On the inside cover of 'Rainmaker', the first of three Harvest albums by Michael Chapman, along the collected statements, impressions and affectionate evocations of friends and associates there is one, which says: 'Mike's own individual music making has evolved from so many difference sources that if anyone tries to classify him they'll be in trouble'. I doubt if anyone who knows anything about his background or has heard any of his songs would be tempted to do that. He emerged from a long erratic involvement in a rather nebulous folk tradition to write very personal and unusual songs, full of rhythm and unexpected corners and unlikely dimensions.

"Rainmaker", in addition to containing what is for me his most effective and charismatic song "Not So Much A Garden", establishes the themes - isolation and loneliness in a variety of settings, people and moments remembered, the hopelessness of trying to hold on to virtually anything... It also shows him to be a guitarist of great expressiveness and sensitivity, amongst the most accomplished I've heard.

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Rainmaker Q:April 1998

Reviewed: April 1998 Release Date: 06-Apr-1998

You can never quite tell if Michael Chapman's drawling vocal is a homage to imbibed country veterans or if his emotive sneer represents the fatality of his folkloric stories. Either way, his debut album from 1969, Rainmaker, and the following year's Fully Qualified Survivor are packed with emotion-soaked gems. Having served his time on the northern folk circuit, these albums must have come as a shock to the ear-tugging traditionalists. Electric guitars, sentimental strings, loose snare drums and arrangements that owe as much to jazz as Ewan MacColl, make Chapman's albums strange hybrids and all the more attractive for it. Nearly 30 years on, his dreamy folk groove, a grittier take on John Martyn with a splash of Roy Harper, and some spacey guitar from Mick Ronson on Survivor is well worth a second look. Reviewed by Dave Henderson

Rainmaker Modern Dance 1998

Chapman, born in Leeds, came on to the scene, as it where, back in 1969, on the superb label Harvest. He'd 'served' his time on the folk circuit, and had built up quite a strong reputation as a powerful singer, and adept lyricist. When this album first came out, it caused quite a stir. And when you play it, it's no wonder. As I said, the Harvest label had a certain ooomph about it, and Rainmaker underlined this. There's a total of sixteen tracks on this rerelease, five of which are bonus tracks, three of which are previously unreleased. Helping Chapman on here is Danny Thompson, Aynsley Dunbar, Clem Clempson, Rick Kemp and Barry Morgan. The title track is a cracker, but the opener, It Didn't Work Out is a stunner. Indeed, I would go as far as to say that all the songs on here are worthy of more attention. Even the unreleased tracks are damn fine, which, for 'filler's, is a true bonus! No Song To Sing, On My Way Again, You Say, and Sunday Morning all have that certain special something.

Links

www.Q4music.com

Modern Dance

Fully Qualified Survivor Q: April 1998

....the following year's Fully Qualified Survivor is packed with emotion-soaked gems. Having served his time on the northern folk circuit, these albums must have come as a shock to the ear-tugging traditionalists. Electric guitars, sentimental strings, loose snare drums and arrangements that owe as much to jazz as Ewan MacColl, make Chapman's albums strange hybrids and all the more attractive for it. Nearly 30 years on, his dreamy folk groove, a grittier take on John Martyn with a splash of Roy Harper, and some spacey guitar from Mick Ronson on Survivor is well worth a second look.

Reviewed by Dave Henderson

Though the basic mood remains the same as before, the sound has grown in density and penetration and there are no loose ends. Cello and violin spin and swoop around "Aviator" and carve a sound picture of despair within its rambling structure and haunting images. Beautiful.

Fully Qualified Survivor Modern Dance 1998 reviewed with Rainmaker

Fully Qualified Survivor arrived a year later (after Rainmaker), in 1970. Again, it has that certain Harvest 'sound to it. Helping Chapman on this cracking album is the likes of Gus Dudgeon, Mick Ronson, and Rick Kemp. The album has 11 tracks, with the obvious standout being Postcards Of Scarborough. Mind you, that's not saying that the rest is below par. March Rain, The Aviator, Fishbeard Sunset, Kodak Ghosts and Andru's Easy Rider are simply gems. These two albums are absolutely superb and don't go thinking they're folk - they do, admittedly have elements of it in there, but not the finger in the ear stuff. Bloody good gear! (Dave W Hughes).

John Peel: This is Michael Chapman's second LP, the first was The Rainmaker. Michael Chapman is one of my favourite solo performers. Although there's a lot of dubbing and stuff going on by other musicians, I think he is one of the most interesting and inventive guitarists around. Certainly he has a very distinctive voice. I enjoy listening to him very much indeed. I didn't like the strings that erupted at one point, but of course it's not fashionable to like strings.

John Varnom: They fitted in quite well, though. I think my first impression was of an English Johnny Cash. In that first track, his voice really stood out over the backing, which was interesting without being overpowering. I think you can take liabilities with the backing because he's got a very strong voice. It's a nice LP although for some reason I haven't heard much of him before..

Links

John Peel's Peelenium

Modern Dance

Reportoire Records

See For Miles Records

Triste Magazine

Article on FQS

John Peel: He's not as well known as he should be because he's not the sort of person who seeks after publicity. He's not groovy, he's not pretty, in fact he's the sort of person who might play right-half for Sheffield Wednesday. That's another thing I like about him, he's very honest and straightforward. I don't know whether his first record was a commercial success but it was certainly an artistic success.

We only listened to the first side but I know the tracks on the second side because he recorded them for Top Gear. One of them, Pictures of Scarborough, is being used as the theme of a programme on Yorkshire Television. It was one of the best tracks we had on Top Gear last year.

circa 1969

I'm immensely surprised by Michael Chapman's 'Fully Qualified Survivor', it's certainly the best of these five albums and the most satisfying collection of good songs on an album in months. Although his material occasionally appears introspective and even morose, they are such superb examples of the best in their field that nothing, but nothing, should prevent you from listening good and hard to his music. Apart from swinging his way through straight instrumental acoustic numbers like Naked Ladies and Electric Ragtime, and the twelve string, bottleneck thumping of Andru's Easy Rider, he has used Mick Ronson on lead guitar, Rick Kemp on bass and Blue Minks' Barry Morgan on drums to lend himself the necessary weight for stunning numbers like Soulful Lady. The tight solid sounds that these four guys get on the grittier stuff is nothing short of amazing. Mick Ronson uses his machinery like an expert veteran, though he probably is a expert veteran, although I can't place him. Stand up Mick and identify yourself. At times they swing so well that I'm reminded of the empathy that few groups apart from Cream have managed to get. It's incredibly difficult to convey the atmosphere that this guy manages to create in almost every one of his songs, his steady use of long, strong, strung-out melody lines delivered in an edgy laconic drawl is initially tedious but beautifully amusing once you get to the idea behind the form. Aviator is admittedly bleak commentary, stark, repetitive and hypnotic but none the less essential...

Paranoid but effective, it swells and thuds away, joined later by violin and cello sympathetically played by Paul Buckmaster and Johnny van Derek. Mick Ronson's guitar does tend to intrude now and again on Stranger In The Room, but I suspect that the voice was dubbed on over the backing track, not very well at that, hence the weird delayed echo effect that happens at times. Technical faults aside it's another good track but then they're almost all good. I'm beginning to get surprised and embarrassed by my own enthusiasm; it is however a minor masterpiece and one listen to it would serve to convince almost every discerning listener of its undoubted worth... (who wrote all this pretentious bullshit?) Soulful Lady is a chick's number all the way. I'm assured by someone who ought to know about these things that every lady who doesn't spend her day being bored and her nights being cool will, after one listen, hold her chin up, wiggle her ass and feel real foxy. I can dig that, play it to your mum. If someone with a benevolent bent (more pictures to conjure with) would like to let me know where Michael Chapman is, and what, if anything he's doing, I'd like to see him in concert sometime.

Triste Article on Fully Qualified Survivor

Window

On his new album "Window", there is evidence too that the very characteristics, which give Mike his uniqueness, are beginning to hold him back. The weary, cracked, slurring vocal style, once so engaging and appropriate, is becoming affected to the point that occasionally it seems to be becoming a parody of itself. And he has chosen to pull the reins on a songwriting concept which should have gone past "Aviator" and into the timeless beyond. However there are some welcome touches of humour, not previously a feature of his work. Window is a disappointment to me, but only because of my expectations. It's still better than most, and may serve a good purpose by introducing people to Michael Chapman. Try to hear his other albums as well. And try to live awhile with his music. It should be a rewarding relationship.

circa 1970