Midnight Voices - Print Page


    
      
        Midnight Voices
        (https://www.peteatkin.com/cgi-bin/mv/YaBB.cgi)
      

        Not Pete Atkin >> Off-topic >> Famous Jug Band
        
(Message started by: Anne H on Today at 22:08)

Title: Famous Jug Band
Post by Anne H on Today at 22:08

Not long ago I acquired a CD of "Sunshine Possibilities" (first album by the Famous Jug Band, a late 60's folk group). The sleeve notes mention one of the band saying they played at Hampstead one night and one of his heroes, Clive James, was there with Pete Atkin - apparently Clive had gone up to the group and told them he played their album every morning to cheer himself up.

Of course, I may even be writing about a MV member!

Incidentally both "Sunshine Possibilities" and the Famous Jug Band's second album, "Chameleon" are both wonderful recordings. Clive has good taste...of course.

Anne

Title: Re: Famous Jug Band
Post by Pete Atkin on 28.06.08 at 11:37

Hello Anne - welcome! Yes, I too have that Famous Jug Band CD. I snapped it up when it came out (1999) but was a tad disappointed that it didn't include the whole of their second LP "Chameleon" with selections from the first, rather than the other way around. It's not the conventional wisdom, I know, but I always preferred the tighter sound and the (to me) more engaging and interesting Pete Berryman songs of the post-Clive Palmer group. "Chameleon" remains one of the very few vinyl albums I hang on to.

But for the record I have to correct the sleeve note; I think there's something like a bit of retrospective and perhaps wish-fulfilling adjustment going on in Pete B's memory. I first heard the band at the Three Horse Shoes, Hampstead when I was doing the rounds of London folk clubs doing fllor spots in hopes of getting a gig - which I think I did on that occasion - and was greatly taken by them. I went to see them again when they next appeared there and introduced myself, but Clive (J) definitely wasn't with me; Clive never ever came to gigs, certainly not folk clubs; and since this would have been 1971, I think the chances of his having been Pete Berryman's hero at the time are probably slimmish at best. To this day, I don't think the name of the Famous Jug Band would be likely to mean much to Clive. Thus do myths arise, take root, and gain ground.

Title: Re: Famous Jug Band
Post by Anne H on 28.06.08 at 16:49

Oh my gosh! Thanks, Pete for setting the record straight, and also for the welcome.

Just shows one cannot believe everything one reads on sleeve notes.

I too prefer "Chameleon" and cannot understand why it has not been released on CD. Many of the songs have that wonderful haunting quality - a lot to do, I think, with Jill Johnson's vocals. She's got to be my "other" favourite female singer - Julie Covington being the first, of course!

Anne