Released this week is a single that revisits 1967 with a very 2008 treatment. The Conspirators are a Yorkshire band who are making waves in the North of England with their energetic guitar riffs and catchy tunes. The song, One Sure Thing (Transcend Records), is by Richard Thompson and appeared on Fairport Convention's eponymously titled debut album in 1967 and the singer then was Judy Dyble.
Fairport's first incarnation was a band heavily influenced in those early days of electric folk-rock by the likes of Dylan, Joni Mitchell and the Byrds. With jangly guitars and Dyble's haunting, ephemeral vocals they were often labelled as Britain's Jefferson Airplane - a description the band didn't recognise. The following year Fairport were to turn to more traditional roots with a new singer, Sandy Denny.
But Judy Dyble stayed with her love of rock music and teamed up with a band that was the genesis of King Crimson, with the likes of Robert Fripp and Ian McDonald, before venturing out with Jackie McAuley as Trader Horne. But then Judy, who now lives in Launton, drifted out of the music business. In recent years she has re-emerged with solo work, some of it sixties' songs given fresh treatment. Which brings us neatly to the new single. The Conspirators asked Judy to sing on their version of One Sure Thing, with the jangly guitars being replaced by the band's driving, almost frenzied, tempo. Judy is joined by Genevieve on vocals. The effect uncannily straddles time, evoking the sound of '67 with a hard driving, contemporary sound - or soundscape, as they say these days. Somehow I could just imagine this line-up in the days of the UFO Club where Fairport started out.
The single is, in fact, a double A side. Take Me To Your Leader is a Conspirators' original and that intense energy is in evidence again, coupled with another catchy song. It won't be long before the South gets to hear about them too.
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