WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS

I was introduced to folk music through this album on a hazy hot summer's day long ago. I remember the start with "Fotheringay" made instantly a great impression to me; The webs weaved by classical acoustic guitars and amplified bass, accompanied with few bells and Sandy Denny's celestial vocals describing the final moments of Queen Mary of Scots, all this uniting as most beautiful and harmonious tonal scenery. Sadly its follower "Mr.Lacey" was more disappointing humorous blues rocker, but luckily the following songs again follow the mellow and moody line which the opening song did set. "Book Song" has some sitars in it, bringing some elements of psychedelic vibes to this serene lovely tune. "The Lord Is in This Place...How Dreadful is This Place" works as a quiet intro for the song "No Man's Land", being then a bit faster paced tune with Ian's lead singing. This one with a big emotional load is followed by Bob Dylan's cover "I'll Keep It with Mine", which forms a bit longer, enforcing mantra-like song of sorrowful happiness. The euphoric progression and sympathetic lyrics carry strong load of positive energy, making me wish world would actually be something like described on this song. The forthcoming releases of this band saw many other Dylan covers following, none of those being very exceptional of quality though like this. "Eastern Rain" pours in, being one of the album's strongest tracks along with its opener. A hazy, peaceful vocal theme is surrounded with silent mysterious sounds, and the descending verse has some stronger instrumentation, giving a release to the tension grown in the song. "She Moves Through The Fair" is a beautiful traditional Irish piece, sung by many legendary artists like Anne Briggs, who was singing purist folk without musical accompaniment in same times and places as when Sandy was developing her own style and searching possibilities for musical success. This version gives the historical lamentation a slightly psychedelic flavoured treatment, being certainly very, very beautiful. "Meet on The Ledge" is then a totally marvelous acoustic anthem, with very sad feeling lingering below the hopeful melodic theme for those who are gone and will be met maybe once again. The players have truly had a great taste in writing these songs, as the traditional numbers, covers and then their own compositions fit together very well. "End of A Holiday" closes the original album as a solo acoustic guitar number. I haven't heard the bonus tracks of the recent re-mastered CD, but with the original tracks I would recommend this classic strongly, and it resides as a very special record to me due the personal experiences I got from it.

Exactly how this album came to be rated as a masterpiece of progressive music I do not know, since it's obviously no more progressive than the Beatles' REVOLVER or the Stones' BEGGARS BANQUET, but if you want to hear English folk rock at its freshest and most passionate, HOLIDAYS is the album for you! Although the Fairports were inspired by traditional ballads, they had no time for old-fashioned ditties about smoking pipes or quaffing Real Ale. Instead, Sandy Denny's vocals were as urgent and commanding as anything Grace Slick tried with Jefferson Airplane. Richard Thompson's and Simon Nicol's fingerpicking style showed similarities with Jimmy Page's, which makes me think that any admirer of Led Zep's acoustic tunes will love this album. Meanwhile, Thompson's electric solos were as brilliant and daring as any by that holy trinity of Clapton, Page and Beck. And to top it all, the Fairports really rocked - mercilessly. There's nothing quaint about HOLIDAYS. A truly classic album.

Unconventional

"What we did on our holidays" (WWDOOH), Fairport's second album, is probably their least conventional as it is about as far removed from folk and folk rock as Fairport ever dared to drift. While the line up is essentially that which recorded the band's eponymous debut, there is one highly significant change. Vocalist Judy Dyble moves on after just one album to be replaced by the (now) legendary Sandy Denny (or Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny as she is credited on the sleeve). In fairness to Dyble, she is a highly accomplished singer, but Denny would be an integral part of development of the band over the next few albums.

The first track on "WWDOOH", "Fotheringay", offers the perfect introduction to Denny's pure and emotive tones. This wonderfully evocative song tells the tale of the final days of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringay Castle, the vocal harmonies and melodic guitar (Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson playing together) setting the perfect mood for the piece. The track apparently features "Autoharp" too! Denny would later use the song title as the name for her post Fairport project.

If "Fotheringay" is striking for its beauty, the mood rapidly changes for Ashley "Tyger" Hutchings bluesy "Mr. Lacey". The title relates to an engineer by the name of Professor Bruce Lacey who was in the studio during recordings, and who baffled the band with cod-science. While "Book song" is credited to Richard Thompson and Ian Matthews, it is actually the latter's song. The brief sitar introduction leads to a fine male/female vocal harmony between Matthews and Denny, the song having a lilting reflective feel.

The brief "The Lord is in his place.. how dreadful is this place" reverts to the blues influences again, this time with a gospel tinge; the song is based on a Blind Willy Johnson number. This leads into Thompson's following "No man's land", a barroom sing-along style song.

The longest track on the album at a shade under 6 minutes is a cover of Bob Dylan's "I'll keep it with mine", a song originally written by Mr. Zimmerrman for Nico. The number affords Denny the opportunity to flex her vocal chords as she stamps her own character on this tender ballad. "Eastern rain" is the second of the two consecutive cover versions on the album. This is an obscure Joni Mitchell song with little to distinguish it or to explain its selection.

"Nottamun town" is more indicative of the band's future direction being a traditional song delivered in a folk style. The song, which is possibly about the town of "Nottingham", became popular in regions of both sides of the Atlantic. "Tale in hard time" sees Richard Thompson moving close to pop territory, with high harmonies and a simple melody. The track features some fine guitar work by Thompson.

The second and last of the interpretations of traditional songs is a rendition of "She moved through the fair". This Irish song is thought to be many centuries old, the melody being set to new lyrics in 1909 by Padraic Colum. Fairport's rediscovery of this now familiar melody gave it a new lease of life, and the song has since been covered by a wide range of artists. It also appears on Mike Oldfield's "Voyager" album and the melody reappeared on Simple Minds' "Belfast child" with different words. The version here keeps things simple with Denny's strong vocals being backed by a sympathetic acoustic arrangement.

Over the years, "Meet on the ledge" has become a sort of anthem for Fairport Convention. The "see you on the other side" lyrics quickly found eternal poignancy for the band after the death of drummer Martin Lamble. These days, the song often forms the closing number at Fairport gigs, where it is their "Auld lang syne". Regardless of any emotional connotations, the song is a fine work which formed one of the band's earliest singles.

The closing "End of a holiday" is a simple Simon Nicol acoustic guitar melody which rounds things off superbly.

"What we did on our holidays" may pre-date the fine folk/prog related work of Fairport Convention. It sees them still in pursuit of their true identify, while continuing to experiment with differing but complementary styles. Seen on that basis, this is a fine album which serves as the perfect introduction to the work of the great Sandy Denny with the band.

Footnote, for those with an interest in all things relating to the Island label, this was the first release to bear the pink label.

With Judy leaving (first for Giles, Giles & Fripp then Trader Horne), being replaced by ex-Strawbs Sabdy Denny, many consider WWDOOH the first classic Fairport, but if you read my review on their debut, this one is not any better, far from it. First I always found Sandy Denny's aura greatly exaggerated (she was very much at ease in the pub circuits downing pints and picking fights, yelling and koking with the boys etc., but not exactly my type of woman), and her songwriting and singer capacities over-rated. With a very scribbly artwork depicting the group in concert, WWDOOH is not a good album if you akk me as we have to wait the flipside to find something interesting.

Indeed the opening side starts on the incredibly over-rated Fotheringay, a very average track that for some reasons catches some by the weak point, but if it's really nothing to write home about, it's not a bad track, just not worth the fuss. There are some very basic tracks like the boring Mr Lacey, the boring (and percussively deranged) Book song, the hideous gospel Lord Is In This Place (leave that kind of stuff to Sister Rosetta Tharpe), the poor semi-jig (on the loathed-by-me accordion to top it all off) No Man's Land, and the never-ending sleep-inducing Dylan cover Keep It With Mine... Nothing of interest and more US sounding than most of the debut album, WWDOOH's A-side is a pure write away, and if not for the flipside, it would be the worst thing that Fairport would've done.

But from the first notes of the fading-in Eastern Rain, we just get transported in a different dimension, somewhere close to Pentangle crossed with Joni (this is a Mitchell cover), but the real gifts come with the solemn Nuttamun Town and She Moved Through The Fair, both traditional tracks both handled in the Pentangle manner, drummer Lamble obviously listening to Cox, but The Trees will do a more definitive version of the latter. Stuck between these two covers is the rockier Tale In Hard Time, a good track that would've been a filler on their debut album. The album closes on another two tracks, the classic Meet Me On The Ledge and the fine guitar finale of End Of Holiday

To me, WWOOH is even a step backwards to the group's general progression from US folk to UK folk rock. If it wasn't for the flipside's two traditional covers' presence, this would be a very unremarkable album despite most fans claiming two classics (Fother and Ledge). Holidays is not enugh a strong album to stand as a good introduction to FC, but then again I can't think of one that would except for a compilation.

What We Did On Our Holidays is the second studio album from british folk/ rock act Fairport Convention. It´s a very different album compared to their selftitled debut album. New vocalist Sandy Denny has meant a radical shift towards british traditional folk allthough there´s still a bluesy rocking edge to some songs.

The mild psychadelic tendencies which were present on the debut album are entirely gone from Fairport Convention´s sound. Instead we´re treated with folk/ rock songs like the beautiful opener Fotheringay, Nottamun Town and The Lord Is In His Place. Sandy Denny is a much more dominant female vocalist than her predecessor Judy Dyble and Sandy Denny also contributes greatly in the songwriting process. The more bluesy sound is present in a song like Mr. Lacey.

The musicianship is great and the female and the male vocals compliment each other well.

The productions is good. Warm and organic.

I was pleasantly surprised by Fairport Convention´s debut album which I found to be an excellent album. What We Did On Our Holidays is just what I expected it to be which means that the folk side of Fairport Convention is now the dominant side and I´m not pleased with that. That doesn´t mean that this is not good music, but it doesn´t suit my personal taste much and I much prefer the debut´s more eclectic atmosphere. What We Did On Our Holidays is a 3 star album in my book, but my personal preference means that this is not an album I´ll be listening to much in the future.

Archaeology convention

There is nothing very progressive about these early albums. What We Did On Our Holidays is a very poppy album with slight folky and bluesy influences.

The opening song is very beautiful and showcases the distinctive voice of Sandy Denny very well. And the album closes beautifully with a short acoustic outro. But the material in between goes off in various different directions - Folk, Blues, Pop, Rock - but not really containing anything to catch my interest. However, Meet On The Ledge has a strong chorus and not too surprisingly this song is a favourite on the band's live shows till this day.

It is probably for historical reasons only that this early album is so highly regarded. But to my ears this sounds heavily outdated. For the Prog fan, Full House, Babbacombe Lee and even Angel Delight offers much more of interest.

I can recommend this only for hardcore Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny fans.

What we did on our holidays is varied collection of rock, folk and blues songs that wouldn't be very memorable if it weren't for Sandy Denny's divine vocals. But man does she do magic or what?

It is Fairport Convention's second album and the first featuring Sandy Denny on vocals. It isn't the most progressive achievement of FC's career but it certainly is an appealing album. There are some average but pleasant blues and Dylan inspired folk-pop songs such as Mr Lacey and No Man's Land, there are covers from Joni Mitchell (Eastern Rain), Bob Dylan (I'll Keep it With Mine) and traditional folk songs such as Nottamun Town and She Moves Through the Fair.

The undisputed highlight must be the Sandy Denny penned Fotheringay, a stunningly beautiful and graceful song with a deeply moving pain and sadness. The album is worth getting for this song alone.

FAIRPORT CONVENTION's second album is considered a classic by fans along with their next four.This would be the first album that Sandy Denny appears on. Interesting story about the cover art here.They played University's a lot back around this time, and at this one gig they were given a classroom as a dressing room.They had quite a wait before going on so they started doing some art work on the blackboard.They spent quite a bit of time on it then went and did the show and forgot about it. Later as they wondered what to do for an album cover someone suggested what they did on the blackboard would be cool. They promptly phoned the school to see if it was still there, and it was. So they sent someone down to take a photograph of the drawing and here it is. It's quite detailed isn't it. Lots of variety on this album but the overall mood is laid back and folky.

"Fotheringay" is a top three for me. Acoustic guitar and reserved vocals (Sandy) lead the way in this ballad. "Mr. Lacey" is the one that doesn't seem to belong. Very bluesy with a good beat and prominant guitar. "Book Song" has male and female vocals and a country flavour. Some guest cello here too. "The Lord Is In This Place" is minimilistic with humming and sitar ? It doesn't really work. "No Man's Land" is upbeat and catchy with male vocals. "I'll Keep It With Mine" opens with laid back guitar as it slowly gets fuller. Vocals (Sandy) before a minute. I like the contrasts on this one. Good song.

"Eastern Rain" is okay I guess. Not surprisingly it has an Eastern flavour. "Nottamun Town" is a top three for me. Dual vocals and strummed guitar lead the way with percussion helping out after 1 1/2 minutes. "Tale In Hard Time" has these soaring vocals along with some intricate instrumental work,. Good tune. "She Moves Through The Fair" is my favourite. I like the imagery here.The guitar playing reminds me of Conny Veit's work, and Sandy sounds excellent. "Meet On The Ledge" is a fan favourite. I'm missing it's appeal I guess. Strummed guitar and male vocals with Sandy coming in to help out vocally. "End Of A Holiday" is a cool track with acoustic guitar melodies throughout.

A good album no doubt, and I think fans of Folk would especially appreciate this record.

12.5/15P. A consistent collection of beautifully-crafted and rootsy original compositions plus a broadband choice of covers makes up a perfect soundtrack for a cozy winter evening. Each song is different, but all of them go together perfectly well. And - best of all - no psychedelic experiments to spoil the enjoyment!

This album is so much of a piece that I would do it harm if I deconstructed it the same way I'm inclined to do it otherwise. In 1968, a time in which the clash of Indian folk, west coast psychedelia, folk and rock music resulted in a lot of messy albums, it is rare that you find an album which shows a self-confident and mature band with classy compositions instead of sitar solos and strange Vaudeville songs. This album, picking up songs and influences from both sides of the Atlantic ocean, has a remarkable dignity to it - a clerical atmosphere in the reverberated harmony vocals of Sandy Denny and Iain Matthews (as in Book Song), a grievous power of the swampy Delta sound in You're Gonna Need My Help and The Lord is in this Place (recorded by Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson in a church in a vocals-plus-slide-guitar lineup) and the melodicism of Scottish pipers and balladeers in the two British folk adaptations and, actually, in most of Richard Thompson's lead guitar parts.

And it was also Richard Thompson, 18 years old at that time, who provided the slightly psychedelic pop song Tale in Hard Time which includes wonderfully entangled guitar drones in the beginning and the end in addition to the heavenly vocals, a lovely harpsichord in the background and the slightly twisted rhythm. It's actually my favorite tune on the record, if I think it over for a little while. Book Song, on the surface, looks like one casual American country ballad, but due to its ethereal atmosphere and the chilly reversed-played guitar tracks it is on one level with Gram Parsons' best ballads on the Burrito Brothers' debut album. Curiously there are some seconds of sitars and Hammond organ in front of and after the song, but these seconds turn out to be quite tuneful. No Man's Land dips into Cajun music, a genre which you do not regularly listen to when you are a rock listener. Cajun music is the product of an accomodation of the upbeat and often accordion-dominated folk music of French migrants to the new homeland which they strove to inhabit, an area we now call Louisiana. It was also Richard Thompson who brought in these influences, building them into an unusual pop song with some Byrds influences.

Actually I'd also suggest that this album is a lot more appealing than the critically acclaimed Unhalfbricking. Compared with the overlong and rhythmically unstable A Sailor's Life, the two folk songs on What We Did On Our Holidays are concise and haunting, Nottamun Town with drummer Martin Lamble's fiddle accents, four-part harmonies and Thompson's rapid acoustic guitar shredding in a more medieval way, She Moved Through the Fair rather echoing Bert Jansch and Shirley Collins with the hushed and jazz-influenced Gibson lead guitar and Sandy Denny's stellar and utterly British vocal delivery. The Unhalfbricking track Who Knows Where The Time Goes?, in a way, also pales a wee bit compared with the Dylan cover I'll Keep It With Mine which is, in Fairport's heavily assimilated and piano-backed version, doubtlessly the precursor to the later band interpretation of that Sandy Denny track. I'll Keep it With Mine is 6 beautiful minutes of folk rock with also explain a bit which role the inconspicuous rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol played in this stage of the group's biography. Without any doubt Who Knows Where The Time Goes features a sufficient amount of own ideas and beautiful hooks, as proved by her gorgeous solo demo recorded in 1967, but the Fairport version from 1969 just gives Sandy too little space to shine. Sandy Denny's composition Fotheringay, perhaps as unusual an album opener as The Band's Tears of Rage which was published around the same time, gives the band the opportunity to work on the more classical aspects of folk music. The song deals with Queen Mary I of Scotland, a person quite important in the 16th century politics of England and Scotland, a time in which - to say the least - the situation between the British and the Scottish was more tense than one could imagine it today. In the folk rock genre these realms, be it genuine minnesongs or just songs with a more scholastic approach towards history, are less frequently ventured into than the dances and ballads of the working class - and don't get me wrong, it's actually the working class material which I, thanks to folklore collectors Roud and MacColl etc., have the closest relation to.

Bandleader Ashley Hutching's Mr.Lacey, though saved from banality by Nicol's and Thompson's properly concerted double guitar work and the bizarre lyrics mentioning British inventor Bruce Lacey, is slightly out of place on this album. I surely wouldn't miss it if the band kept it in the vaults; after all, Ashley Hutchings always did best when he arranged the music, not when he composed it. * Simon Nicol's brief acoustic guitar instrumental End of A Holiday, however, is a superb closer to this album. Quiet and delivered with understatement, it's a nice coda to the enthusiastic anthem Meet on the Ledge, which is really good, but at the moment in my opinion not - as most people profess - one of the very best songs in the Fairport Convention repertoire. Nonetheless it received some further bitterness - along with the 1967 track M1 Breakdown - when drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend died in an accident on the M1 motorway in early 1969. Jack Bruce dedicated his first solo album to Thompson's girlfriend, and Ashley Hutchings - injured heavily as well - left the band to start a huge number of utterly successful folk rock projects afterwards.

The bonus tracks, apart from the commercial and, after all, quite superficial Bryant song Some Sweet Day, show Fairport Convention as an unexpectedly proficient blues rock band, Throwaway Street Puzzle in a more West Coast fashion than the gruff You're Gonna Need My Help. The former - never at all a throwaway track even though it's a b-side - convinces with fine distorted blues harp playing and a tricky guitar lick which is better than the actual guitar solo, the latter features hypnotic percussion work and electric slide guitar, never keeping the matter too far away from the sound of Led Zeppelin on III and IV.

I won't give this album a full five star rating because of the minor faults already mentioned and, actually, because this rating wouldn't feel correct. For sure, this shouldn't keep you from buying this excellent record which is at least as important as the group's seminal Liege and Lief album, and nearly as moving and haunting as the less seminal, but more tightly crafted recordings in the Mattacks-Nicol-Swarbrick-Thompson-Pegg lineup (1970). Most importantly, this album doesn't get its noteworthiness merely from its historical relevance, but also by its rustic beauty which exposes itself in many different directions.

* [In this respect I cannot recommend enough what great achievements Mr. Hutchings made with his Albion Country Band and related projects. Every rock music listener looking for music of the most independent kind may expect a completely new listening experience: the work of a man who got so much absorbed in the British music that he was able to unite dozens of different musicians over the years - from first-row folk revivalists in the vein of Martin Carthy (who inspired Bob Dylan quite a lot) onto Canterbury musicians Lol Coxhill and Ric Sanders - to revive the strangest British traditions such as the Morris dancing. Start with the Morris On album from 1972, if you wish to explore this kind of music.]

Part of the classic brace of albums Fairport Convention put out at around this time, if you liked Unhalfbricking and Lief and Liege then you'll probably find something to enjoy in this. The original lineup's been shaken up a bit and the arrival of Sandy Denny means that the band benefit from her great singing voice, her deft hand on the keyboards and guitars, and her keen folk sensibilities. So confident are they in their new acquisition that they lead off the album with a Denny-penned track, Fortheringay, which in the long run would be the moniker for one of her post-Fairport projects. It was probably too much to expect the alliance of two big folk minds like Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny to last for long, but its inception here is a joy to the ears.