Concerts (Henry Cow album)

Concerts is a live double album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at concerts in London, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway between September 1974 and October 1975. Sides one and two of the LP record consist of composed material while sides three and four contain improvised pieces.

Concerts
Live album by
Henry Cow
Released1976 (1976)
RecordedSeptember 1974 – October 1975
VenueLondon, Italy, Netherlands, Norway
Genre
Length103:43
LabelCompendium (Norway)
Caroline (UK)
ProducerHenry Cow
Henry Cow chronology
In Praise of Learning
(1975)		 Concerts
(1976)		 Western Culture
(1979)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
All About Jazz[2]

The album includes Henry Cow's last John Peel Session, recorded in September 1975 and extracts from a concert with Robert Wyatt at the New London Theatre in May 1975. "Groningen" (recorded in September 1974) is part of an instrumental suite where the band improvised around fragments of an early version of Tim Hodgkinson's "Living in the Heart of the Beast" from In Praise of Learning (1975). Another performance of this suite (in full) later appeared in Halsteren on Volume 2: 1974–5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (2009).

The album cover art was done by Henry Cow roadie and sound mixer Maggie Thomas. She created it from a collage she made out of a cut-up Henry Cow poster she had designed a few months earlier.[3]

CD reissues of the album include Henry Cow's tracks on Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (1974), a double LP of an October 1973 Dingwalls concert, featuring Camel, Henry Cow, Global Village Trucking Company and Gong.

Concert venues and dates

Composed material

The composed material (with the exception of "Ottawa Song") originally appeared on the following albums:

CD reissues

In 1995, East Side Digital Records reissued Concerts as a double CD with four extra tracks. The extra tracks came from Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (1974), a double LP of an October 1973 concert performed by Camel, Henry Cow, Global Village Trucking Company and Gong, each band contributing to one side of the double album. Henry Cow's contribution, however, was actually recorded a week later at The Manor Studios because a power failure at the event had delayed the start of the concert and a 2 am curfew reduced Henry Cow's set (billed last) to ten minutes. At the Manor, Henry Cow improvised their Greasy Truckers set to tape and mixed the tracks in a single session.[5] An outtake from this recording session, "Bellycan" was released on the 1991 CD-release of Legend.[6]

In October 2006, Recommended Records released a remastered version of Concerts, which included the Greasy Truckers set, on a double CD. The original dynamics of "Oslo" were restored, which had been compromised to fit it onto side three of the double LP.[7] The remastering was done by Bob Drake in March 2006. An accompanying booklet included a 1977 interview with Henry Cow in Sweden, and a seven-day extract from the "November/December 1977 Road Diary" by Chris Cutler.

Track listing

Original LP release
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners"Fred Frith, Chris Cutler 
2."Nirvana for Mice"Frith 
3."Ottawa Song"Frith, Cutler 
4."Gloria Gloom"Robert Wyatt, Bill MacCormick 
5."Beautiful as the Moon (Reprise)"Frith, Cutler 
Total length:22:50
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Bad Alchemy"John Greaves, Peter Blegvad 
7."Little Red Riding Hood Hits the Road"Wyatt 
8."Ruins"Frith 
Total length:25:36
Side three
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
9."Oslo"Henry Cow 
Total length:29:02
Side four
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
10."Groningen"Tim Hodgkinson, Henry Cow 
11."Udine"Henry Cow 
12."Groningen Again"Henry Cow 
Total length:26:15

2006 double CD release
CD one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners"Fred Frith, Chris Cutler5:41
2."Nirvana for Mice"Frith5:30
3."Ottawa Song"Frith, Cutler4:16
4."Gloria Gloom"Robert Wyatt, Bill MacCormick4:14
5."Beautiful as the Moon (Reprise)"Frith, Cutler3:11
6."Bad Alchemy"John Greaves, Peter Blegvad2:55
7."Little Red Riding Hood Hits the Road"Wyatt5:50
8."Ruins"Frith16:29
9."Groningen"Tim Hodgkinson, Henry Cow8:54
10."Groningen Again"Henry Cow7:27
Total length:64:27
CD two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Oslo"
  1.   "Part 1"
  2.   "Part 2"
  3.   "Part 3"
  4.   "Part 4"
  5.   "Part 5"
  6.   "Part 6"
  7.   "Part 7"
  8.   "Part 8"
Henry Cow29:00
5:38
3:16
3:24
3:01
3:00
1:45
4:55
4:01
9."Off the Map"
  •   "Solo Piano"
  •   "Trio"
Hodgkinson, Cutler, Frith
Hodgkinson
Hodgkinson, Cutler, Frith
8:23
10."Café Royal" (solo guitar)Frith3:20
11."Keeping Warm in Winter"Frith, Greaves1:00
12."Sweet Heart of Mine"Henry Cow8:58
13."Udine"Henry Cow9:39
Total length:60:19

2006 double CD release notes

Singles

Personnel
Henry Cow
Guest musician
  • Robert Wyatt – vocals ("Bad Alchemy" and "Little Red Riding Hood Hits the Road")
Production
  • Henry Cow – producers
  • Maggie Thomas – cover art
  • David Vorhaus – original LP mastering (Kaleidophon, London)
  • Bob Drake – CD remastering (Studio Midi Pyrenees, France)

See also

References
  1. Anderson, Rick. "Concerts". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  2. Jones, Nic. "Concerts". All About Jazz. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  3. Cutler 2019, p. 32.
  4. "Peel Sessions: Henry Cow". BBC Radio 1. Retrieved 27 September 2007.
  5. Cutler 2006, p. 6.
  6. Ramond, Michel; Roussel, Patrice; Vuilleumier, Stephane. "Discography of Fred Frith". New York Downtown Scene and Other Miscellaneous Discographies. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  7. Cutler 2006, p. 2.

Works cited
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