John Renbourn's Ship Of Fools
(John Renbourn with Steve Tilston, Maggie Boyle & Tony Roberts)
1988-07-xx ::: London, England ::: BBC Studios
BBC Radio Two ::: "Nightride" programme ::: M2-FM

~*~ Carefully remastered fixing various issues, without EQ or NR ~*~

01. Ship Of Fools
02. Death & The Lady
03. I Live Not Where I Love
04. ==DJ Jim Lloyd song intro==
05. Cobbler's Jig / Maltese Brawl
06. ==DJ Jim Lloyd song outro==
07. Searching For Lambs
08. ==DJ Jim Lloyd song outro==
09. The Verdant Braes of Screen
10. ==Jim Lloyd song outro==
11. Sandwood Down To Kyle
12. ==DJ Jim Lloyd song&programme outro==

Total Time ::: 30:02

::: EXC wonderful/warm, clear, stereo studio recording. Check samples for disbelievin', checkin', AWESOME hankerin'!
::: Warts (almost NONE): Repaired dullspots & dropouts but surely missed a few. Some bits of DJ voiceover.
::: NOT the same as Ship Of Fools 1987-12-02 "Folk On 2" session/versions, tho' they play 3 of same 4 songs here.
::: NOT the same as Ship Of Fools 1989-11-18 "Nightride" session & none of the songs played are the same.
::: "Week starting 1988-07-09". 1-3 trax per each of 5 nites. 2 DJ's - Jim Lloyd, &Alan Dedicoat or Charles Nove.
::: Tracked out the DJs where it made sense, but there is some voiceover, as noted above.
::: "John Renbourn's Ship Of Fools"sole LP release (self-titled) had likely just been issued (6of10 songs played here).
::: All songs but #02 are live in-studio versions of songs that also appeared on the band's only album.
::: Dec.'87 BBC session clearly closer in time to actual LP recording dates as versions are more similar than these.

Recording Information ::: BBC2 stereo FM radio broadcasts -> unknown reel recorder -> master off-air FM 10"(?) reel -> 1st generation reel(?) (tracks excerpted&compiled from 5 shows/nights )-> 2nd generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette Dolby B on.

Playback 2021-02-xx ::: 2nd generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette on Nakamichi 680ZX cassette deck, Dolby B on, azimuth adjusted for individual tape, heads cleaned & demagnetized -> Sony Linear PCM Recorder PCM-M10 (48kHz/24bit wav file) -> computer -> Audacity [normalisation to remove DC offset (NOT to normalize volume), channel/phase alignment, fades, manual one-at-a-time glitch, bump, clap, pop, click, dropout & dullspot repairs, volume adjustments, -1.6% single averaged fix pitch (speed) fix with single pass after frequency analysis & with CD pitch verification, NO equalisation or noise reduction, dithered to 44.1kHz/16 bit wav] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> yr ears. Freed 2021-06-xx.

Line-up ::: John Renbourn (†R.I.P. 2015†) - acoustic guitar, vocals // Steve Tilston - acoustic guitar, mandolin, vocals // Maggie Boyle (†R.I.P. 2014†) - flute, bhodran, whistle, vocals // Tony Roberts - wind instruments of all colours - flute, pipes, recorder, (and?).

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.

DimeTravel 812 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader! Sincere thanks to whomever uploads this for me. ::: Corrections welcome ::: Well, missed uploading this one a while ago - if you want to know why you are here, go to #01 about 2:50 & listen to John's guitar solo & you will see. Yet another "Nightride" session, played over a WEEK in the wee, wee hours, where the VERY dedicated taper, who had to work the following days, stayed up 'til 3AM each night to capture 1 or 2 songs & later compile them for his ears, friends, and posterity. "Nightride" & BBC2 in this era was well-funded, so the studio quality of the sessions is superb. Funny sometimes that John's majestic vision of interpretation of the music of the ages gets foreshadowed by Bert's loose cannon, as John also consistently&playfully took the music to new trajectories. In a way, you can just listen&weep - REAL CLASS, with urgency&immediacy missing from missing from many of his albums - unafraid that he is laying something down for permancy, with the comfort of a high tech studio that he could reproduce acoustic sounds with STYLE - the guy had it. Great percussion work & Steve's steady hand (and voice - check out "The Verdant Braes Of Screen" - serious shades of "An Acoustic Confusion" - & check the stunning trio of 3 voices singing the last line, then Maggie's lovely(!) voice - intensely lustrous Britfolk. See if the last song doesn't give you some chills up the spine within the first minute. No matter how many versions of "Sandwood Down To Kyle" we have, a studio version is always welcome & this one is near letter-perfect. I do favor those solo versions where John used effects on his guitar but recorded versions are few & far between, so far. Listen, enjoy, show appreciation, share, give, spread peace. Yrs truly, Knees

Support the artists and/or their families! www.folkblues.co.uk/artistsrenbourn.htm -- www.johnrenbourn.co.uk -- www.steve-tilston.com -- www.maggieboyle.co.uk

Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!