Stockholm & Göteborg

Stockholm & Göteborg
Live album by Henry Cow
Released	September 2008 (2008-09)
Recorded	March 1976, Hamburg[nb 1] May 1976, Gothenburg[nb 1] May 1977, Stockholm
Genre	Avant-rock free improvisation
Length	63:23
Label	Recommended (UK)
Producer	Henry Cow
Henry Cow chronology
Henry Cow Box (2006) Stockholm & Göteborg (2008) The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (2009)

Volume 6: Stockholm & Göteborg is a live CD by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and is disc 6 of the 10-disc 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set. It was released in September 2008 by RēR Megacorp as a free-standing album in advance of the box set release in January 2009.

Stockholm & Göteborg consists of previously unreleased recordings made by Sveriges Radio (Swedish Radio) of concerts performed by the group in May 1976^{[nb 1]} in Gothenburg and May 1977 in Stockholm. The concerts were later broadcast by Sveriges Radio in July 1976 and June 1977 respectively. Also included on the CD is a song from a concert in Hamburg in March 1976.^{[nb 1]} The original 8 track and stereo 2 track master tapes were used and non-invasively remixed and remastered for this album by Bob Drake.

This was Henry Cow's first new release in 30 years and the first to include Georgie Born, the band's bassist and celloist from 1976 to 1978. It was also the first official release of the band performing "Erk Gah".

Content

The album consists of three improvised pieces, "Stockholm 1", "Stockholm 2" and "Göteborg 1", and five composed pieces.

Featured on the album is "Erk Gah", a never before released Tim Hodgkinson composition that was performed live regularly by the band between 1976 and 1978,^[1] but never recorded in the studio.^[2] (Hodgkinson later recorded it in 1993 as "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine" on his 1994 solo album, Each in Our Own Thoughts with some of the former Henry Cow members and others.) Also featured for the first time is a never before released Fred Frith composition, "March" which the band used to end many of their concerts, and a cover of Phil Ochs's "No More Songs", arranged by Frith and the band's requiem to Ochs who had committed suicide in 1976.^[3] "Ottawa Song" is from an earlier concert in Hamburg with Dagmar Krause and John Greaves sharing the vocals, and was included on this CD by accident after having gotten mixed up with the Stockholm and Göteborg tapes.^[4] It is the same performance of "Ottawa Song" that appears on Volume 3: Hamburg, except for the introductory bassoon solo, which has been stripped off here.

Henry Cow performed the Gothenburg concert as the same quartet of Lindsay Cooper, Chris Cutler, Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson that had played at Trondheim two days previously. John Greaves had left the group two months previously, Georgie Born had not yet joined, and Dagmar Krause had withdrawn from the tour due to ill health.^[1] Without a dedicated bass guitarist and vocalist, the group improvised the set in the dark, as they had done at Trondheim, and used the same tapes they had prepared beforehand.^[5][6]

Track listing

1. "Stockholm 1" (Born, Cooper, Cutler, Frith, Hodgkinson) – 6:38

  2–6.   "Erk Gah" (aka "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine") (Hodgkinson) – 16:46

7. "A Bridge to Ruins" (Hodgkinson) – 5:08
8. "Ottawa Song" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:27

9–11.   "Göteborg 1" (Cooper, Cutler, Frith, Hodgkinson) – 16:53

12. "No More Songs" (Ochs arr. Frith) – 3:35
13. "Stockholm 2" (Born, Cooper, Cutler, Frith, Hodgkinson, Krause) – 6:13
14. "March" (Frith) – 4:15

Recording and broadcast dates

• Tracks 1–7 and 12–14 were recorded for Tonkraft by Sveriges Radio at a concert in Stockholm on 9 May 1977 and broadcast on 8 June and 11 June 1977; the programme producer was S. Vermalin.
• Track 8 was recorded for the NDR Jazz Workshop in Hamburg on 26 March 1976.^{[nb 1]}
• Tracks 9-11 were recorded for Tonkraft by Sveriges Radio at a concert in Gothenburg on 28 May 1976^{[nb 1]} and broadcast on 14 July and 17 July 1976; the programme producer was Christer Eklund.

Personnel

• Georgie Born – bass guitar, cello (tracks 1–7,12–14)
• Lindsay Cooper – bassoon, flute, recorder, piano (tracks 1–2), tapes (tracks 9-11)^{[nb 1]}
• Chris Cutler – drums, electrification, piano (track 10)
• Fred Frith – guitar, xylophone, piano (tracks 13–14), tapes (tracks 9-11)^{[nb 1]}
• Tim Hodgkinson – organ, alto saxophone, clarinet, voice (tracks 9-11), tapes (tracks 9-11)^{[nb 1]}
• Dagmar Krause – singing (tracks 1–7,12–14)
• John Greaves – bass guitar (track 8), voice (track 8)^{[nb 1]}

Production

• All recordings were edited by Chris Cutler.
• Tracks 1, 2, 5, 7 and 12–14 were remixed from the original 8-track recording.
• Tracks 3, 4 and 8–11 were remastered from the original stereo radio tape.
• All remixing and remastering was done by Bob Drake at Studio Midi-Pyrenees, 2007/2008.

Errors in CD liner notes

After the release of this CD, errors in the liner notes surfaced.

• "Ottawa Song" was incorrectly listed as being part of the Gothenburg concert. It was from a concert in Hamburg on 26 March 1976 and included John Greaves on bass guitar and singing.
• The Gothenburg concert was incorrectly dated as May 1975 with John Greaves credited as having participated. The concert took place in May 1976, after Greaves had left the band (in March 1976) and before Georgie Born had joined (in June 1976).^[1] "Göteborg 1" was performed without a dedicated bass guitarist.
• Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson were incorrectly credited with using tapes on "Stockholm 2". Tapes were not used on "Stockholm 2", they were used on "Göteborg 1".

A new CD inlay with revised and corrected liner notes was supplied with The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set that was released in January 2009. However the new liner notes still incorrectly credited John Greaves as co-composer on "Göteborg 1".

See also

• The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (2009)

Footnotes

References

• Cutler, Chris, ed. (2009). The Road: Volumes 1–5 (book from The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set). Recommended Records.
• Cutler, Chris, ed. (2009). The Road: Volumes 6–10 (book from The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set). Recommended Records.

External links

• Stockholm and Goteborg at AllMusic.
• Stockholm & Göteborg at SquidCo.
• Stockholm and Göteborg review at Progressive Ears.
• Stockholm and Göteborg review at Clouds and Clocks.