Small Voice Calling > The Voice > The GP’s
“Our career ran to all of six gigs.”
The Fairport connexion that helped make Ralph McTell’s ‘Slide Away the Screen‘ recording sessions so enjoyable led directly to the short career of The GP’s. Comprising Ralph, Dave Pegg, Richard Thompson and Dave Mattacks, the band’s name was a contraction of ‘The Grazed Pontiffs’, a mischievous reference to an assassination attempt on Pope John-Paul II.
Playing a mix of country, folk and rock ‘n’ roll standards, and original songs by McTell and Thompson, the band’s performance at Broughton Castle on 14 August 1981 was taped on the sound desk. When released on CD ten years later as ‘Saturday Rolling Around’, Pegg wrote on the insert, “This set… (is) our only surviving audio memory of this little band’s activities. Our career ran to all of six gigs, all of them memorable.” The GP’s subsequently made cameo appearances at Fairport’s Cropredy Festivals in 1997 and 2009.
Recordings and Issues
CD ‘Saturday Rolling Around’ – Released 1991 – Woodworm WRCD014 [Note 1].
CD ‘Saturday Rolling Around’ – Released 1996 – HTD HTDCD53 [Note 1] [Note 2].
Track ‘Cut Across Shorty’ on Fairport Convention’s ‘The Cropredy Box’ 3CD – Released 1998 [Note 3].
CD ‘Saturday Rolling Around’ – Released 2001 – Talking Elephant TECD030 [Note 1].
Track ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ on ‘The Best of British Folk’ CD – Prism, 2003 [Note 1].
CD ‘Saturday Rolling Around’ – Released 2006 – Talking Elephant TECD102 [Note 1] [Note 4].
Track ‘Red Apple Juice’ on Ralph McTell’s ‘The Journey’ 4CD box set – Released 2006 [Note 1].
Track ‘Can’t Be Satisfied’ on Fairport Convention’s ‘Off the Screen’ DVD – Matty Grooves, 2009 [Note 5].
Notes
1. Recorded live at Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire, on 14 August 1981.
2. Issued with two different CD inserts.
3. Recorded live at 1997 Cropredy Festival.
4. With two bonus tracks.
5. Recorded live at 2009 Cropredy Festival.
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