Friday 18 September 2020


Tomorrow would technically mark 50 years since the very first Glastonbury Festival. See poster here. 
Some of that final line-up changed as The Kinks were replaced and Tyrannosaurus Rex topped the bill. (See this link) 
Further down the bill amazingly were Amazing Blondel, one of the more curious bands to appear on the day. Their pseudo-elizabethan / acoustic music - with many a 'fare ye well' and 'on the morrow' plus the occasional 'coy facade' - appearing oddly out of place. This strolling minstrel music perhaps more suited to a Renaissance Fayre than a fledgling Pop, Folk & Blues festival. 
Fewer than 1500 people turned up to pay their one pound to witness this event, while from personal experience Amazing Blondel were far more at home in smaller confined surroundings than say a big old field in Somerset. 
All this leads me to my introduction to the group via their second album on Island Records. Called 'Fantasia Lindum', I inadvertently put Side Two of the LP on first and so the first strains of their music that I heard was a track entitled 'Toye'. (Often written as 'To Ye' - I've checked the album sleeve and it's definitely one word 'Toye').
This video from 1998 is the original line-up, though their former long hair has not fared so well in the years between. It features that first track 'Toye' along with another piece called 'Pavan'. 
Some Amazing Blondel 


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