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1970s


SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Renegade folk/blues singer-songwriter MICHAEL CHAPMAN enjoys a purple patch... 50 years into his career


MICHAEL CHAPMAN Fully Qualified Survivor Light In The Attic CD www.lightintheattic.net


material, production (from the legendary Gus Dudgeon) of both taste and empathy, superb support from backing musicians including Mick Ronson (whose Beck-esque party pieces fit in surprisingly well) and Steeleye Span bassist Rick Kemp, and perhaps most importantly, the support of the record company (EMI’s progressive imprint Harvest). He may have been backed by a bunch of


This 1970 folk-rock classic (and I don’t use the word lightly) has been reissued at regularly intervals over the decades, but apparently this is the first time on CD in the States. Lord knows why it’s taken so long. I had the pleasure of seeing the man


play live – in tandem with Bridget St John – last year, with a glorious sunset flooding through large windows behind him. After 40-odd years his strengths (gritty guitar playing and even grittier vocals) are still intact to a miraculous degree, but for a Chapman newbie, Fully Qualified Survivor is the place to start. It’s one of those occasions when everything comes together in an almost spiritual fashion. A performer at the top of his game, a great batch of


electric musos, but you’re never in doubt that this is Chapman’s record. His slurred, world- weary voice always dominates whatever’s going on behind him, and despite his own dismissive remark that he has “bricklayers hands”, Chapman’s acoustic playing is consistently impressive. Songs like ‘Postcards Of Scarborough’, ‘Rabbit Hills’, ‘Stranger In The Room’ and, my personal favourite, ‘Aviator’ are not only among Chapman’s best, but are among the best British folk-rock songs, period. He’s not as romantic as Nick Drake or as


angry as Roy Harper; as moody as Bert Jansch or as wordy as Al Stewart or as sentimental as Ralph McTell, but this album is right up there with anything those distinguished gents ever produced. Many learned music critics have been telling you for eons that Michael Chapman is an acquired taste.Well go and bloody well acquire it then! Mick Capewell


MICHAEL CHAPMAN Trainsongs: Guitar Compositions 1967-2010 Tompkins Square 2-CD www.tompkinssquare.com


Rosenthal initially asked Chapman to participate in a volume of the esteemed label’s Imaginational Anthems series, then asked if he had anything else. Chapman had started revisiting instrumentals going back to playing Cornish folk clubs in the mid-60s, so produced this transcendental double set, coming with immaculate Tompkins Square presentation (including vivid notes from long-time champion Charles Shaar Murray). Familiar titles such as ‘Naked Ladies


In this age of deluxe box sets, Michael Chapman is crying out for a major anthology. While contemporaries such as John Martyn and Roy Harper went on to reap awards, Chapman charted his own dogged path, straddling a diverse array of styles from heartfelt ballads to seething rock. Now, he finds himself in the most prolific period of his career, releasing three albums in the first weeks of 2011. This might be expected of a workaholic in his 20s but Chapman turned 70 in January! He’s got a lot to celebrate, including a


40th anniversary reissue of Fully Qualified Survivor [see left] and what he describes as a “noise” album on Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore’s label. Then there’s Trainsongs, which came about after Tompkins Square boss Josh


And Electric Ragtime’, ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘Wellington The Skellington’ are joined by more recent outings such as ‘La Madrugada‘, ‘Caddo Lake’ and ‘Slowcoach’ hitting transcendental heights or deep emotive swells, creating that timeless world in a way only a few of the post-John Fahey guitar masters can. Other highlights include ‘Thurston’s House’ (inspired by his time with the Sonic Youth dynamo) and ‘Trying Times’, his tribute to the late Jack Rose. The heady slide of ‘Fahey’s Flag’ marks


an occasion when the Great Koonaklaster insisted on taking to the dinner table sporting nothing but a Nazi flag. Chapman was one of the few who could get away with sharing bills with the enigmatic steel string genius. Here are some of the reasons why. Kris Needs


Chapman and his bricklayer’s hands, early ’70s


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