Ralphie,I think you are overreacting.
I think there is an element of truth in bonzos remarks.
I think the recording of penguin eggs is better, the music on both lps are good.
Bill Leader, I recorded with him, one of the good things about Bill, was his sympathy with the music, he wasnt just a very competent recording engineer,he was someone with a great enthusiam, knowledge and love for the music, you could ask his opinion,he was someone whose opinion you respected, he was someone who made you feel at ease when one was working with him, this is really important.
my only criticism, I have of Bill Leader, and its a very minor criticism, was his habit of reusing old tapes and re recording over them, it is understandable when everything is being run on a low budget, but IMO it does not produce the best sound, furthermore if a company is paying for the recording time and tapes they surely have a right to insist on new tapes for recording.
Bill was a very good recording engineer with a great love for traditional music, which isIMO important.
I have worked with two other recording engineers, who were on a par with Bill, one was Dave Howard[BBC trained]and the other was Chris Pollington[ who played with Strawhead], but the people who are on a par with Bill are few and far between