It’s an understatement to say that Home Service have had a turbulent career but they are still with us, albeit in a very different form from the line-up fronted by Bill Caddick and John Tams back in 1980 with only Graeme Taylor and Michael Gregory still present. A Live Transmission brings together a new line-up and tracks from three gigs recorded in March of this year.
The band have cleverly blended songs old and new, opening with ‘Napoleon’s Grande Marche/Walk My Way’ giving us our first hearing of Bob Fox’s distinctive voice and North-East accent. As happened with John Kirkpatrick’s tenure, a new vocalist brings new material and Bob Fox’s particular background in traditional song brings a change of emphasis so the second track is ‘Bonny At Morn’ with Taylor providing a distinctive Home Service arrangement. Fox, of course, is familiar with theatrical performance and slots in well as he follows up with ‘The White Cockade’ paired with Alistair Anderson’s ‘The Road To The North’.
He takes a step back for one the band’s first ever tracks, Graeme Taylor’s ‘Bramsley’ – it was the B-side of a single, if you’ve forgotten – but takes centre stage again for a particularly fine reading of Tams’ ‘Snow Falls’. Next comes ‘Battle Pavanne’ paired with a dramatic take on ‘Peat Bog Soldiers’ with a stunning solo from Taylor who does the same for ‘The Old Man’s Song’. There’s a time for levity with ‘Papa John’s Polka’, arranged by Taylor and featuring some quite extraordinary playing from Andy Findon, Shane Brennan and Andy Lester but now it’s time for the big production number that is ‘My Bonny Boy/Scarecrow/The Lark Ascending’, magnificent as Findon shows another aspect of the band’s music.
Finally and taking its cue from ‘Scarecrow’, the set closes with ‘Battle Of The Somme’ variously described as a slip-jig and a 9/8 march and full of the distinctive Home Service grandeur.
I think I have all Home Service’s records and have heard them live many times and in many forms but this particular line-up feels more at ease with itself than before and I base that on nothing more than what I hear on A Live Transmission. I think it’s their best live recording and I can’t wait for them to get into Morden Shoals and bring us some more new music.
Dai Jeffries
Artists’ website: https://www.homeserviceband.co.uk/
Pure nostalgia (and a dodgy recording) – the original line-up in 1981:
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