Watersons - For Pence and Spicy Ale (1975) (@256)

It could be a tricky question in a music quiz: "Which is Britain's oldest indie label that is still active?" Answers such as "Beggars Banquet", "Rough Trade", "4AD", "Cherry Red " etc. are all wrong! The correct answer is Topic, a legendary label that was founded in 1939. For a company that its stated mission is "Music should be used as a tool of revolution, in a cultural and educational sense" one shouldn't be surprised that Topic had always a strong sense in social issues. But a sense that was only seldom presented in a form of dry rhetoric and largely by observing and commenting the daily life of ordinary people. Topic is (thus) responsible for reserving and spreading British folk throughout the years (one could argue that it is the equivalent to Smithsonian or Folkways), while its contribution to the British folk revival of the late 60's is immense. Recently, in order to celebrate the label's 70th birthday, they released a solid compilation of seven (!) cds, named "Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People" that travels us from pre-WWII recordings up to recent ones. If you bother to spend your quids on it, it's for sure that you'll not regret it. And if you think that releasing a 7-cd compilation is not a business-wise decision, you'll have to know that they celebrated their 60-th birthday by releasing a series of 20-cds!

So, here is a cornerstone of Topic's catalogue, from a "royal family" of British folk, backed by Martin Carthy. As Richard Meyer notes in allmusic: "For Pence and Spicy Ale sounds like the back room of an old pub in its charming immediacy; listeners really get a sense of the fun it is to sing these old songs with affection and respect. "

Further reading:
Topic's selective discography
Guardian for Topic's anniversary
topicrecords.co.uk

review link: here

download link: here

P.S. For those interested, another brilliant Topic release has been posted earlier in this blog and can be found here.