 No Roses
Shirley Collins and The Albion Country Band Pegasus PEG 7 (LP, UK, October 1971)
Produced by Ashley Hutchings and Sandy Roberton
for September Productions Ltd.
engineered by Jerry Boys, Victor Gamm & Roger Mayer
at Sound Techniques, Morgan & Air
Front and Centre photographs by Keith Morris
Back Photograph by Cecil Sharp
musicians
 Lucy Broadwood. 1858 – 1929 sleeve notes (CD release)When this album was first released in 1971, it was regarded as adventurous, combining a traditional English singer with 25 musicians, some from a folk background, other from the fields of contemporary rock and early music. It was an experiment which grew into a triumph, and sprang from the talents of Shirley Collins and Ashley Hutchings, both pioneers of their own right, in the first year of their marriage. Shirley, widely regarded as the doyenne of English traditional folk singers, had recorded her first album in 1959 for the highly respected American Folkways label, and subsequent albums were regarded as milestones, notably Folk Roots, New Routes made in 1964 with guitarist Davy Graham and Anthems in Eden, made with her sister Dolly in 1969 - the first album to unite traditional songs with early instruments, under the musical direction of David Munrow. Ashley Hutchings, a founder member of Fairport Convention, had left that pioneering band at the end of 1969, after recording Fairport's seminal Liege and Lief, and, still hooked on traditional music, had then launched Steeleye Span. No Roses was the album they made together, and Shirley still remembers it with pleasure: “It was my first venture into folk/rock and I suppose initially I didn't think my voice was right for it. Whatever accompaniments I've used, I've always sung in my own style, my natural singing voice, which is an extension of my speech. So it was the arrangements that overlaid the songs that gave the record it folk/rock feel. I've always been willing to experiment providing I believe I can keep the integrity of the music intact. That's paramount. I have a great love of English traditional music, and along with it a great respect for those people of the labouring classes who kept the songs going through the centuries as their only means of expressing themselves. It is an extraordinary feat, especially as many of them were illiterate. They've never been given enough credit or respect for their art. Instead, they've been scorned, despised and largely ignored. It's one reason why I've always named my sources. I trust that No Roses had that integrity, as well as strength and beauty in some of the arrangements and a great sense of fun and charm in others.” Looking at No Roses with the benefit of hindsight, one presumes that Ashley and Sandy (Roberton, co-producer with Hutchings) were determined to make an epic album. “No, we didn't set out with that intention, but as the album progressed, the possibilities of what we could do became more and more apparent. At the start we didn't anticipate having 26 musicians on it, but that's how it finally turned out. There was never any conflict between the Fairport people and the other musicians. They were open-minded and interested in what others were doing anyway, and there was certainly a good feeling in the studio (Sound Techniques). The place was full of people who kept dropping in and staying on and asking to play on songs - just happy to be there. Nobody seemed baffled by what anyone else was doing, just a bit bemused perhaps by the variety of esoteric instruments that were coming in and out of the studio.” “The critical reaction was pretty good - on the whole! One or two snipers, of course.” No Roses marked the debut of The Albion Country Band. The Albion Band continues to be the name used by bands led by Ashley Hutchings, although it was a name coined for use on this album. “We realised that with all those musicians it would probably be a good idea to give them a collective name and that was the one we came up with.” So why was there never a second album? “I had two children from my first marriage, and we'd all moved to Etchingham in the Sussex countryside. I'd been touring all my singing life, away from home too much, and I wanted to be with Polly and Robert more, so I let my own career slip a bit, for the best of reasons. Ashley had formed a touring bend with the first of many line-ups and used the Albion name, and all our efforts went into trying to keep that going. When Ashley and I eventually parted, he took the Albion Band with him. No Roses stayed with me.” - Shirley Collins a note: the scans of the inner sleeve photographs and the back cover photograph were provided by Andy Carter, whose photographs of The Albion Dance Band can be found on our Albion Dance Band website.
Once more, massive thanks go out to Andy!
albion country band. no roses is
©2008 albionchronicles
all rights reserved
|  tracks
side one
(from Ron and Bob Copper of Sussex)
2. Little Gypsy Girl (Trad)
(from Louise Holms of Hereford)
3. Banks of The Bann (Trad)
(from Bert Lloyd)
4.Murder of Maria Marten (Trad)
(from Joseph Taylor of Lincolnshire)
side two
1. Van Dieman's Land (Trad)
(collated by Ashley Hutchings)
2. Just As The Tide Was A'Flowing (Trad)
(from Aunt Grace Winborn, Hastings)
3. The White Hare (Trad)
(from Joseph Taylor of Lincolnshire)
4. Hal-An-Tow (Trad)
(sung as part of the May ritual in Helston, Cornwall)
5. Poor Murdered Woman (Trad)
(collected by Lucy Broadwood from Mr. Foster of Surrey)
All tracks Trad. arr. Shirley Collins, published by Roberton Brown
except track 1 Bob & Ron Copper, published by Copper Songs  related internet links a passionate collector of folk-songs
and one of a group of Victorian songhunters
who fuelled a revival of interest in England’s
traditional music at the end of the
nineteenth century
from there to here and back again
the circle is never ending, nor is the song
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No Roses |