a luxury one-man tent with all mod cons would induce me to camp out. Yet the thought of the crowd joining in, late on the Sunday, with Come All Ye and Meet on the Ledge is compelling.

But running’s what it’s all about and, on a pleasingly damp morning I covered a nice 10.4 miles.

Miles on the week – 27.4
Miles ytd – 921.1

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