Judging by what I can gather from the Heylin biog, their (first?) American tour reads like something out of either Dante's Inferno or Monty Python, depending on how black your sense of humour is: unconfirmed dates, unsigned contracts, cancelled concerts, non-existent interviews & press coverage, ripoffs, soul-destroying support gigs where they were thankful if the audience merely ignored them, staggering back to England having earned about four pence.

At one point the band weren't even allowed backstage access because no one had thought to provide them with door passes, and their entrance was blocked by a security guard with roughly the build of King Kong. So pint-sized Sandy, having Had Enough, hauled off and hit him. Not the ideal solution to the problem, but one can sure sympathise.

She's quoted as saying, "If this is what it means to get three thousand people to come and listen to you, I'd rather go and play to my best friends."


RISING FOR THE MOON

Sandy Denny

I travel over the seas and ride the rolling sky
For that's the way it is, that is my fortune
There are many ears to please
Many people's love to try
And every day is begun rising for the moon

There's a heart in every place
There's a tear for each farewell
For that's the way it is, that is my fortune
I'll lure you like the lace
That the wayward gypsies sell
With the sinking of the sun, rising of the moon

        Rising for the moon
        The sun has set and it is dark
        But the star of the enchanted tune
        Is bright as any spark
        The chorus of the dusk
        Regales the evening lark
        Whose every day does start
        Rising for the moon