1969
I met Dominic Behan in Shepherds Bush in 1968 when we both played a benefit gig. It may have been 19th of November at Hampton Court. We hit it off and he took me under his wing. He said he would help me make an album in Sound Techniques Chelsea in 1969. Steve Benbow put a band together.
He wrote dots and brought in a bunch of his drinking mates to read the dots. I met them for the first time in the studio. They were all pub jazz players and I was the apprentice Paddy folkie greenhorn.
They did their thing and I tried to keep up with them. While I couldn’t keep up with their chord shapes I could keep up with their drinking and we all got on well – there was pain in the music but we were not feeling it. I can still hear it.
Dominic wrote four of the songs and also produced. A man called Harold Shampan paid the bills and Mercury put it out briefly. It led to doors being opened in the B.B.C and R.T.E and I did broadcasts on both networks after the release.
There are a couple of shams out there burning CD’s of this album. But don’t be tempted. As soon as I’m set up I’ll bang it out to you at a suitable price.
Audio Files
Paddy On The Road
James Larkin