Paul Johnson and Darren Beech track down Dave Pegg at this year at Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival. The interview gets off to a great start with Paul remembering to press the record button!
In the interview, we talk about Peggy and Nigel Schofield’s new book ‘Off the Pegg’. We discuss Brian Wilson’s ‘Pet Sounds’ set which headlined Cropredy’s Thursday night. The process that goes behind booking the bands and acts for the festival plus the challenges of announcing the line-up.
We also discuss; Smith and Brewer, Ralph McTell, Peggy’s birthday and Midnight Skyracer. Plus Maart’s new book, Metal Matty, the petition and Jethro Tull.
The video above is unseen footage from back in January 2003 when Darren Beech recorded it at the ‘Woodworm Hilton’ before the Fairport skittles evening (as mentioned in the interview). Its content, refers to that trouser incident interview that was used in the Cropredy Y2K programme. The clip was recorded with an old webcam and originally the sound was too faint to hear, so it was never used. New technology has fixed the sound issue, although the Rocking horse now sounds like it has been converted into a Harley Davidson hybrid! Anyway, we thought it would be fun to finally let it see the light of day.
Click on the play button below to listen to the 2018 Dave Pegg Interview.
If you missed the original Y2K interview (referenced in both the video and audio interview) or would like to read it again, then you can read it here.
It almost goes without saying that Martin Hayes (fiddle) and Dennis Cahill (guitar) have shaped Irish traditional music for the last quarter century and are recognised the world over for their sublime lyrical and melodic interpretation of almost everything they touch. What has kept them fresh and relevant across the years is their willingness to collaborate with musicians as diverse as Paul Simon and Yo Yo Ma while always returning to those within their own fold. They still perform as a duo but have periodic outings with the bigger sound that comes from the 5-piece The Gloaming, formed in 2011. Live At The NCH refers to Dublin’s National Concert Hall which now has become an annual pilgrimage for a seven night bonanza. Would that I could be there!
As it happens, I’d heard quite a lot of Will Keating’s CD Cornwall My Home (Kernow Ow Thre) before a copy came my way, having heard Will on the West Cornwall radio station Coast FM, where Ian Semple has played the seriously catchy title song ‘Cornwall My Home’ several times. All the material here is written by Harry Glasson, apart from a Cornish translation of one of Harry’s songs. Harry Glasson was a popular performer in Cornwall and far beyond for over 30 years, until cancer surgery in 2009 made singing almost impossible. Will describes the album as a celebration of his “friend, and Mentor, and true Cornish Legend, Harry (Safari) Glasson.” Which seems a fair summation.
The trio of musicians who make up Assynt may still only be in their 20s but between them have already amassed a barrowload of nominations and awards. Having worked with many of Scotland’s finest musicians, this year they finally came together as Assynt (named after an area of North-West Scotland). So, as the first album from this newly-minted group, there’s plenty of anticipation surrounding Road To The North.
Released in the 20th anniversary of her older brother’s death, which saw her take her stage name in his honour, Don’t Call Me Angel is Washington- born multi-instrumentalist Scott’s 12th studio album , one that veers more to soul and blues than her previous country sound. Indeed, as part of the crowd-funding process fans were invited to suggest covers to rearrange, the result being a slow blues version of Prince’s ‘Kiss’ that oozes sensuality and seduction as opposed to the ten pints want some of this bluster of Tom Jones.