Sadly missing the opening minutes of the performance but still clocking in at a respectable 34 minutes, this is a Holy Grail of sorts – a performance by the original line-up of Hatfield and the North, just weeks after it had changed names from Delivery following the replacement of Steve Miller by Dave Sinclair. Better still, a couple of friends make guest appearances – Lol Coxhill is heard wailing away on soprano sax during the opening “Shaving Is Boring”, and Robert Wyatt contributes Echoplexed vocals to Dave Sinclair’s “A Mewsing”, as he would again a few weeks later when Hatfield appeared on French TV’s Rockenstock programme.
On this occasion, Hatfield were appearing, along with several obscure artists, at a benefit concert for Radical Alternatives to Prison at London’s Imperial College, in what was hoped to be the first in a series of fundraising concerts for RAP.
It is interesting to note how much of Hatfield’s eventual repertoire was already in place, albeit in somewhat embryonic form, but there are also tracks destined to disappear from the setlist : Dave Sinclair’s contributions, obviously, including a prototype of Caravan’s “Watcha Gonna Tell Me” (from 1980’s The Album), but also Pip Pyle’s lovely instrumental ballad “All Day Forever”, featuring Pip himself on rhythm guitar, and “For Robert”, a cousin of “Rifferama”, the latter absorbing its chord changes but not its main theme.
Thanks to remastering artist extraordinaire TomP for making the limited original source sound as good as possible.
Hatfield and the North were the best band in the universe! Dave and I were born on the very same day, how cosmic! Okay, maybe not. Thanks so much for this great music. My question: Without downloading, how can I play a concert without breaks between each song? I use my iPad output plugged directly into my Tascam CD burner. That way I can make track increments in ‘real time’ while recording. Makes sense? I know, I know I’m very 19th century. Any suggestions? Many, many thanks.
Note – since no one’s noticed until now, I added Hatfield logos on both sides of the gates to the Imperial College on the photo…
A question for Aymeric if it’s possible: Was “A-Mewsing” ever recorded on studio with this line-up?
Well, this line-up never recorded in the studio, unless you mean a TV studio, in which case the already mentioned Rockenstock programme (filmed in December 1972 for French TV) is the only “studio” recording by this, or any line-up (with Robert Wyatt on guest vocals). Dave Sinclair recorded a version of the same theme on his solo album “Full Circle” (2003) under the title “Peace In Time”.
Thanks Aymeric!
“…as he would again a few weeks later when Hatfield appeared on French TV’s Rockenstock programme.”
I have that recording. Don’t ask me how, but it is even better audio than this one. Loads of Robert Wyatt and Richard Sinclair vocals, but definitely lots of Phil too!
This line up and set must have been what I heard when I accidentally walked into the end of their gig at Fisher House in Cambridge a few weeks before when they were still called Delivery. The only things I remember are: a Hammond organ, some of the band wearing afghan coast (it was cold) and music like this. I don’t remember any singing but I only caught the end of the gig. I spent years looking in record shops by anything by Delivery and it was only with the advent of Google that I discovered that they had become the Hatfields almost immediately after (a band I had separately fallen in love with)
thanks SO much for sharing this. d sin + rob w + echoplex = foggy heaven. hoping for the rockenstock performance by this groups to surface in archive quality someday.
Listening right now, what a pleasure! A really important find. Many thanks, Aymeric, for sharing this with us. Big thanks also to TomP.
This is a real gem! Thanks Aymeric
Beautiful, and amazing to hear such a treasure. Fascinating to hear the Sinclair version of Hatfields
Woo hoo!! thank you!