Fades in Slowly

You may well love this band but I can’t even bring myself to listen to this session. Horrible, indulgent nonsense. Enjoy…

Genesis 01/04/1970

Produced by Alec Reid and engineered by Nick Gomm at Maida Vale 4 in London on 22nd February, 1970. Listened to by countless beardy weirdies. Discussion about whether or not this is even a Peel session can be found here.

TRACK LIST

-The Shepherd
-Pacidy
-Let Us Now Make Love
-Stagnation
-Looking For Someone
-Dusk (sorry, but I don’t have this track)

Listen now…

LINE UP

-Peter Gabriel (Vocals/Flute)
-Mike Rutherford (Bass, Guitar, Vocals)
-Tony Banks (Keyboards)

Phil Collins would join later that year.

As it happens, I, formerly one of the biggest Floyd-heads (now recovered to mere obsessive) in existence, now work with someone who is related to Syd Barrett. Now, I’ve learned one or two facts about the madcap genius that the general populace will never be privy to, and that’s the way it must stay out of respect to the colleague in question and the extended family. What I can say is that he was able to lead a Peter-Green-style life, practically untroubled by the prying outside world, after his premature departure from Pink Floyd, which is kind of how you’d have hoped it had been.

While he was more than gently nudged out of the Floyd during the recording of their second album, many forget that he enjoy a fairly fruitful, if brief, solo career thereafter. The albums he produced, with a fair deal of help from Dave Gilmour among others, further showcase what a great songwriter he was, and how different PF would have been had he remained at the helm.

For me, his 1970 Peel session is as good as anything he released, although how much control he had over proceedings is questionable, as this quote from a 1989 Q magazine article suggests:

‘He didn’t talk to us; he talked to Dave Gilmour who’d tell us what he thought Syd had said.’

Gilmour, while not a direct replacement for Barrett, was brought into the Floyd as a ‘bolstering’ fifth member when Syd became increasingly unable to perform. He ended up in the role of replacement when Syd was removed from the band months after Gilmour had joined, although as Syd’s friend, he did as much as anyone to keep him going and establish his solo career. He is clearly a driving force on this session, and his vocal harmonizing on the final track ‘Two of a kind’ hints at how good a five piece Pink Floyd could have been. But then again, would we have ever seen ‘Dark side of the moon’, ‘Wish you were here’ or ‘The wall’ with him in the band?

Syd Barrett’s Peel session

Recorded 24th February, 1970
First broadcast 14th March, 1970
Producer – John Walters
Engineer – Tony Wilson
Studio – Maida Vale 4

Track list

- Baby Lemonade
- Effervescing Elephant
- Gigolo Aunt
- Terrapin
- Two Of A Kind

Line up

- Syd Barrett (Guitar, Vocals)
- Dave Gilmour (Organ, Bass, Guitar)
- Jerry Shirley (Drums)
- Alan Styles (Guitar)

Listen now…

This post has actually been more than a year and a half in the making, for that’s how long it has been since Colin Ellis emailed me with a the back cover of a John Peel compilation I’d never heard of. I thanked him for his effort, promised to put it on the blog and then promptly forgot all about it until the other day when I saw the following message from the mercurial Duff Paddy over on the JP discussion group:

From time to time, I have a search for this old, rare-as-rocking-horse-pooh collection of the BBC archive tracks featured on Peel’s Night Ride programme. Invariably I either come up with nothing or a record collector’s site asking £100 plus for an original copy. For once though, I came up trumps just now and saw it available for download on a Dutch blog.

Finally the rear cover I had had an album to go with it, and what an album it promises to be, maybe the first example of a ‘World Music’ compilation. ‘Sadly, the cover scans aren’t of sufficient resolution to read the sleevenotes,’ lamented Duff Paddy, ‘which Peel has admitted to being embarrassed about on one or two of his programmes, but it’s nice to have this at all. JP ahead of the game yet again, playing ‘World Music’ before the term even existed.’ Hang on a minute, I thought, I can help out here, remembering Colin’s email.

So, here we are then. The album can be downloaded from the sexy-looking Club Cortez blog and the high quality cover here.

This concert remains one of the most visited posts I’ve ever written, so I thought it was more than about time for a repost. It remains a pretty darn special concert.

Track Listing

-That song about the Midway
-The Gallery
-Rainy Day Man
-Steamroller
-The Priest
-Carey
-Carolina on my Mind
-California
-The Circle Game
-You can Close your Eyes

Download the show here. I can’t recommend this enough, this is really beautiful music. For instant gratification, click on the video clips below…

Joni Mitchell & James Taylor – A Case Of You

James Taylor & Joni – You Can Close Your Eyes