An awkward moment on 27th December 1969 when John Peel interviewed Sandy Denny. Sandy’s hopes of general everyday Christmas banter were dashed with a musical related one of “what are you going to do in 1970 Sandy?”. The question was a poignant one as Sandy had left Fairport Convention. She was to go on to form her own band ‘Fotheringay’ with Trevor Lucas which resulted in two albums (one resurrected only in 2008). Unfortunately for John her plans for the future were not going to surface other than a brief acknowledgement of her maybe forming a group…and doing some more singing.
This wouldn’t be the only non-interview with an artist for John, his archive is teaming with them and have provided many Peel fans with a chuckle and further endearment for the John’s dry way of dealing with them. He clearly felt uneasy at being placed in a position to interview someone who wasn’t ‘up for it’ in the first place, I’m sure he’d much rather just play and talk about the music, something he always sounded at home doing…in the comfort of his office with a glass of wine. In this instance it was all a little too much as he opted to fill the final painful 20 seconds with his own countdown. Sandy’s ‘Oh dear’s’ bookend the interview very nicely. Oh dear indeed…