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Oh my!
very rarely does anything excite me in life these days but when this dropped through the door I have to admit I did grin and shake a little, well rather a lot, our good friend Jamie has done an exceptional job both with the discs and the packaging and Pauls production and liner notes are quite exquisite.
I don’t generally have a good word to say about the Broken Biscuit Company but I do doff my cap to them for keeping these incredible recordings.
The total running time is 4 hours and every second is genuis.
The first disc contains Jakes guest spots (mostly) which is all the old favourites performed from 1968 to 1984 on a variety of shows, watch out for ‘our dog’ from 1985, worth the cost of the discs alone, it’s like having Jake perform a concert in your front room.
The second disc, TV specials, is magnificent. I won’t spoil your enjoyment of them but I was pleasantly surprised by the content, strange? yes, but we are talking the 1970’s, can you imagine Jakes crooning with no guitar but a piano accompaniment? no? it’s on here.
I wasn’t aware of John D Loudermilk until now but this gentleman is a celebrated songwriter and his interaction with and amiration of Jake is a delight to behold. If that wasn’t enough, jake at the Cambridge folk festival in 1981 very nearly rounds the whole thing off.
Eveyone involved in this release has worked so incredible hard to make it happen and they should all be very proud.
As a viewer it doesn’t disappoint, if you are reading this i’m sure you will own a copy sooner or later and that is a decision you will never regret.Thanks for your feedback! We are so proud to have released this collection at last and are so pleased at the reception it is rightfully receiving.
Thanks to post office strikes my copy took two weeks to arrive, but it arrived today!!!! I am looking forward to watching it, Tampenny’s review makes me want to watch it NOW, but I need to set aside a good amount of time ideally with no interruptions. I can but hope!
Due to current events the DVD took a couple of weeks to arrive but was definitely worth the (anxious) wait. What a gem this DVD is. I had thought of creating a YouTube playlist of all the Jake clips I could find but this DVD is way better than what is on there, and in better quality too. I am old enough to remember Jake on ‘That’s Life’ and ‘The Innes Book Of Records’ but I was not aware of the wonderful ‘The Camera and the Song’ or the ‘Thackray & Loudermilk ‘ programmes. What a treasure trove of delights this DVD is. I am so glad to have a copy along with the ‘and songs’ DVD. I would like to thank all those involved in the creation of this DVD, you have all done a wonderful job. I look forward to whatever is coming next!
Thanks for posting your message, Andy TZ. I’m so glad you enjoyed the DVD collection. Getting it released was the culmination of years of work, and The Jake Thackray Project team is very proud to have got there in the end. Look out for a CD release in 2023…
‘The Camera and the Song’ and ‘Thackray and Loudermilk’ are both wonderful, albeit very different, programmes. I reckon that if Jake had done more work like ‘The Camera and the Song’, he would have escaped being labelled as a novelty guest spot singer and got taken more seriously as a writer.
Well, what can I say? I’m in Thackstasy! This is such a brilliant collection. I’m one of those people who came to Jake’s music late, so never had the opportunity to see him live. It’s great to see the TV appearances that brought him to public notice. And as a guitarist it’s a great opportunity to see his playing style. Considering he was more or less self taught it’s amazing the economy with which he plays and makes his fingering changes – that’s the sort of economy that they try to drum into you when learning the basics of classical guitar, but clearly innate for Jake.
The TV slots are all obviously rehearsed and staged, but the section from Cambridge Folk Festival is sublime – you can see so clearly how invested Jake is in his performance. I’ve been going to Cambridge annually for about 30 years now and I’d give my eye teeth to have been going when Jake was there and to have had the chance to chat to him. So, I’ll have to make do with feasting repeatedly on this generous offering.
I have to offer sincere thanks to the members of the Project who made this happen – I can’t imagine the amount of time and effort you had to invest to make it come to fruition, but I truly appreciate it. THANK YOU!!
Hi Joe, on behalf of the Project team, thanks for your feedback. It’s nice to be sharing the Thackstasy!
Well, Santa’s played a blinder and I’ve loved immersing myself in these treasures over the past few days.
It’s great to see all the Braden’s / That’s Life stuff together of course, with a few little surprises in the form of musical or lyrical variations from the versions we’re familiar with. And really pleasing to see a bit more of the backing musicians – Alan obviously, but Ike Isaacs and the others were also terrific musical foils for Jake and, going by their demeanor throughout, clearly had a lot of respect and affection for him.
As Tampenny says, Our Dog is a real unexpected treat, and again quite different from the other versions we have. And I unexpectedly found myself rather enjoying the 1983 version of Ladies Basic Freedoms Polka – probably my least favourite Jake song, but the extra verse lends it some extra depth.
The real gold is on disc 2 though – in particular The Camera and the Song and the brilliant performance at Cambridge. Two very different sides to Jake’s work, and taken together a pretty good summation of what made him so special.
An excellent end to a vintage year for us Thackoraks – much of which is down to the heroic work of Paul and others behind the scenes. Chapeau!
A very belated thank you to you, Mark. We are so pleased to have been able to release this material at last, and it is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking work on editing and mastering by Jamie McCoan.
Hey there, a new fan here…
Hope this is a good place to inquire about an option to watch the DVD’s online (cause u know, I don’t have any means of playing it…?
I will happily pay the 20 pounds for any legit source, wether it’s on Vimeo rent or even a link to download…
Any Idea?
Thanks š
Welcome aboard! I’m afraid that we cannot make the material available online, as we don’t have a licence for this and won’t be able to get one. The material is fabulous, so if you don’t have a DVD player, it might be worth getting one – lots of them turn up secondhand in charity shops and on eBay for very little money. I’m sorry we cannot do more to help.
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