portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

 SANDY DENNY

A nice set from Sandy Denny from Enoch over at Floppy Boot Stomp. A bit 'noisy' but highly listenable and well worth having as there are scant few recordings of her these days and while standards are improving all the time this is from 1977 so not faultless but really nice to have. Thanks guys at FBS and Enoch in particular . . . . . . 

Denny is of course a tragic figure in folk and taken way too early but drinking, drugs and poor mental health took her way too early. The substance abuse possibly as some early misguided attempt to self medicate and this caused breakdowns of relationships with bandmates, friends and most notably with her husband, fellow musician Trevor Lucas who after this concert here, eventually fled with their daughter Georgia, back to his native Australia fearing for their daughter's safety whilst in the charge of a drunken parent, only to return a short time later to attend the hospital and turn off her life support after a 'fall' down the stairs at her home in Byfield (Northampton) and this, while possibly intoxicated, saw her tragically premature death at 31.

check out the twelve string here


Sound Circus
The Royalty Theatre
 London UK
1977-11-27 



01. Solo
02. The North Star Grassman & The Ravens
03. Nothing More
04. Gold Dust
05. The Sea
06. Tomorrow Is A long Time
07. The Lady
08. Wretched Wilbur
09. Stranger To Himself
10. For Shame Of Doing Wrong
11. One More Time
12. Who Knows Where The Time Goes


Sandy Denny - Vocals
Trevor Lucas - Guitar
Jerry Donahue - Guitar
Pete Wilsher - Steel Guitar
Pat Donaldson - Bass
Dave Mattacks - Drums

Sandy Denny - Live in London1977


Denny was a complex, damaged and vulnerable person and possibly in retrospect what we now would describe as bi-polar (manic depressive at the time) and frequently self harmed often hurling herself off things and down stairs so frequently it became known as her 'party piece' to garner attention. This tour to promote the poorly received last album 'Rendezvous' was completed at the Royalty Theatre and this was the last time she would play in public. 5 months later she was dead. 

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