1999
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Allan is now home for a few weeks after a hectic time in Holland, Slovenia and Croatia. The November/December schedule was as follows: 28th November left Leeds for Amsterdam - played a concert near Venlo, returned to Amsterdam after the concert. Next day, 29th November left Amsterdam for Zagreb - drive from Zagreb to Ljubljana for the first of two concerts in the National Concert hall with Vlado Kreslin. Both concerts were sold out. Thursday 2nd December Zagreb to Split then drive to Makarska. Friday 3rd December concert in Makarska. Saturday 4th (0400 hrs!) drive from Makarska to Split, plane from Split to Zagreb, drive from Zagreb to Loka (near Sevnica). Sunday 5th, fly back to Leeds via Amsterdam.
Needless to say, Allan arrived home exhausted! However, there was no time to relax as the next day Allan had to travel to London to be filmed for a documentary film about Derroll Adams which is being made by a Belgian film company. Allan also played his classic song about Derroll, "Banjo Man" for the film. Whilst he was there Donovan also arrived for an interview - he will also submit a track for the CD project.
The Austrian project has changed. Allan has decided to make his solo record first (as has Peter Ratzenbeck) and later in the year or early in the year 2001 to make the duo album. Therefore the autumn Taylor/Ratzenbeck tour will now be a solo tour to promote the CD. Details will follow when the concerts have been confirmed. As for Allan's new CD (the first CD of all new songs since '95) it is scheduled for sometime in March or April. He is currently working on getting the last two songs! In general Allan has decided to do less work in the year 2000 and spend more time writing. He has a couple of projects planned for the year 2000 - details as and when!
Another cover version of one of Allan's songs! Just released is the new solo CD by Maartin Allcock (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, WAZ) on which he plays his version of "Chimes at Midnight" (from Allan's "Lines" CD). Maart's wife Gill sings the lead vocal. Check out Maart's CD: "OX15" catalogue number ANDCD38. It's a great version of the song - totally different but the word is Allan really likes the version.
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Allan has recently returned from the Austrian tour with good news. He was touring with Peter Ratzenbeck, the great Austrian guitarist whose records sell world-wide. On each other's gigs they played a few songs together and the response from the audiences was so positive Peter and Allan have decided to make a CD together. The recording (in Peter's favourite studio, The Hit Box, Altenburg, just north of Vienna) is scheduled for the middle of December '99 and a tour to promote the CD is scheduled for September-October, year 2000. Twelve concerts have already been confirmed (in Austria) with more to come. There are already enquiries from the southern regions of Germany for Peter and Allan to play concerts, so the tour may have to be extended. More details on this project will be posted later.
The Slovenian songwriter and performer Vlado Kreslin (Allan toured with Vlado during July '99) has asked Allan to be the support performer at his Ljubljana concerts in the Slovenian National Concert Hall, Cankarjev Dom on November 29 and 30. However, Allan is in Holland for Nov. 27,28,29 so efforts are being made to get him to Ljubljana in time for the concert. As always, more details will be posted when we know.
Negotiations are underway for Allan to play on a tribute CD to Derroll Adams. Allan wrote the song "Banjo Man" for Derroll in the 80's (recorded on Allan's "Lines" CD002). Derroll is very ill at the moment and in hospital, but we are hopeful that he will soon be home with Danny, his wonderful wife. The project is being coordinated by Hans Theessink (The Euro Blues Man!) from Vienna. Other performers on the project are: Arlo Guthrie, Donovan, Rambling Jack Elliot, Hans Theessink, Yaura Marcus.
In ten days' time Allan leaves for the German/Dutch tour. He will stop off in Antwerp first to see Derroll and then start the tour in Den Haag (NL). "Lines" has been pressed again and is now available from T Records.
More news as and when!
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The German tour with Helmut Debus went very well, so well in fact that they are already taking bookings for the year 2001! They are thinking of making a duo album for the next tour as the demand was such that the project would be financially viable, even though they only tour every two years. Neither Helmut nor Allan want to work together more than that because they don't want it to become a business - at the moment they treat it as a fun time - good music, good company and good concerts are enough they say. The first casualty of working with a friend too often is friendship, something they have both experienced with other performers. They are therefore careful not to tour together too much as they both regard their friendship as being more important than financial gain.
In July Allan toured Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. The Italian concerts were tribute evenings to the great Fabrizio de Andre who died in January 1999. Allan was fortunate enough to meet Fabrizio at the Folkest Festival in northern Italy last year when Allan was appearing with his son Barnaby in concert with David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills and Nash) and his son. Fabrizio suggested they work together on a future project, but he developed cancer before the project could be realised. The three tribute concerts, in Brescia, Udine and Genova were with some of the performers featured on the tribute CD to Fabrizio (released in 1988). Though each concert was special in its own way, the Genova one stood out. Fabrizio was special to Genova - he sang in the Genovese dialect, he sang of the people there and especially the so-called "low-life" of the streets, and consequently was much loved by the people there. On the day of the concert the city authorities named a street after him, with a ceremony attended by his widow, his son and daughter and many dignitaries. The evening was televised and may soon be available on a video.
Allan then went to Slovenia to play four concerts with Vlado Kreslin, one of the foremost songwriters of the country. Whilst there, they met up with Peter Lovsin, known as the "Johnny Rotten of Slovenian Rock" (which does him a disservice as he is far more talented than Johhny Rotten ever was). Peter gave Allan his new CD, featuring Peter's version of Allan's song "Like I Used to Do". It is somewhat different - but Allan says he really likes it - he much prefers it when other artists who record his songs if they do their own versions rather than copy Allan's version - Peter has certainly done that - it certainly rocks!
The August tour went well; Allan spent time with The John Wright Band (who made a superb job of Allan's song "Middle Time" on their new CD) and whilst in Scotland he met up with Dick Gaughan and the McCalmans, all close friends of Allan. In fact, Allan always regards Scotland as his second home as he has so many friends there (and is no doubt influenced by the fact that his wife is Scottish!).
At present Allan is preparing for the Austrian tour which starts on 2nd September at the Hallein Festival near Salzburg and finishes in Vienna on 11th September.
Released recently is De Dannan's compilation double CD which features Allan's song "The Rose and the Briar" sung by Tommy Fleming.
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Allan has been asked to perform at some of the tribute concerts to Fabrizio de Andre during the summer. At present the dates are: July 14th - Breschia, 15th Udine, 19th Genova. Thankfully, Tony Batten who had organised the Taunton concert for July 16th has been able to re-schedule it for July 30th to allow Allan to play these tribute concerts.
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(The following news is taken from the Allan Taylor Newsletter)
Thanks to all of you who replied to the last newsletter requesting to stay on the mailing list. I will soon be starting an e-mail mailing list, so if you have an e-mail address let me know. My web-site (http://www.allantaylor.com) is updated regularly so it's worth checking because no doubt there will be more gigs which will come in after this newsletter has been printed.
The year started badly for me. On January 6th I injured my right hand and consequently I will not be working until early May. I was lucky however in that I had an operation within 24 hrs. which meant that the surgeon was able to stitch the ligaments together. The operation was a complete success and since I was allowed to start practicing I've written two songs. This has posed the question of when I will record a new CD. The last CD of new songs was Faded Light, released in 1995 so I guess a new one is overdue. That's not to say I have been sitting around doing nothing; Looking For You (the retrospective CD I recorded in Germany) was released 1996 and The Alex Campbell Tribute Concert double CD was released in 1997. And of course for two years I was working on the songbook, We Must Journey On which came out in 1997 so I figured I had done enough for a while and I needed a break. Well, I've had the break and I'm ready to move on. I went to Paris during April and stayed in a hotel for awhile just to write - the idea worked as I wrote two songs while I was there. I now need just three or four more songs for a new album, and if they come during the next few months then I'll record before the year is out (I've provisionally booked the studio for December). I will definitely use my son, Barnaby on the recording (on piano) and Maartin Allcock (on bass) and no doubt other musician friends on various instruments when I've decided on the instrumentation needed for each song.
Once the CD of new songs has been released I may consider re-recording some of the old songs which some of you requested in your replies to my last newsletter. As I mentioned, I'm not interested in re-releasing CD versions of old albums, and if it were my decision not one old album would be released. However, there are some businessmen who own the rights of my early albums who know they can make some money from them and so for them it's a worthwhile proposition to release them on a new format. Of course, financially I get next to nothing for this. Far more interesting to me is to re-record the songs with new instrumentation. Good songs transcend time - it's only the arrangements that date a song. Also, important to me is that I can release a CD of re-recordings on T Records which is my company and this means I get the profit rather some businessman who cares little for the music.
Some of you asked when The Traveller will be released on CD. This is an album I did in 1979/80, the first for a small label after being with United Artists Records and Chrysalis Records. It was a tremendous success and won The Grand Prix du Disque de Montreaux for the best European album of the year. Unfortunately, the catalogue of Rubber Records has been sold to Dave Bulmer of Celtic Music and I have no control over what he does with it. However, he contacted me only a few days ago and said he will be releasing it before the year is out.
On the same subject, B.G.O., the record company which recently ('98) released Sometimes and The Lady on one CD (two albums I made in the early seventies) have decided, because it has sold so well throughout the world to release the third and fourth albums, respectively, The American Album and Cajun Moon on one CD. I can't stop them doing it (they can quite legally lease the master tapes) so I might as well get involved with it, and to this end I have agreed to write the sleeve notes.
That's it for this newsletter. I will keep you up to date with the various CD releases on the next newsletter. Feel free to contact me if you have any inquiries. I'll try to reply as quickly as possible, but as you can see from the gig list I'm going to be on the road a lot of the time from May onwards so it may take some time before I can respond. However, no doubt I'll see some of you somewhere, so until then, thanks for supporting the music - keep it live!
Allan Taylor
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The operation on Allan's hand was a success and he can now start practicing the guitar. The Danish tour has been rescheduled for two weeks starting 17th. February 2000. Negotiations are underway for a tour of Australia and New Zealand for the year 2000. Details will be given when finalized. Allan will be in Paris for the last two weeks of April where he will be working on songs for the new CD. His son, Barnaby will join him for some of the time as they intend to compose together. A CD has been released of the Rudolstadt Festival in Germany which Allan played in July '98. It is called: Tanz & Folk Fest - Rudolstadt '98 - HD98/8 There are twenty tracks, each performer/band has a track and Allan's track is one of his classics from "The Traveller" album (1979) called "Lady Take Your Time".
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Today Allan suffered an injury to his right hand that will require immediate surgery. He will not be able to perform at the Black Swan in York, and his February tour of Denmark has unfortunately been cancelled as well. He hopes to be back in form by the end of February in time for the Chester Festival. Check here and on the "Tours" page for more news as it becomes available. Allan sincerely regrets any inconvenience to fans and promoters and looks forward to making up any missed concert dates as soon as possible.
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