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"No Amnesty"
The impetus to re-release the 1985 album, only ever available on cassette, came from a number of factors. Firstly a number of the tracks were still in my live repertoire, and although my intention is to record new versions for future albums I wanted to make the original tracks available in some format. Secondly, a few people were asking for copies of the album and I was reluctant to sell further cassettes without remastering, and if I was going to do that then why not put the album out on CD? Why not indeed? The album was put together from tracks recorded for Nigel Schofields radio programme on Pennine Radio. Nigel is, of course, now famous for the highly acclaimed retrospectives of Peter Bellamy, Martin Carthy and Fairport Convention but at that time he was putting together that rare thing, intelligent music radio. Although I had been doing sessions for some time it was Nigel’s suggestion that I put an album together. The material on the album, with a couple of exceptions, was recorded with a view to album release. Friends contributed to the album, Peader Long of Kitsyke Will (which I was a member of following the departure of John Burge, although we never appeared live) contributed alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet, whistle and flute while the splendid Chris Coe did me proud on duet concertina, bohdran, hammer dulcimer and sublime vocals. Elsewhere Helen Porthouse provided lead vocals on the traditional ‘Wayfaring Stranger’. Helen had been a member of New Moon, sometimes playing classical guitar, autoharp and whistle with the duo, but here the quality of her voice rings clear. Jane Mellonie was Helens replacement and provides acoustic guitar on ‘Even Song’. On the original track she also sang but was replaced by Chris for this version. There was also a third version with Linda Simpson on lead vocals before she joined Magna Carta, and indeed before she became Simpson. So, there it is, the 1985 me in 21st century clarity. Enjoy!
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