Rediscovered recordings of the short-lived folk-rock ‘Supergroup,’ The GPs. Could this be the spark for an unexpected reunion??
Release Date: 14th February 2025
Label: Talking Elephant
Formats: CD
NO STARS – JUST TALENT
If you’re not paying attention, you can sometimes miss something that’s very important. That’s what happened to me in August 1981.
It was that year that Fairport Convention held their second reunion concert, a show that took place in the grounds of Broughton Castle near Banbury, rather than on the band’s Cropredy home turf.
In those days, it was well into the new year before Fairport announced the date of their get-together; the 1980 reunion had taken place over the August Bank Holiday weekend and I foolishly assumed that the 1981 affair would be similarly scheduled. It wasn’t. It took place on 14th and 15th August, and I was on my bloody holidays!
And, so it was that, to my lasting regret, I missed my only chance to see The GPs (well, not quite, but I’ll come to that…)
It isn’t usual to use the term ‘Supergroup’ when the subject under discussion is folk-rock. Indeed, as Fairport biographer Nigel Schofield points out in his excellent, informative, booklet notes to this album, in the world of folk-rock, master musicians playing together is a fact of life, with a “no stars, just talent” ethos prevailing. But what other title could be applied to a lineup of Richard Thompson, Ralph McTell, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks? ‘Supergroup’ it has to be.
“THE MOST EXCITING MUSICAL EXPERIENCE OF YOUR LIFE”
The GPs only ever played six shows, including that Broughton Castle appearance, a recording of which was released on Dave Pegg’s Woodworm imprint in mid-1991 The band’s stock-in-trade was not dissimilar to the material you’d expect to hear any competent bar band playing – mainly rock & roll standards and country classics – but, bearing in mind who they were, there were also plentiful reworkings of Richard’s and Ralph’s songs thrown into the mix and lots of homage, in both song choice and performance style, to The Band. Writing in Melody Maker in August 1981, esteemed journalist Karl Dallas said, of The GPs Broughton Castle performance, something along the lines of: “…if you missed them, you missed the most exciting musical experience of your life.”
That’s why I still harbour regrets, even now – 44 years after the event.
In 1981, Fairport Convention was, effectively, in hiatus. The group had ceased to function as a touring outfit following their 1979 farewell show. But bassist Dave Pegg was fully occupied in Jethro Tull – they recorded their Broadsword and the Beast album that year – and, of the other GP members, Dave Mattacks was immersed in session work, Richard Thompson was working, with wife Linda, on the seminal Shoot Out The Lights album and Ralph McTell was putting the excellent Water of Dreams album together, with assistance from Richard and Peggy. It’s a miracle that they found time for The GPs – but they did.
THE STORY OF THE ALBUM
In 2023, the aforementioned Nigel Schofield decided to have a go at cleaning up a couple of the Broughton Castle recordings using new technology. When they heard the cleaned-up tracks, Ralph and Peggy were delighted and they asked Nigel if he could put the rest of the recordings through the same process. He did and, just as the remastering was completed, news emerged of another GPs recording, this time from a gig at Horsham’s Capitol Theatre on 27th September, 1981. If anything, the quality of the Horsham recordings was superior to the Broughton Castle masters and they also included half a dozen songs that didn’t feature on the 1991 Woodworm CD. The tracks selected for this new album are predominantly those recorded at the Horsham show, although five tracks from the 1991 album have been retained.
Also, when I mentioned earlier that I’d missed my one and only opportunity to see The GPs in concert, I wasn’t being strictly accurate. The GPs reformed – very, very briefly – for a two-song ‘set-within-a-set’ on the Cropredy stage during Fairport’s 30th anniversary concert in 1997 – and then once again for a similarly short reappearance at the 2009 Fairport’s Cropredy Convention I was there both times! And it’s one of the numbers that the fleetingly reassembled GPs performed that night in 1997 that has been selected to round off this new collection.
FOUR TOP-QUALITY MUSICIANS AT THE TOP OF THEIR GAME
Nigel has done a good job of cleaning the original recordings up. The 1991 Broughton Castle CD was an interesting document but the sound quality certainly reflected the primitive means by which the set was recorded. The sound he’s achieved here, both for the Broughton Castle songs and the Horsham recordings is clearer, sharper and brighter, although the constraints of the original recording processes remain evident. But, recording constraints aside, this is an album that resurrects the excitement of four top-quality musicians performing right at the top of their game and having tremendous fun in the process.
The high points are almost too numerous to mention. Richard is on top form and his guitar solos are breathtaking throughout. Ralph and Richard are both in great voice, the choice of material is inspired and the arrangements – often assembled with more than a nod in the direction of The Band – are fantastic.
FIRST TIME ON RECORD
It’s perhaps the songs that didn’t appear on the 1991 CD that will be of most interest to the Fairport/Thompson archivists amongst us. In 1981, Richard was still basing much of his live repertoire on his then-current Sunnyvista album. It’s an album that I’ve always considered to be overlooked (even by the man himself, so I understand) and the version of You’re Gonna Need Somebody featured here is blistering. Linda’s harmonies might be absent, but there’s no lack of passion in Richard’s vocal delivery and he compensates for the absence of John Kirkpatrick’s melodeon with some stunning guitar fills.
In his intro to The Everlys’ Take a Message to Mary, Dave Mattacks suggests that “[our version] makes Al Stewart sound like Motörhead” and Ralph delivers a mellow interpretation that matches his vocal style perfectly, whilst Peggy takes the lead with his mandolin for Barnes Morris, a Ralph McTell tune that Peggy included on his 1983 solo album, The Cocktail Cowboy Goes It Alone.
Other songs making their first appearance on a GPs album include a soft, smooth rendition of Patsy Cline’s 1961 hit, I Fall to Pieces, with Richard playing some devilishly clever guitar licks to replicate the sound of a pedal steel, Steel Guitar Rag – a tune first recorded by Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys in 1936 that Richard turns into a superspeed extravaganza with lots of his signature string-bending going on – and a version of The Drifters’ Save The Last Dance For Me, a song that Ralph had included on his 1979 Slide Away the Screen album (with Peggy and Richard both in tow). Here, the song is given an alluring Mediterranean feel and Ralph only manages to avoid laughing out loud at Peggy’s and Richard’s “You can dance” backing vocals.
MORE HIGHLIGHTS
Elsewhere, the version of Dylan’s Going Going Gone, recorded at the Broughton Castle show is majestic, with a fine Richard Thompson vocal, nice backing harmonies form Ralph and Peggy and, of course, more typical Thompson guitar heroics. The raw, rocky blast through Buck Owens’ Together Again is inspiring and guest violinist Mike Piggott adds an authentic Cajun flavour to Saturday Rolling Around, another of Richard’s Sunnyvista numbers and the song that gave the 1991 Broughton Castle CD its title.
Without question, the best sound quality is reserved for the album’s closing track, Eddie Cochran’s Cut Across Shorty, recorded at that all-too-brief GPs reunion at Cropredy in 1997. Nigel included this version in the collection to, in his words, “…bring the saga full circle.” What a splendid idea.
If you were there, at Broughton Castle or at Horsham, In 1981 There Was… is indispensable. If, like me, you missed the “…most exciting musical experience of your life,” this is your chance to correct – at least in part – that dreadful omission. But the question I’d really like to ask is: Is another full-length GPs show (or even a tour…) a possibility? I’d love to think so. Over to you, Messrs Thompson, McTell, Pegg and Mattacks…
Watch The GPs – briefly reformed once again – perform Muddy Waters’ Can’t Be Satisfied at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, 2009, here:
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