Many years back I used to run an acoustic jam night in a Promenade pub in Southport. It was a strange place; sometimes it would be heaving, other times completely dead, and there were always unsavoury characters hanging around. On this particular Sunday in question there was a guy in - probably thirty-five at the oldest, though he looked fifty - who was so far off his head it was untrue. The problem was that he loved the music we were playing. He started shouting out requests, trying to have constant one-on-one conversations with us, and then eventually coming up to us as we tried to play just generally making a nuisance of himself. He was actually trying to be complementary in a drug-fuelled, mental kind of way, but it was coming out all wrong. He began annoying everybody else in the pub, and it was decided that it was time to get rid. However, on his way out he turned to me and said "Listen lad, get hold of Liege & Lief by Fairport Convention, and I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by Richard & Linda Thompson. They'll blow your fucking mind." Needless to say my chief concern was just to get rid of him, although his words stuck in my head. The following day, as I walked through town, I went into the now deceased Music Zone record shop and dug them both out. They looked really interesting - both folk albums - and Liege & Lief had a sticker on the front claiming 'The Most Important Folk Album Of All Time'. I bought them, brought them home, put Fairport on the stereo, and my sympathy for this troubled individual from the night before grew and grew. I'd never get to thank him for his recommendations, though he can be sure that in his own way he helped share the spirit of these awesome records.
Band biographer, Joe Boyd, said of Liege & Lief upon its re-release: "It stands the test of time as a ground-breaking work of genuine originality and bravery." He couldn't have put it any better. It is also credited as the record that created the genre 'Folk-Rock', and was listed in Mojo as #58 in the list of 100 Records That Changed The World. This is an album like nothing else - an album that bridges the ages. There is something historical and ethereal about Liege & Lief. It is a contemporary record that they should have been listening to in the middle ages. It is also a record swamped in tragedy; in 1969 the group were set to disband after a terrible crash killed original drummer Martin Lamble, and Richard Thompson's girlfriend at the time, Jeannie Taylor. Painfully, they came round to the idea of keeping on, and produced the album of their lives as a result. In the same way as Chris Rea's Dancing Down The Stony Road, personal tragedy created divine inspiration. It just shows the healing powers of art.
The sound on the album is of the British traditional ilk, and the album title is made up of two middle English words: Liege meaning loyal, and Lief meaning ready. The all round sound is absolutely stunning. A transportation back in time. The voice of Sandy Denny - another tragic figure in the music industry - is like an angel throughout. The battle between fiddle and guitar is outstanding. Thematically the album is untouchable, with literary lyrics penetrating the authentic music. Song titles such as Come All Ye, Reynardine, and The Lark In The Morning demonstrate the band's commitment to their revolutionary goal. I'm not going to go too deeply into this - I don't think I'm qualified to scratch the surface. What I will declare is my astonishment at how compelling this record is - I could listen to it on repeat for the rest of my life and never grow tired. So I'll join my anti-friend from the beginning of this anecdote by saying "Get hold of Liege & Lief. . . . .it'll blow your fucking mind!"
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