Recorded live at The Howff in London, England on December 29, 1972.

Richard & Linda Thompson w/ The Albion Country Band - 29 December 1972: London, England

Disc 1

  1. The Little Beggar Girl
  2. The Poor Ditching Boy
  3. The Dream Of Napoleon (Trad.)
  4. "Disposing of your nearest and dearest"
  5. Dragging The River
  6. Has He Got A Friend For Me?
  7. The Bonny Ploughboy *
  8. "I knew this would happen..." *
  9. The Bonny Ploughboy (reprise) *
  10. Riding Down To Portsmouth *
  11. Crafty Maid's Policy *
  12. Saturday Night †
  13. Constant Billy †
  14. Princess Royal (major) †
  15. Old Woman Tossed Up In A Blanket (Trad.) †
  16. Bundles Of Straw (Trad.) †
  17. The Bonnie Green Garter (Trad.) †
  18. Heroes Of Britain * ‡
  1. Clog Dance * ‡
  2. "This song's called Shady Lies"
  3. Shady Lies
  4. Don't Make It 54
  5. Working Man Blues (Haggard)
  6. The New St. George
  7. Christmas Is Coming ‡
  8. Clog Dance/Home On The Range (Higley/Kelley) ‡
  9. Clog Dance
  10. All I Have To Do Is Dream (Bryant)
  11. Wassail Song
  12. So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad) (Everly)
*
w/ Shirley Collins on lead vocals
†
w/ the Albion Morris Men and John Watcham on concertina
‡
w/ Barry Dransfield

One of the better tapes of Richard and Linda's stint with the Albion Band, with these Howff gigs also including vocalist Shirley Collins alongside Ashley Hutchings, Roger Swallow and Simon Nicol. This is a new upgrade (for me) which includes everything the taper captured from this evening; my previous tape was the partial version referred to below.

Taper's Notes

"This is special both because the band included Richard & Linda Thompson and because for years this has circulated with only 18 tracks, however, this is the complete record of what the taper caught.

About a year and a half ago, Dave sent me a 'mystery disc' hoping I could identify what was on it. After lots of listening and time researching, I decided half the disc was RT & LT at St Pancras Hall in early 1973, and the other half consisted of the missing portions of this show. I was able to confirm this when a Fairport fan who had notes of what was recorded from the taper himself, sent me the list of recorded tracks.

****Fair warning: the sound is not quite the worst, but damn close to the worst you might have heard, so if you are looking for good sound - go elsewhere!

Personally, I listen and I love it. I had never heard them doing Don't Make It 54 and Richard & Linda do a few of their own, electric and with a band - that's worth gold to me. It's full of rarities and something I treasure.

This was an interim lineup and only lasted a few shows. As far as we know, there were offical recordings of any kind."