RED & GOLD

Released in 1989, "Red and gold" remains one of Fairport's most recent studio albums nearly 20 years later. The band are still very much alive, but these days they tend to focus their efforts on live performances.

The line up here may not include early stalwarts such as Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick and the late Sandy Denny, but at the time of writing Dave Pegg, Simon Nicol, Ric Sanders, Martin Allcock and Dave Mattacks have actually served far longer in the line up.

The band appear to have decided up front that they would not spend a great deal of time on the song writing, with only Alcock and Sanders making contributions in that field. The majority of the tracks are either cover versions or interpretations of traditional songs. Indeed, the title track is a cover version of a wonderful Ralph McTell song which tells a tale of the English Civil War. The story is based in the Oxfordshire village of Cropredy, which of course is these days home to the annual reconvening of Fairport. McTell actually conceived the song at Cropredy, while attending the 1985 festival. With Simon Nicol's voice being similar to McTell's, the rendition is faithful but superb nonetheless, with some fine violin playing from Ric.

The war theme continues with an interpretation of Welsh songwriter Huw Williams "Summer before the war". This Second world war based number is a lovely acoustic piece, although I have to say that to my (admittedly untrained) ear, some of the guitar work sounds slightly out of tune. On the traditional front, Martin Alcock's "The noise club" has all the feel of a reel written many years previously while his arrangement of "The beggar's song" could have been lifted straight from the "Angel delight" album. Sanders adds two wonderful violin based pieces, the short, spirited "The battle", and the reflective "The rose hip".

Not all the selections are as successful though. The opening "Set me up" is a rather nondescript lightweight number, and "London River" is a typical folk club shanty. The final track is a cover of Bob Dylan's "Open The Door Richard" which sounds for all the world like a Ringo Starr performance.

The re-released version of the album includes a bonus track, a live rendition of "Close to the wind" another soft acoustic number with some fine bass playing by Dave Pegg.

"Red and gold" does not seek to trail-blaze any new ground, but neither does it find the band simply trying to recreate past glories. This line up of the band are clearly comfortable with the style and direction they have set for themselves, and have created an album which portrays that extremely well. Fans of Fairport Convention will not be disappointed here. Those seeking the prog folk of the band's early days will have to look elsewhere, but this remains a fine album.

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