The Favourite

Anyone have a comment on this - where it can be got, whether it’s enjoyable, etc? And who are the others in the trio?

This was the resident band in ‘The Favourite’ pub in Holloway, North London, in the late sixties/early seventies. The ‘Paddy in the Smoke’ album was recorded there.
Jimmy Power - fiddle, Tony Ledwith - accordion, Tom Power - guitar and vocal. The bodhrain player was Gerry Wright, a regular at The Favourite and who played on a couple of tracks.
This disc was on the Hit Records label, recorded at Highbury Studios in the early seventies, and I suppose it was only sold locally, I bought my copy at the pub. It’s a great example of the style of Irish music in London at that time.
If I remember correctly, Tom Power played on Sunday lunchtimes, and Reg Hall played piano on Wednesday evenings.

The album’s a real rarity and the only copy I’ve ever seen was at ITMA in Dublin. The label that released it, Hit Records, was based in Ireland and there’s a partial discography for it at https://www.irishrock.org/labels/hit.html

Here’s a slightly edited entry for the album taken from Reg Hall’s book ‘A Few Good Tunes of Music’.
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JIMMY POWER TRIO
Jimmy Power, fiddle; Tony Ledwith, accordeon; Tommy Power, guitar, & voice [1]; & Gerry Wright, bodhran [2].
Recorded by Curly Clayton at Highbury Studios, London, circa 1970.

Hit Records HITL 5004

The Favourite / The Monk – Jigs
The Copper Plate / Kilmaley / Pigeon on the Gate – Reels
Selection of Reels [2]
The Yew Reel / Duke of Leinster
The Lark in the Morning / When the Kettle Boils Over – Jigs
Selection of Reels [2]
Selection of Hornpipes
The Bounty / Trip to the Cottage – Jigs
Mason’s Apron / The Dawn (accordeon & guitar)
Patsy McGann [1]

Highbury Studio was just round the corner from The Favourite, where these musicians played regularly. That
seems to have been the only connection. It was an amateurish production.
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In Reg’s thesis Gerry Wright is listed as coming from Limerick and playing the tambourine.

‘The Yew Tree’ is possibly the Josie Keegan reel.

‘Patsy McCann’s’ is also known as ‘Kitty Lie Over’.

This one is dear to my heart, because of the association with The Favourite. In the late seventies the pub was owned by Kathleen McManamon and her son, Tommy and I were the resident band for a while along with John Softley and John Harrison (who had played in the Watersons). I played banjo and mandolin, John Softley played guitar, John Harrison played guitar and fiddle and Tommy played tenor banjo, mandolin and guitar.
There had been a fall out with Jimmy Power’s trio and Power had moved across the road to another Holloway pub. Our band was called the ABCD Trio when four of us turned up and the ABC Quartet when three of us turned up. Tommy was a fantastic musician who had been schooled in Irish traditional music, but we played swing and bebop. He bought a Macaferri guitar and in a couple of months could play Django-style swing with ease. He eventually joined Shane MacGowan and the Popes. Sadly, he died in 2006, aged around 45.