Label: Universal Music (Japan), UICY-20062
Style: Folk Rock, Folk Baroque
Country: 1967-1973; 1981-present; United Kingdom
Time: 53:23
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 336 Mb
Jacqui McShee - VOCALS - Born in London on Christmas day 1943 Jacqui grew up listening to the music played on her parents gramophone - from Fats waller, Ella Fitzgerald and big bands through to popular classics. Jacqui showed little interest in music though until she heard Miles Davis and John Coltrane at CND friends, becoming the most important thing for her – it quite literally changed her life, On CND marches she would lead the singing with her sister Pam and did many gigs locally in South East London for charities such as War On Want and Oxfam.
Through these gigs Jacqui met Chris Ayliffe who played 12 string guitar - they performed as a duo and also got involved running the folk club at the Red Lion in Sutton. John Renbourn and Bert Jansch would often come and play and they liked the way Jacqui sang. When Chris went off busking in Europe John asked Jacqui to sing on his album Another Monday and do the folk circuit with him. In fact, Chris was instrumental in getting this to happen.
After about a year John announced to Jacqui he was forming a band with Bert and that she was going to be the singer! This was on a train waiting on the Hungerford bridge by the Royal Festival Hall. John said ‘they’d be playing in in a year. “Yeh, right..” was Jacqui’s reply. Within a year they were - as Pentangle - along with later recruits Danny Thompson on bass and Terry Cox on drums.
Pentangle’s manager Joe Lustig soon had the band signed with Warner Reprise Records and before long they were touring extensively and playing historic venues including Carnegie Hall, Fillmore East and West, Newport Festival, the Isle-Of-Wight festival and of course the Royal Festival Hall. On these historic tours the band would appear alongside Hendrix, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and James Taylor. Jacqui recounts:
“During the summer of 1969 we toured the USA and played at the Newport (Rhode Island) Folk and Blues Festival. Our set was interrupted, to tell the audience that the US Apollo 11 mission to the moon had been successful, and that Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon.
Some of the audience actually booed and cat called - They were upset that the music had been interrupted and wanted it to continue! In a news programme later that evening there was a coast to coast TV show, looking at what was happening around the world at the precise moment that the U.S. had put a man on the moon. There we were, it was very exciting.
On the same day I remember standing back stage with John, hunched together around a corner, listening to a conversation between Big Mama Thornton and Muddy Waters talking "Jive". Neither or us could understand a word they were saying. I couldn't believe I was standing so close to two of my heroes.
In that Same week we were taken out to dinner courtesy of our record company Warner/Reprise - I sat next to Phil Everly, another of my heroes, What a week that was...”.
Up to their demise in 1973 the band cut six albums that remain classics to this day. John and Jacqui continued as a duo then formed the John Renbourn Band in the late 1970’s. The early 1980’s was family time for Jacqui with son Matt being born in 1979 and daughter Leah in 1984. Touring naturally took second place but it wasn’t long before Jacqui was back on the road.
An Italian promoter approached John wanting to do a tour with the original Pentangle. John approached everyone and they toured Italy, the UK and Australia. This reunion was short lived however as John left the band to pursue a long-term ambition of studying classical music, taking up a place at Dartington College of Arts. There then followed a series of personnel changes, including Mike Piggott on violin, Rod Clements on guitar, Nigel Portman Smith on keyboards and bass, and Peter Kirtley on guitars and vocals, with McShee and Jansch finally remaining as the only members from the original line-up.
Gerry Conway took over on drums and percussion in 1986. The incarnation consisting of Jacqui, Bert, Nigel, Peter and Gerry survived almost as long as the original Pentangle and recorded three albums: Think of Tomorrow, One More Road and Live 1994. This line-up completed their final tour in March–April 1995, after which Bert left to pursue his solo work.
1994 saw Jacqui begin a brand new project with Gerry and Spencer Cozens. This manifested itself in the 1995 release About Thyme album which gained rave reviews including a no.1 spot for several weeks in the Tower Records folk charts. They toured this album with Alan Thomson on bass and Jerry Underwood on saxes - this was the beginnings of Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle (JMP). The 1998 release of Passe Avant marked the true start of JMP with the band still touring and recording regularly.
As well as focussing on JMP, Jacqui has become involved in Alan Simon’s Excalibur project in 1998, a rock opera about King Arthur – Jacqui playing the character Morgana. This has developed into an arena filling show and continues to grow. She has also appeared on several recent albums alongside David Hughes, Eddie Reader, Chris While, Julie Matthews and Christine Collister.
(www.pentangle.info/JMPentangle/THE_BAND)
01. Light Flight (03:19)
02. Once I Had A Sweetheart (04:45)
03. Springtime Promises (04:09)
04. Lyke-Wake Dirge (03:36)
05. Train Song (04:48)
06. Hunting Song (06:45)
07. Sally Go Round The Roses (03:40)
08. The Cuckoo (04:29)
09. House Carpenter (05:32)
10. Cold Mountain (02:02)
11. I Saw An Angel (02:55)
12. Sally Go Round The Roses (Alternate Version 1) (03:40)
13. Sally Go Round The Roses (Alternate Version 2) (03:38)
Listen. Full Album: Pentangle - Basket Of Light (1969)
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