"All in the Downs" a celebration of Shirley Collins' 80th birthday featuring performance of "No Roses" album - Queen Elizabeth Hall, London UK 2015-07-25 aud Hi-MD PCM master

Skytronics mic at floor level/MZ-RH1 Hi-MD PCM/Sonic Stage to 44.1k/16bit wav via USB/adobe audition cc>phase correction>Tracks>fades>Flac

SBE check/Checksum files done in Traders Little Helper

Recorded from row AA http://www.theatremonkey.com/QUEENELIZABETHHALLSeatingPlan.htm to left of mixing desk, with gangway in front, fully carpeted floor so good for mic holding bag on the floor and stretching legs!


This is what the publicity said:

"Compered by Stewart Lee, musicians Sam Lee, Olivia Chaney, Lisa Knapp, Alasdair Roberts, Graham Coxon and Trembling Bells perform songs inspired or composed by Shirley Collins alongside a seven-piece band led by John Kirkpatrick.

The evening also sees our all-star band perform Collins' 1971 album No Roses in full."

Really??? - this seven piece band were in fact Trembling Bells, who were frankly dire, and it is totally beyond my comprehension as to why they were hired for this occasion - they were completely unsuitable. That said, the performance was saved to some extent by masterful contributions from singers John Kirkpatrick, Olivia Chaney and Lisa Knapp.

The first half consisted of a short spot from each of the solo performers, who were down to just one song by the time John Kirkpatrick arrived on stage, due to the hideously unfunny and terminally boring Stewart Lee not knowing when to shut up, and a 15 minute diatribe from Sam Lee concerning a song collecting adventure among Irish gypsies.

Review from The Guardian

"This emotional concert featured a remarkable array of celebrities and one folk legend, who was celebrating her 80th birthday in style. Shirley Collins spent most of the evening in the audience, and finally arrived on stage before the encore, to be greeted with a spontaneous Happy Birthday to You. She has suffered from dysphonia, and rarely sung in public since the early 1980s, but now she joined in the sing-along finale of Thousands Or More, the cheerful Copper Family song about not needing riches to be happy.

Shirley Collins has had an extraordinary career, as song-collector, writer and a singer who revived long-forgotten songs with her pure, haunting voice, and who was always willing to experiment. Her best-known recordings were made in the 60s and 70s, but her continuing influence was shown by the cast here. The show opened with eight artists performing songs (mostly) from her repertoire, with Blur�s Graham Coxon adding impressive folk baroque guitar to his sturdy acoustic treatment of Cruel Mother, Alasdair Roberts providing a powerful unaccompanied rendition of Lord Gregory, and Olivia Chaney at the piano for a cool reworking of All Things Are Quite Silent.

Then came a revival of the No Roses album, which Collins recorded in 1971 with the Albion Country Band, which then included Richard Thompson and John Kirkpatrick. The new version again featured Kirkpatrick, singing well, and playing rousing accordion alongside the house band, the boisterous Trembling Bells. The exquisite Just As the Tide Was Turning now featured Chaney singing alongside Lisa Knapp and Lavinia Blackwell, and ended with morris dancers invading the stage. Murder of Maria Marten was even better, with Sam Lee�s vocals backed by an edgy wash of sound then full-tilt folk-rock, and ending with six-part harmonies. A memorable celebration � but the best songs of the night were Collin�s originals, played over the PA."



CD 1 - Sam Lee, Olivia Chaney, Lisa Knapp, Alasdair Roberts, Graham Coxon and John Kirkpatrick

01 Stewart Lee
02 banter
03 Stewart Estell
04 banter - Stewart Lee
05 Lisa Knapp - vocal
06 Lisa Knapp - fiddle/vocal
07 banter - Stewart Lee
08 Sam Lee
09 Sam Lee
10 banter - Stewart Lee
11 Graham Coxon
12 Graham Coxon
13 banter - Stewart Lee
14 Olivia Chaney
15 banter
16 Olivia Chaney
17 banter - Stewart Lee
18 Alasdair Roberts
19 John Kirkpatrick
20 outro

CD 2 - Performance of "No Roses" originally recorded by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band in 1971.

01 Claudy Banks
02 Banks of The Bann
03 The White Hare
04 Just As The Tide Was A-Flowing / Belles of London City Morris
05 Hal-An-Tow
06 Poor Murdered Woman
07 Van Dieman's Land
08 Little Gipsy Girl / Brighton Morris
09 Murder of Maria Marten
10 Happy Birthday
11 Finale - Drive Sorrows away