Imperial College by Hatfield and The North

"Sadly missing the opening minutes of the performance but still clocking in at a respectable 34 minutes, this is a Holy Grail of sorts – a performance by the original line-up of Hatfield and the North, just weeks after it had changed names from Delivery following the replacement of Steve Miller by Dave Sinclair. Better still, a couple of friends make guest appearances – Lol Coxhill is heard wailing away on soprano sax during the opening “Shaving Is Boring”, and Robert Wyatt contributes Echoplexed vocals to Dave Sinclair’s “A Mewsing”, as he would again a few weeks later when Hatfield appeared on French TV’s Rockenstock programme.

On this occasion, Hatfield were appearing, along with several obscure artists, at a benefit concert for Radical Alternatives to Prison at London’s Imperial College, in what was hoped to be the first in a series of fundraising concerts for RAP.

It is interesting to note how much of Hatfield’s eventual repertoire was already in place, albeit in somewhat embryonic form, but there are also tracks destined to disappear from the setlist : Dave Sinclair’s contributions, obviously, including a prototype of Caravan’s “Watcha Gonna Tell Me” (from 1980’s "The Album"), but also Pip Pyle’s lovely instrumental ballad “All Day Forever,” featuring Pip himself on rhythm guitar, and “For Robert”, a cousin of “Rifferama”, the latter absorbing its chord changes but not its main theme."
-Aymeric Leroy
Nicked from https://philmillerthelegacy.com/music/hatfield-and-the-north-1972/

"We did only two gigs with Dave Sinclair－a television show in Paris with Robert Wyatt guesting on vocals, and the London School of Economics [sic]. Hatfield's music wasn't sufficiently tidy or rhythmically worked-out enough for him, too much was left to chance, and the moment of inspiration. It wasn't really his genre, and it became apparent the collaboration wasn't going to work. So he left, and we were once again looking for a keyboard player."
-Phil Miller
https://richardsinclairsongs.bandcamp.com/album/ch-teau-dh-rouville

"A-Mewsing" was an early composition from Dave Sinclair, and was rehearsed by Hatfield in late 1972 with Robert Wyatt at the Wyatt home in Lydden, Kent. In late 1971 when Robert retrieved Dave from his travels abroad via a telegram stating "Come back, your country needs you", the track was first rehearsed with Matching Mole, a demo was recorded, the track then known as "Sandwich". This demo has more recently been unearthed and included as a bonus track in new issues of the first Matching Mole album. The Hatfield version was simplified and could be considered to have been far removed from the original "Sandwich" jam. The track was never finished and forgotten again, until Dave rerecorded it and inspired by Robert's original Hatfield vocals, reworked the composition again to eventually release it as "Peace In Time" on his 2003 solo album "Full Circle". The final released version reverts back to the original Sandwich jam and is surprisingly similar. Quite a timeline for one song!
- Nic Sinclair

The leading voice of the Canterbury Scene. Beginning with the Wilde Flowers, on to Caravan, Hatfield & the North, Camel and all his recent group efforts, Richard Sinclair's singing and bass playing have been a constant source of delight for lovers of Canterbury music. A deep, low voice, a talent for memorable melodies few can match, plus an imaginative and fluid technique on the bass and guitar.

Facebook
en.wikipedia.org
calyx-canterbury.fr
patreon.com
YouTube