Take Off Your Head And Listen

An early trail leads to Newcastle: among the musicians on Take Off Your Head And Listen, the first sampler from Rubber Records, is Alan Moffatt. His contribution, “Finest Hour”, is marked as a live recording and credits Moffatt as its writer. The label bears ℗ 1971. Jackie had appeared on a record well before Control, still using his original name.

Jerry Gilbert introduces the sampler in the folk pages of Sounds on 6 November 1971. He praises the debut from the new Newcastle label, its low price and the prospect of further releases by these musicians. His review concerns the compilation as a whole; it offers no separate judgement on Moffatt’s song. The Alan Hull mentioned in the text is the Lindisfarne musician.

The record itself makes the connection visible: “Finest Hour – Alan Moffatt” is the second track on side A. The sleeve thanks the audience at the Rex Hotel Folk/Arts Club; the Discogs entry for the original pressing places the recording at that club and identifies Moffatt as Jackie Leven. Paul Du Noyer’s obituary also gives Alan Moffatt as his original name. The review documents the sampler in autumn 1971, while the label documents his contribution to it.