The Opatov Session (1997)

The Opatov Session by Dr Watson

This playlist exists mainly for posterity and fans of Dark Company and is not available for download. Files can be made available upon request or following bribery.

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The Opatov Session by Dr Watson was recorded in June 1997, using the tape machine provided by English House in Albertov, that George used during lessons when teaching English to the locals of Prague. It’s not a great recording, the two of them could have sat a bit closer to the machine, but what’s done is done. We have left the running order of the tracks the same as they were on the tape.

Phil and George managed to record all of their songs one afternoon in Room 1308 of the Hotel Opatov, Prague. They were both dry and in serious need of beer at the end of this session, which is why Black Eyes was rather short. We regard this as a great pity as it was a real favourite on the Charles Bridge and their version of the old traditional Russian gypsy folk tune was better than any we have heard subsequently on the internet. Phil sadly seemed to run out of steam during White Bird on Ivory.

At this time One Place was almost written and had not become a part of the Dr Watson reportoire. Zasackas (in English, say ‘zass-SATS-kass’) was somewhat curtailed and lacking vocals, possibly due to the beer drought at the moment of this recording. The Jam in A did not significantly develop any further from this point.

This is a curious mix of ‘unplugged’ songs, mostly from the back catalogue of Dark Company, with one each from The Ug Brothers, Rough Terrain and what would one day become Flicker. There are a couple more thrown in from elsewhere for good measure. Some of these probably have no right to work acoustically, yet somehow they do. Hooray!

Ještě jedno pivo, prosím…