Celtic Side Saddle - Davey Arthur

Advantages: Arthur Brown
Disadvantages: Just a Greatest Hits Collection

...at Canterbury Fayre in 2001 and features the line up of:- Dave Brock: vocals, guitar, keyboards, synths Simon House: keyboards, violin Keith Kniveton: synthesisers Alan Davey: vocals, bass guitar Richard Chadwick: drums Huw Lloyd Langton: lead guitar, vocals Arthur Brown: vocals and possibly Harvey Bainbridge on Synths but he is not credited on the CD cover. Whist not the classic 1974 line up this is as close to that in sound as you are going to get these days and all the classic Hawkwind elements are in there rumbling bass lines trancy rhythm guitar provided by Dave Brock whilst Huw Lloyd Langton's lead soars up to the stratosphere. In reality Huw's Guitar is not really necessary and those of us remember his excessive twiddling in the 80's would rather not have it in there, but is hemmed in by Simon House's Violin and the two instruments... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Maddy Prior on excellent form
Disadvantages: none

...Arthur the King is an intelligent and thought provoking album. If you were trying to categorise it, it would have to be filed under 'serious Folk'. What we have here is a collection of ten songs exploring the Arthur 'myth'. Nick Holland and Troy Donockley join Prior and between them theyweave a beautiful sound. The quality of the song cycle is remarkably high with Queen & Sovereignty and Once and Future King standing out. As a coda, there are five traditional songs unrelated to the central theme. This album doesn't fall too short of 'must have' status. Prior is in enchanting voice throughout and the subject matter is of almost universal interest. Buy it and rediscover your Celtic roots. It is an album that continues to reinvent Prior as one of the Godmothers of British Folk and makes All Around my Hat sound as if it came from different... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Relaxing story telling music with a bit of heart
Disadvantages: Too boring

...OK album, with a nice mix of different artist most of which i have never hear of before. As you can probably tell I'm not usually into this kind of music but being someone always looking to expand my musical horizons, I thought i would give it a go but was not too impressed. Most of the songs featured were not too impressive, many of which sounded very boring and generic for the genre. Track 15, Green Fields of France - Furey & Davey Arthur was probably one of the most impressive tracks on the album; this song featured delicately sung lyrics and an impressive story which i think is based on world war 2. Some of the other tracks were almost up to this standard but were too boring and didn't catch my attention.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful