Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention | |
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Also known as | Fairport |
Origin | London, England |
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Website | fairportconvention |
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig).[1] They started out influenced by American folk rock, with a set list dominated by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs and a sound that earned them the nickname "the British Jefferson Airplane".[2] Vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews joined them before the recording of their self-titled debut in 1968;[3] afterwards, Dyble was replaced by Sandy Denny, with Matthews later leaving during the recording of their third album.[4]
Denny began steering the group towards
The 1970s saw numerous lineup changes around the core of Swarbrick and Pegg – Nicol being absent for the middle of the decade – and declining fortunes as folk music fell out of mainstream favour. Denny, whose partner
The band was reformed by Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks in 1985, joined by Maartin Allcock (guitar, mandolin, keys, vocals) and Ric Sanders (fiddle, keyboards), and they have remained active since. Allcock was replaced by Chris Leslie (mandolin, violin, vocals) in 1996, and Gerry Conway replaced Mattacks in 1998. Their 29th studio album, Shuffle and Go was released in 2020, and they continue to headline Cropredy each year.
Despite little mainstream success – their only top 40 single being "
History
Origins
Bassist Ashley Hutchings met guitarist Simon Nicol in North London in 1966 when they both played in the Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra. They rehearsed on the floor above Nicol's father's medical practice in a house called "Fairport" on Fortis Green in Muswell Hill – the same street on which Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks grew up.[11] The house name lent its name to the group they formed together as Fairport Convention in 1967 with Richard Thompson on guitar and Shaun Frater on drums.[12] After their initial performance at St Michael's Church Hall in Golders Green on 27 May 1967, they had their first of many line-up changes as one member of the audience, drummer Martin Lamble, convinced the band that he could do a better job than Frater and replaced him.[13] They soon added a female singer, Judy Dyble, which gave them a distinctive sound among the many London bands of the period.[3]
1967–69: The first three albums
Fairport Convention were soon playing regularly at underground venues such as UFO and The Electric Garden, which later became the Middle Earth club.[1] After only a few months, they caught the attention of manager Joe Boyd who secured them a contract with Polydor Records. Boyd suggested they augment the line-up with another male vocalist. Singer Iain Matthews (then known as Ian MacDonald) joined the band, and their first album, Fairport Convention, was recorded in late 1967 and released in June 1968. At this early stage Fairport looked to North American folk and folk rock acts such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and The Byrds for material and inspiration. The name "Fairport Convention" and the use of two lead vocalists led many new listeners to believe that they were an American act, earning them the nickname 'the British Jefferson Airplane' during this period.[2] Fairport Convention played at the first Isle of Wight Festival, in August 1968, when Jefferson Airplane headlined.[14]
After disappointing album sales they signed a new contract with Island Records. Before their next recording Judy Dyble left – she described it as being "unceremoniously dumped" [15] – and was replaced by the band with Sandy Denny, a folk singer who had previously recorded as a soloist and with Strawbs. Denny's distinctive voice, described by Clive James as "open space, low-volume, high-intensity", is one of the characteristics of two albums released in 1969: What We Did on Our Holidays and Unhalfbricking.[16] These recordings marked the growth of much greater musicality and song-writing ability among the band. The first of these featured the Thompson-penned "Meet on the Ledge", which became their second single and eventually the band's unofficial anthem.
During the recording of Unhalfbricking, Matthews left after having sung on only one song, eventually to form
These two albums began to gain the band wider recognition. Radio DJ
Developing British folk rock
On 12 May 1969, on the way home from a gig at
Usually considered the highpoint of the band's long career, Liege & Lief was a huge leap forward in concept and musicality. The album consisted of six traditional tracks and three original compositions in a similar style. The traditional tracks included two sustained epics: "Tam Lin", which was over seven minutes in length, and "Matty Groves", at over eight. There was a medley of four traditional tunes, arranged, and, like many of the tracks, enlivened, by Swarbrick's energetic fiddle playing. The first side was bracketed by original compositions "Come all ye" and "Farewell, Farewell", which, in addition to information on the inside of the gatefold cover on Hutchings' research, explaining English folk traditions, helped give the record the feel of a concept album. "Farewell, Farewell" and the final track "Crazy Man Michael", also saw the full emergence of the distinctive song writing talent of Thompson that was to characterize his contributions to the band and later solo career. The distinctive sound of the album came from the use of electric instruments and Mattacks' disciplined drumming with Swarbrick's fiddle accompaniment in a surprising and powerful combination of rock with the traditional. The entire band had reached new levels of musicality, with the fluid guitar playing of Thompson and the "ethereal" vocal of Denny particularly characteristic of the sound of the album. As the reviewer from AllMusic put it, the album was characterised by the "fusing [of] time-worn folk with electric instruments while honoring both".[21]
A few British bands had earlier experimented with playing traditional English songs on electric instruments, (including Strawbs and Pentangle), but Fairport Convention was the first English band to do this in a concerted and focused way.[22] Fairport Convention's achievement was not to invent folk rock, but to create a distinctly English branch of the genre, which would develop alongside, and interact with, American inspired music, but which can also be seen as a distinctively national reaction in opposition to it.[23] Liege & Lief was launched with a sell-out concert in London's Royal Festival Hall late in 1969. It reached number 17 in the UK album chart, where it spent fifteen weeks.[24]
1970s: A time of change
Disagreements arose about the direction of the band in the wake of this success. Ashley Hutchings wanted to explore more traditional material and left to form two groups that would rival Fairport for significance in English folk rock: Steeleye Span and the Albion Band.[25] Sandy Denny also left to found her own group Fotheringay. Dave Pegg took over on bass guitar and has been the group's one constant ever since, in an unbroken membership of over four decades. The band made no serious attempt to replace Denny, and, although she would briefly return, the sound of the band would now be characterized by male vocals.
Despite these changes the band produced another album, Full House (1970), which was remarkably successful as a project. Like its predecessor, it combined traditional songs, including a powerful rendition of "Sir Patrick Spens", with original compositions. The latter benefited from the writing partnership of Thompson and Swarbrick, most obviously on "Walk Awhile", which would become a concert favourite. Despite the loss of Denny the band still possessed four vocalists, including the emerging voices of Nicol and Swarbrick, whose tones would dominate the sound of this period. It was favourably reviewed in Britain and America, drawing comparisons with the Band from Rolling Stone magazine who declared that "Fairport Convention is better than ever".[26] The album reached number 13 in the UK Chart and stayed in the chart for eleven weeks.[24] The same year the band released a single, "Now Be Thankful", and made its American debut, touring with Traffic and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.[27]
In the recurring pattern, soon after the album's release Thompson left the band to pursue other projects and eventually his solo career. This left Simon Nicol as the only original member, and Dave Swarbrick emerged as the leading force in the band. In 1970 the members and their families had moved into The Angel, a former pub in
Only Pegg and Swarbrick remained, and the following few years have been dubbed 'Fairport confusion' as a bewildering sequence of band members came and went, but by 1973 Mattacks had returned and two former members of Sandy Denny's Fotheringay had joined the band, Denny's Australian husband Trevor Lucas on vocals and guitar, and American Jerry Donahue on lead guitar.[31] From these line-ups the band produced two studio albums: Rosie, notable for the Swarbrick-penned title track (1973) and Nine (1974), the ninth studio album by the band. The last of these contained writing contributions by Lucas to five of the nine tracks, which together with Donahue's country influences and outstanding guitar pyrotechnics gave the album a very distinctive feel.
Denny rejoined the band in 1974, and there were considerable expectations, both artistic and commercial, placed on this line-up. Denny was featured on the album
Rowland, Pegg, and Swarbrick fulfilled their remaining contractual obligations to Island Records by turning what had originally been a Swarbrick solo effort into the album Gottle O'Geer (1976) under the name 'Fairport' (as opposed to Fairport Convention) in the UK, and as 'Fairport featuring Dave Swarbrick' in the US, and with various session players and production by Simon Nicol, who subsequently rejoined the band. They then signed with Vertigo, but record sales continued to decline; after producing the first two of four albums for which they were contracted, The Bonny Bunch of Roses (1977) and Tipplers Tales (1978), Vertigo bought them out of their contract. It is claimed by members of the band that this was the only recording money they had seen up to that point.[32]
1979–1985: The Cropredy era
By 1979 the mainstream market for folk rock had largely disappeared, the band had no record deal, and Dave Swarbrick had been diagnosed with tinnitus, which made loud electric gigs increasingly difficult. Fairport decided to disband. They played a farewell tour and a final outdoor concert on 4 August in Cropredy, the Oxfordshire village where Dave and Christine Pegg lived. The finality of this occasion was mitigated by the announcement that the band would meet for a reunion.[33]
In August 1979, the band played at Knebworth Festival in England. The headline act at both their appearances at the festival, over two consecutive Saturdays on 4 and 11 August, were Led Zeppelin.[34]
No record company wanted to release the live recordings of the tour and concert, so the Peggs founded
The Peggs continued to record and release the Cropredy concerts as 'official bootlegs'. These were supplemented by New Year's gigs in minor locations including the
The Angel Delight lineup of Simon Nicol, Dave Swarbrick, Dave Pegg, and Dave Mattacks played a number of gigs in the UK in the early 80s, then toured extensively in the UK and the US in 1984 and 1985.[38] Band alumni like Richard Thompson and Bruce Rowland would occasionally join in.[39]
The remaining members pursued their own lives and careers outside of the band. Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks had recorded and toured with
In 1985, Pegg, Nicol and Mattacks found that they all had some free time and an available studio belonging to Pegg. They decided that they needed some new material to add to the catalogue that had been suspended in 1978. As Swarbrick was unavailable, the selection of traditional tunes was more difficult than for past albums and there was a need for a replacement fiddle player and some vocals. Pegg and Nicol took over arranging duties on an instrumental medley and the band turned to sometime Albion Band members: jazz and folk violinist Ric Sanders and singer-songwriter Cathy Lesurf. They also had the help of ex-member Richard Thompson. Thompson and Lesurf contributed songs and took part in the recordings. Also important to the album was Ralph McTell who contributed one song and co-wrote one track each with Nicol and Mattacks; the latter of these, "The Hiring Fair", would become a stage fixture of the future Fairport.
The resulting album Gladys' Leap (1985) was generally well received in the music and national press, but caused some tension with Swarbrick who refused to play any of the new material at the 1985 Cropredy Festival. Nevertheless, the decision to reform the band, without Swarbrick, was taken by the other three remaining members. Ric Sanders was invited to join, along with guitarist, composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Maartin Allcock. Nicol, with his developing baritone voice, took over the main share of the vocal duties. This line-up was to last eleven years, the longest period of membership stability in the band's history so far.[40]
1986–1997: Stability
The new band began a hectic schedule of performing in Britain and the world and prepared material for a new album. The result was the all-instrumental Expletive Delighted! (1986). This showcased the virtuosity of Sanders and Allcock, but perhaps inevitably was not popular with all fans. This was followed by the recording In Real Time: Live '87 which managed to capture the energy and power of the new Fairport on stage, despite the fact that it was recorded in the studio with audience reactions dubbed on.[41]
In this period the band were playing to larger and larger audiences, both on tour and at Cropredy, and it was very productive in terms of recording. Fairport had the considerable composing and arranging skills of Allcock and, to fill the gap created by a lack of a songwriter in the band, they turned to some of the most talented available in the contemporary folk scene. The results were Red & Gold (1989) The Five Seasons (1990) and Jewel in the Crown (1995), the last of which was judged "their bestselling and undoubtedly finest album in years."[42]
At this point, with Mattacks busy with other projects, the band shifted to an acoustic format for touring and released the
1998–present
Dave Mattacks moved to the US in 1998, and
2007 was their fortieth anniversary year and they celebrated by releasing a new album, Sense of Occasion. They performed the whole of the Liege & Lief album live at Cropredy, since 2004 renamed Fairport's Cropredy Convention, featuring the 1969 line-up of Dave Swarbrick, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, with singer-songwriter Chris While taking the place of Sandy Denny. Footage of the festival, although not the Liege and Lief performance, was released as part of a celebratory DVD.
The band's first official YouTube video appeared in April 2008. Edited from footage shot for the DVD, the nine-minute mini-documentary includes interviews with Lulu, Jools Holland, Seth Lakeman, Mike Harding, Geoff Hughes and Frank Skinner.
In 2011 the band released a new studio album Festival Bell, the first new album in four years. This was followed in 2012 by Babbacombe Lee Live Again recorded live during the 2011 tour revisiting the Babbacombe Lee album first issued in 1971. In 2012, the band also released By Popular Request, a reworking in the studio of a number of the most popular songs in the band's repertoire (as determined by a mysterious consultation and voting process conducted by the band with its fans).
As of 2020[update] the band continues to write and record music, regularly producing new studio albums, the most recent releases being 2015's
In 2022 Gerry Conway made the decision to leave the band after 24 years, and it was announced that the band would continue as a four piece.
On the bands Winter 2023 UK Tour they were joined by a returning Mattacks on drums and percussion. Mattacks also returned for the 2024 winter tour.[47][48][49]
Public recognition
The mainstream media has increasingly recognized Fairport Convention's historical importance. They received a "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the 2002 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In the same year Free Reed Records, an independent label, released Fairport Unconventional, a four-CD boxed set of rare and unreleased recordings from the band's 35-year career. At the 2006 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards they received an award when their seminal album Liege & Lief was voted 'Most Influential Folk Album of All Time' by Radio 2 listeners.[7] At the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Fairport Convention received an award recognising the late Sandy Denny and the band for "Favourite Folk Track of All Time" for "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?".[8]
Personnel
Members
- Current members
- Simon Nicol – guitar, dulcimer, lead vocals, keyboards (1967–1971, 1976–1979, 1985–present)
- Dave Mattacks – drums, percussion, keyboards, bass guitar (1969–1972, 1973–1975, 1985–1997, 2023–present)[49][50][51]
- Dave Pegg – bass guitar, mandolin, backing vocals, guitar, fiddle, drums (1969–1979, 1985–present)
- Ric Sanders – fiddles, keyboards, ukulele, backing vocals (1985–present)
- Chris Leslie– mandolin, fiddle, bouzouki, vocals, guitar, flute (1996–present)
Discography
- Fairport Convention (1968)
- What We Did on Our Holidays (1969)
- Unhalfbricking (1969)
- Liege & Lief (1969)
- Full House (1970)
- Angel Delight (1971)
- "Babbacombe" Lee (1971)
- Rosie (1973)
- Nine (1973)
- Rising for the Moon (1975)
- Gottle O'Geer (1976)
- The Bonny Bunch of Roses (1977)
- Tipplers Tales (1978)
- Gladys' Leap (1985)
- Expletive Delighted! (1986)
- Red & Gold (1988)
- The Five Seasons (1990)
- Jewel in the Crown (1995)
- Old New Borrowed Blue (1996)
- Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (1997)
- The Wood and the Wire (1999)
- XXXV (2002)
- Over the Next Hill (2004)
- Sense of Occasion (2007)
- Festival Bell (2011)
- By Popular Request (2012)
- Myths and Heroes (2015)
- 50:50@50 (2017)
- Shuffle and Go (2020)
Filmography
- Tony Palmer's Film of Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort, directed by Tony Palmer, featuring Fairport's appearance at the Maidstone Fiesta in 1970. Originally released as a VHS video by MusicFolk/Weintraub, re-released on DVD by Voiceprint Records in 2007,[52] soundtrack CD issued by Voiceprint as Live in Maidstone 1970 in 2009.
References
Citations
- ^ a b Simon Nicol, Fairport Convention Official Website Archived 11 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 14 January 2009
- ^ a b Observer Music Monthly, retrieved on 14 January 2009.
- ^ a b Humphries, pp. 7–9.
- ^ a b Humphries, p. 27.
- ^ "Inside Fairport Convention's Liege And Lief: "We were on a crusade..." – Page 2 of 6". Uncut. 3 June 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ^ a b Hutchings, Ashley. Liege and Lief. 2002, Island Records reissue, IMCD 291 / 596 929-2, liner notes.
- ^ a b BBC 2 Folk Awards 2006 retrieved on 13 January 2009.
- ^ a b BBC 2 Folk Awards 2007 retrieved on 13 January 2009.
- ^ Fairport Convention, The Cropredy Box (Woodworm, WR3CD026, 1998) disk 2.
- ^ a b "'You had to hold on to the furniture when Sandy sang': Live fast, die young ... John Harris pays tribute to the one-woman maelstrom that was Sandy Denny". The Guardian. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
- ^ Thompson, Dave (December 1983). "Fairport Convention". Record Collector. No. 52. pp. 28–32.
- ^ B. Hinton, and G. Wall, Ashley Hutchings: The Guv'nor & the Rise of Folk Rock, (London: Helter Skelter, 2002)[page needed]
- ^ Humphries 1997, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Ray Foulk, 2015, Stealing Dylan from Woodstock, Medina Publishing, Surbition.
- ^ "2nd Band – Fairport Convention – 1967 | Judy Dyble". Judydyble.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
- ^ C. James, "In a lonely moment". Retrieved on 14 January 2009].
- ^ Hinton and Wall[page needed]
- ^ Humphries, p. 37.
- ^ "Richard Thompson: Solitary Life". BBC Four. BBC. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- ^ Sweers 2005, p. 89.
- ^ Allmusic retrieved on 14 January 2009.
- ^ R. Unterberger, Eight Miles High: Folk-Rock's Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock (Backbeat Books, San Francisco, 2003), p. 157.
- ^ Sweers 2005, p. 4.
- ^ a b c "Fairport Convention | full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
- ^ Humphries, p. 52.
- ^ Rolling Stone Reviews retrieved on 14 January 2009 Archived 2 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Richard Thompson Official Website retrieved on 14 January 2009 Archived 18 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ The Official Charts website retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ (Mostly) English Folk Music retrieved 13 January 2009 Archived 2 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Humphries, pp. 95–97.
- ISBN 978-0-711-90465-1.
- ^ Redwood & Woodward 1995, p. 14.
- ^ Redwood & Woodward 1995, pp. 15–16.
- ^ "Led Zeppelin | Official Website Knebworth Festival – 11 August 1979". Led Zeppelin – Official Website. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Humphries 1982, p. 103.
- ^ a b Redwood & Woodward 1995, p. 18.
- ^ R. Weissman, Which Side are You On?: An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America (Continuum International, 2005), p. 241.
- ^ Abbot, Scott (31 March 2008). "Fairport Convention Set Lists". Home.myfairpoint.net. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
- ^ "A Mini-History of Fairport Convention". Fclist.org. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
- ^ Redwood & Woodward 1995, p. 19.
- ^ Redwood & Woodward 1995, pp. 34–35.
- ^ NME online retrieved on 13 January 2009 Archived 2 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ As commemorated in The Cropredy Box triple-CD set (1998).
- ^ "Fairport Convention postpone Worthing date because of Covid". www.sussexexpress.co.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ^ "Fairport Convention's drummer, Gerry Conway, is leaving the band". www.banburyguardian.co.uk. 12 September 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
- ^ Barlass, John (30 March 2024). "Thank you, Gerry Conway". At The Barrier.
- ^ thestrangebrew (7 February 2023). "Dave Mattacks on playing with Fairport Convention for Winter 2023 UK Tour". The Strange Brew. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
- ^ ra120118 (26 November 2022). "Fairport Convention Announce Winter 2023 UK Tour - with Very Special Guest on Drummer's Stool". Spiral Earth. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b "Fairport Convention 2023 Winter Tour". The Oxford Magazine. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ "Fairport Convention: Wintour 2023 - Royal Northern College of Music". RNCM. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ "Fairport Convention folk-rocking it to Stratford in new year". Leamington Observer. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ "Fairport Convention: Maidstone 1970 [DVD]". PopMatters. 20 February 2008.
General sources
- Humphries, Patrick (1982). Meet on the Ledge: A History of Fairport Convention. London: Eel Pie Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-906008-46-8.
- Humphries, Patrick (1997). Meet on the Ledge: Fairport Convention – The Classic Years. London: Virgin Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-753-50153-5.
- Redwood, Fred; Woodward, Martin (1995). The Woodworm Era: The Story of Today's Fairport Convention. Thatcham: Jeneva. ISBN 978-0-952-58600-5.
- Sweers, Britta (2005). Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195174786.
External links
- Media related to Fairport Convention at Wikimedia Commons