Caedmon: the Netherbow Recordings
So, recently my wife (bless her long sexy legs cotton socks) cleared out the ‘media’ shelves - littered with CDs, DVDs, video tapes and audio cassettes. A few of the video tapes she decided to keep because we haven’t or can’t replace them with DVDs, but the cassettes? They all went into a couple of boxes which I dumped in the bin this weekend.
But when she was sorting them out (bless her shapely thighs cotton socks), she kept back the tapes marked up with the names of bands I’ve played in, dumped them on the studio desk and said ‘you might want to look through these before we bin them’.
Which of course I didn’t.
But then Ken popped down for a sleepover this weekend and I thought I should cast a cursory glance before he arrived (aren’t glances always cursory?). In amongst these dusty records of disappointed hope was a cassette with a typed label:
CAEDMON: Netherbow Arts Centre, A.V.A. Unit. Engineer: George Anderson.
No date, unfortunately.
Well well well, could this be a cassette copy of the long thought lost Caedmon recordings from the Netherbow? (By the way, at the time, the Netherbow top floor was kitted out for radio broadcast interview recordings and the like - we’re not talking Abbey Road here.)
So when Ken arrived, I slapped it into the only remaining cassette player in the house and promptly crashed my computer audio system.
I’ve spent the rest of the day recording the tape into the computer and trying to improve the sound. The quality is poor - it is after all an audio cassette tape which is more than thirty years old, but it does feature some songs which I don’t think have ever been published before.
Track listing
1 Life’s all right (is that the right name?)
2 Worlds and Friends
3 God is Love
4 Tears may Linger
5 London Psalm
6 Caedmon’s Hymn
7 Death Knot
8 Sea Song
9 Sunchild
10 Caedmon’s Song
11 Born to die
12 Give me Jesus
If I’m right (which is not often) there are at least five songs on there that have never seen the light of day, namely
- Life’s all right
- God is love
- Tears may linger
- Death Knot
- Caedmon’s Song
I’ve also heard rumours that someone has ‘reel to reel’ tapes of a Caedmon recording. Is this the one?
‘Life’s all right’ is ‘Ivory Tower’ Jim… (you wrote it!). There is a version of Ivory Tower on Kissing Spell’s “Caedmon ‘Live’” but the other tracks are a find.
David Heavenor says he has reel to reel tapes of Caedmon LIVE. (see responses 1973 - 1978).
Perhaps George Anderson has the original? Or the Netherbow?
Has anyone a contact for George?
Ken
I know George’s sister, or one of them anyway (ISTR there were lots). I’ll try to get in touch.
Another lost recording surfaces! This is terrific.
Give Me Jesus is my favourite recording of yours - I know you didn’t write it - followed by Beyond The Second Mile.