hi sill..

never saw donovan in concert..

definitely wanted to when i was about 14 or 15,
but closest i got was seeing him on tv
and trying to track down the italian 'joker' lable live boootleg
[but the japanese live LP was always way too expensive for my pocket money]

i remember taping a live special off the TV onto cheap cassette recorder
[mic held in front of tv speaker job]

but im pretty sure it was a more conventional concert
than the errrmmm.. [drug addled ???] nursery school singalong presentation
on BBC4 the other night.

i dont think i ever saw that show before..

i dont mind admitting its cos of donovan that i asked my mum and dad
for a guitar for my 15th birthday.

and i was still listening to his best LPs [but in secret]
when i was 17 and in my first college punk band..

i think i gave up on buying any more of his records
after the "7-Tease" LP..

Donovan was definitely an important inspiration for me to discover
other genres of folkmusic that influenced his songs & recordings.


interesting to see latest editions of his CDs are remastered
with masses of extra rare tracks..

but 30 years on now, i'd have think carefully about the prospects of listening..
to the 'previously unreleased' stuff..

i just wonder how helpfull that astonishingly twee 1972 concert
would now be in attracting a new generation of teenagers to folk..??

BTW, the BBC4 Pentangle gig afterwards was superb !