TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I was listening to Tom Petty over the weekend and was transported back to the first time I ever heard him, hitched to an old Max Fleischer cartoon on the Old Grey Whistle Test in the late 70s. It occurred to me that I can remember the first time I heard almost all of my favourite artists but for some reason not Fairport. I was a latecomer and definitely had Si Tu Dois Partir on an Island compilation in the 80s. I was aware of Cropredy in the early 80s and had a friend with a copy of History, though I don't recall ever hearing it. My conversion was a live show in '89 I believe but I have no idea how or when they first got on my radar.

How about you?

What We Did On Our Holidays  - sometime in Spring 1969, Jill Hanson's record shop Coventry city centre - can recall the impact of Sandy's voice and Meat and Two Veg for the first time.

I first heard Fairport on a 1970(?) compilation called "Bumpers", featuring Walk AWhile.

Bumpers was a landmark album, introducing many artists to me. First time I'd ever heard Jimmy Cliff, Bronco, If, Quintessence... It was a prized posession and much played. I was in a taxi in Glasgow last year and the driver had it playing and we both sang along with it all the way from the airport to downtown!

I have a CD /mp3 version if you ever want it.

Written about before on here, but abbreviated version is I was dragged to a Jethro Tull concert at the Worcester Centrum in Massachusetts in 1987, and Fairport was the opening act. It so happened for an arena show with tickets bought the day of the gig we had amazing seats, center stage, about 10 rows back...so seeing the sheer enjoyment they brought to their set, and a feeling in my young mind that this was like my dad's Clancy Brothers records 'rocked up', I was immediately hooked.

Ahh... Bunpers!!

Ahh Quintessence!!

 :) :) 8)

Thanks for the offer Andy, but being an acquirer, I've managed to buy all nearly all of the source albums over the years. Some in Vinyl, Cassette and CD..........The lifestyles of others that I've funded!

Primary school assembly, year 6 (2004), I was 10. Portmeirion, from XXXV, was played all week as music for us to walk in an out of assembly. For some reason, and I've no idea why, the track really caught me. I found the teacher who organised the music, and asked to borrow the CD at the end of the week. After checking with my parents to see if it was OK (the album has a picture of a pint on the back), I borrowed the CD and things snowballed massively from there.

Before that, I was a massive Beatles fan, as well as having a liking for Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys. I'd never been to a proper live gig (save a couple of Beatles tribute bands) Classic FM was always on in the house at home, and I played recorder and trombone.

Now, my musical tastes have expanded considerably, I'm as folkie as they come, have been to countless gigs and festivals, and play a number of folk instruments. Dad's got back into music he listened to 40 years ago, as well as becoming a huge folk-rock fan. I've become a serial Morris dancer, which I'm fairly sure has shaped me as a person a bit, and I've met some really amazing people.

Without a doubt, a life-changing moment.

I'd got a cheapo radio/cassette machine for my birthday that allowed me, for the first time, to record direct from the radio.  Exciting!  I must have been about 13 or 14 years old, so it must have been 1979 or 1980, and not long after Sandy's passing.  I was at my Grandma's house and listening to, I think, Whispering Bob Harris.  He played Who Knows Where The Time Goes and I was an instant convert.  The song made me feel very emotional.  It was an instant favourite.  I played the recording back a few times, but I must have lost the tape.  I always vowed to buy some Fairport in the following years, but it wasn't until some 25 years later that my brother bought me the remastered Unhalfbricking and I finally started picking up the other albums.  God knows what took me so long.

Jules

I have written about it earlier but here's a short version:
I was new as a student in Gothenburgh and one day in December 1969 I walked into a record store who had a sale price on some new albums. I looked them over, on one with a grey cover I read on the backside about the group's members and their roles. A female front singer and a guy who played the violin - an instrument I'd played for several years when I was young - was to my liking but the band obviosly played electric with bass guitar and drums. My curiosity made me buy it and from the first plays I was hooked!

Got into Fairport Convention in the early 90's thanks to a live interview and acoustic performance with some beret-toting bloke called Richard Thompson on VH1, think he was promoting Rumor & Sigh. Checked out what this fantastic guitarist/singer had done previously, found out he used to be in a band, acquired albums by this bloke's former band, really liked them, wondered what that band did next after this bloke had left, found I liked that a lot too, wondered what they were currently doing...became hooked for life  :). First saw RT live in 1994, FC in 2001.

I'm sure there are many others out there who discovered FC through RT, and also plenty who came to FC via rock instead of folk, and then discovered a whole wealth of new music and a huge family tree of related artists !

Not fc but I was at my primary teachers house when her husband played Morris on: I was seven and immediately hooked

Dw

Newcastle University had a superb record library, and whilst a student I used it to explore just about every musical genre going. On one of these forays ('81 or '82) in borrowing random records I picked up 'A History of Fairport Convention' - and a very expensive addiction was born.

I was so taken that instead of taping it I actually went down to Windows and bought my own copy.

Hearing Tam Lin on the local FM "underground" in 1970. To my young ears it sounded like someone had managed to get a quality recording of some event in a forest circa 1654 or something, with next to nothing to compare it too at the time, entirely new ground.

My big bro had 'olidays.
saw them live on the farewell tour (cliffs pavillion southend)
rest is history

Had seen the first couple of LPs in the shops, but hadn't picked up on them; then I saw the band playing MOTL on the "Granada Reports" regional news magazine programme (1830-1900 Mon-Fri).  To be honest, I thought it was OK, nothing more; then a friend suggested we go & see them (& Steeleye) at the free gig in Ainsdale sand dunes. Hooked, lined & sinkered.  ;D  

1967 one Sunday afternoon John Peel played 'If I Had a Ribbon Bow' and I fell in love with that voice

 :-[ :-[ :-[ ;D

That was very similar to my introduction: hearing Tam Lin on WBCN in the early 70s - it was a Halloween show featuring "spooky" music. I was blown away by the song, but never heard the name of the group! Several years later I encountered it again and started exploring.

I was a big Steeleye fan from the early 70s, via my brother's involvement with a folk group at university - they were called 'Marrowbones' and did a lot of early Steeleye Span stuff - so I already had a foot in the folk/rock camp.  But it was borrowing 'Babbacombe Lee' around about 1975ish that really sealed it for me.  I just went out and tried to get my hands on as much Fairport as I could.  Cropredy in 1984 was the first time I saw them, though (Swarb/Peggy/Simon/DM were the line up if my memory serves me.)

Ahh Bisto!

Spot the (deliberate) mistake.. I meant of course... Bumpers!!

Think I have said it before but Charnock Richard Folk Festival 1976. Over the tannoy between sets came this amazing music which I later learned was called A Sailor's Life. Not long after I acquired "History Of".

Quite a day as I also heard for the first time John Martyn, Dick Gaughan with Five Hand Reel, Hedgehog Pie, McGarrigles, Steve Goodman, John Prine and Alain Stivell.  The ticket was only cheap, but it has cost me a fortune since!

Dragged along to Greenwich Borough Hall by a friend in 1974.  Sandy had just rejoined.  Tickets were 50p!

And as I've said previously ... I hated nearly every second.  GBH had (has) terrible acoustics and their answer was to turn up the volume so much that you really couldn't hear it properly.  My most cherished memory of the gig was Sandy sitting alone at the piano singing "Like An Old Fashioned Waltz".

However the "Live Convention" and "Rising For The Moon" albums, followed by a superb gig at Drury Lane rectified the position  ;)

I bought a copy of "Hand of Kindness" in 1983 based on reviewers describing RT as the finest British guitarist etc and was impressed.  A couple of years later FC released Gladys's..featuring said Mr. RT so that was the start: shortly after that I found a second hand copy of Holiday, which was when I realized that FC were something special.  That led to the usual slippery slope - Cropredy, winter tours, acquiring back catalogue etc etc

1969, I was 12 years old: My older cousin Michael had all kinds of great music to which he introduced his younger brother and me.  Liege and Lief, Live Dead, and Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh are the ones that I always come to mind when I think about those days.

It was 1982, so I would have been 17. I used to buy an album or two every payday: I wasn't into the stuff of the time at all, and used to buy Crosby, Stills & Nash; the Grateful Dead; Quicksilver Messenger Service; etc. This particular payday I remember very clearly: I bought Frank Zappa's Apostrophe, and also took a punt on some album called Liege & Lief. I loved it right from the get-go, and listened to it rather more than I listened to Apostrophe.

It took two more years before I saw them live: Simon, Peggy, Swarb and Bruce on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury '84. Wonderful. I remember Simon's Cornflakes guitar very clearly, as well as the very long herbal cigarette that Swarb smoked all through Sloth. I've never seen any photos from that gig: I wonder if any exist?

Up against a wall in chapel St Billericay, 1974










Oh hang on that's not what you meant was it

Was that a version of Bonny Black Hare Billy?

Gosh ... I think Holidays was my first album ( or was it History??)

I had seen them at Rock City ( or Talk of The Midlands as it may have been then) in Nottingham
Then there was Nottingham Festival ... I think twice there  Its a bit of a mist but I've worked out it must have been 40 years ago (I didn't realise I was THAT old :o)
I remember buying Rosie ( the single)and seeing Swarb at several festivals...
Sandy was almost cited in divorce proceedings ( I had a picture of her on OUR bedroom wall)
So from a misty and fairly alcoholic beginning I have finally reached the new low of being a TAW member
I tend to follow Fairport family groups  but I do appreciate other genres of music but whenever I come in TAW ....it is playing (WAW) (like now!!!! ;D)

That's where I came in! I remember thinking that the long one they played made a perfect accompaniment to a lazy sunny sunday afternoon.  :)

68 i think, A mates house listening to loads of stuff he had recorded on a reel to reel and there was fairport.
I got properly hooked later with Sailors Life cos i found the interplay between guitar and fiddle stunning/new/ exciting/any adjective you want to throw in.

1968 ish at the Southbank (QE Hall I think) with Martin Lamble on drums. Ian was in the group but I have to admit I can't remember if it was Judy or Sandy.The memories of Suzanne and Reno Nevada stay with me to this day.

I came to FC via Tull in '82 and bought the U.S. "Chronicles" (is that right?--the one with Stonehenge on the cover) double album along with Leige and Lief. Live-wise: saw the Angel Delight lineup with Steeleye in '84(?). (Then a very memorable last-night-of-the-tour show in Boston in '86 during which Simon got so drunk that ragged rock n' roll numbers with support act Dan ar Bras seemed the only way to keep the music going after the interval. Good times.)

Not sure quite how I decided I liked folk. As a kid I was taken to see the Spinners several times and my parents also had a couple of Seekers LPs. Growing up I initially was in to T Rex, Slade, Sweet and Suzi Q. Then got in to Quo, Sabbath etc and by the time I was 15 Space Rock. In 1977 I was a Punk, though still going to see Hawkwind, Ted Nugent etc. That year I bought the double album History of from a work colleague, though can't remember playing it that often.

The following 15 years I totally bypassed folk, then finally saw Fairport Acoustic at the Cresset, Peterborough and soon after that first went to Cropredy. But, it's really only in the last 10 years I have really got in to Folk. I now attend at least 4 or 5 folk gigs a month and have a very bad CD habit. Though as you'll know, still in to rock, metal, space rock and anything a bit weird.

Like many, I think it was the History album that first introduced me to Fairport, but I think the 'habit' started after I first saw them at Sheffield Uni in Jan 1986 - if I'm not mistaken.  Then ended up seeing them at least two or three times more that year, including one of the Cropredy warm-ups at the Half Moon, Putney, though I didn't go to Cropredy itself until 1989.  

I must have seen them at least once a year (if I've been in the country) since 1986, and iTunes tells me I now have 3.1 days worth of Fairport music on my computer!

Around 1989/90 I used to follow a local band called SuYu and got quite friendly with the singer (and awesome lead guitarist) Mick & his girlfriend Sue. The two also did an acoustic act Harry And and they sang quite a bit of FC. Then Mick played me In Real Time and I was hooked. My first love was (is) rock but I had been brought up on folk and this seemed a natural progression. Around the same time there was a series of concerts on BBC2 late at night and FC was one of them. I loved Ric's manic fiddling, and Maart's incredible guitar and was delighted to see them on the 5 Seasons tour in Cardiff. And they were in the bar afterwards! What a bunch of guys  :D then I divorced and stopped listening to them.

Fast forward to 2004 & my sister Ancient told me that year could be the last Cropredy so suggested we went along, but first we went to see FC in Pontypridd - I was concerned to see Maart & DM had gone but I now see that this is how the band progresses. I've since bought nearly every one of their CDs and I love the earlier stuff as much as the new stuff in fact the only one I never play is XXXV as it's pants IMHO.

Sorry I'm wittering!  ::)

Being played Over The Next Hill in the car one day as a kid. I never looked back.

'My sister has gone back to London and has left some L.Ps behind, shall we see what they are like?'

I was sitting, Christine Keeler-like, on a chair reading Ovid in preparation for my Latin O Level the following day.  Marianne was sketching me (hence the uncomfortable pose).

The records had to be good since Marianne's elder sister was a notoriously racy sort:  she was living in a 'squat' with a hippy without being married; she smoked herbal cigarettes, wore no brassiere and was probably on the Pill, whatever that was.  

Up first was a chap called Leonard Cohen.  I'd never heard such a voice and a strange delivery.  His poetry was uncannily like Ovid's and as I listened, a lightbulb went on in my head with Ovid.  I was rather keen to listen to it again but Marianne had other ideas, as she was already taking the second LP out of its cover.  

It was Leige and Lief.  She looked at me as 'Come All Ye etc' started up.   I looked at her.  Then we fought over the LP cover in a bid to find out more about the group.  Who the hell were they and how did they know that we had been waiting for folk rock/britfolk/whatever it was called?  Studying was impossible for this was no background music - joyous, dark, strange, familiar but most of all, involving.  

After a few days, the racy sister took back her LPs and that was that.  

I got a prize for getting an 'A' in Latin O Level (good old Leonard Cohen, eh!)  in the following school year.  It was a two pound record token.  Leige and Lief cost £2.50 so instead I bought 'History of    '   and got a penny in change.  (Correction:  I had to forfeit the penny because WH Smith didn't give change on tokens, the robbing blighters).

That LP has followed me through life and times to different places.  The battered sleeve bears testament to the fact that it is cherished, though its rosette is frayed and loose, and the insert has been 'enhanced' by small children.  Just like me, I suppose.  

 

Idont remember when i first heard them but it was probably on a John Peel show or Stuart(cant remember his name, scots bloke, got some awful wasting disease) show , probably the sessions that were on Heydays, in the late 60's.
   However due to lack of funds (being a schoolboy till 1970) i didnt see them until the Angel Delight line up were touring in 71 and then i knew they were the band for me, and its been that way ever since.

Stuart Henry I believe.

thats the lad, thanks Al

Hi

Imagine that it is spring 1979. A friend suggests to me that we go to see a band appearing in may at the Fulcrum Theatre in Slogh. "Its only £2.50" he says.

At the time I am still at school. My musical tastes encompass Heavy Rock, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock and Punk. I hacve heard of some folk singers but not Fairport Convention. I agree to go anyway since it is only £2.50.

Tuesday May 30th we take our seats in Row H.  Four musicains appear on stage. A hairy drummer, a bass player in a funny hat, a fresh faced guitar player and a chain smoking, older, short fiddle player.

I don't know if they actually started with WAW but in my memory they do. From the first bars I am hooked.

I see them again in August playing down the bill at Knebworth. I don't think I will see them again as they are due to play their final gig later that day.

When the album Farewell Farewell cane out I purchased a copy and played it constantly.

Sometime in 1980 we saw that a one off reunion gig was happening somewhere in Oxfordshire. We bought tickets and attended for the Saturday. Large quantities of old peculiar was consumed and we lived in a large plastic bag due to the rain.  
I still have the T shirt although it doesn't fit me now!

These are my first times with Fairport. I have had many other times with them in the intervening years. They have provided a soundtrack to my life. I have seen them every year since 1980 at least once.

Thanks Fairport.

On holiday with some mates in Devon, 1979. One of them had brought some albums with him (imagine having to cart vinyl about these days) and one was Babbacombe Lee.
I knew of DM from Morris On and loved his style, so, seeing he was on this, had a listen.
Didn't get to see them 'till Broughton Castle in 1981 (and then I only went to see DM) but doing that changed everything.

Beautifully put.

DC

I don't know why it impresses me so much that you were there too, but it does!  :)

Would have been Sandy, as I have never played the QE Hall

Ahh, that is so great.  I was at the same concert, though I was the one doing the dragging.  I was (and still am) a huge Tull fan, and that was the first time they had toured in four or five years.  Begged and pleaded my parents to go, but they were reluctant because I was just in my first year of high school.  I finally got permission because one of my brother's friend's uncle was going to drive us.  In reality, it was my brother's friend's brother (who was 19 or 20), was going to drive us.  

It was my first concert, and had no idea what to expect.  Had no idea anyone was opening, and honestly, wasn't even probably aware of what an opening was...  I seem to remember that they were introduced at the New Fairport Convention.  Which somehow got translated as the Newport Convention...  I really enjoyed them, but didn't really do anything to look up any of their LP's.  For Christmas, my brother got me "In Real Time - Live '87" which had many of the same songs that they played at the concert.  I really got into that tape, and found a copy of "Farewell, Farewell" which to me was better rawer than "In Real Time" which really got me hooked.    And slowly, over the years, I just really got into them more and more.  

Somewhere in the late 60s, probably 1968, somewhere in London, I think at the Roundhouse but could be mistaken, but definitely at the Bath Festival in 1970 as I remember talking to Peggy and Swarb. ;D ;D ;D

If I remember rightly it was either an advert or an article in the Kent Messenger saying that a film of 2 groups was going to be filmed in Oakwood Park.

The film was going to be directed by the well known film director Tony Palmer. It was to feature Matthews Southern Comfort & Fairport Convention.

At that time I knew more about MSC as they had recently occupied the no.1 position in the charts.

I think there was a charge of 10/- to enter. The Catholic school in the park had organised fete that went on at the same time & I think there was a stage area near the school that local bands played on.

The Blue Eagle helicopter display team must have been part of the school event.

I bought Full House a few weeks later & have seen the band many times in different  line ups, including the Brady/Burridge/Ar Bras one that played a gig at Maidstone College which is also in that park.

In August I will fulfill a long standing desire by going to Cropredy.

Jonathan, thats great...since only you and Bob from here on Talkawhile would know of what I speak, I remember Maart pointing towards the direction of the old Galleria Mall in downtown Worcester and mentioning you could find the "new album" In Real Time there. I also remember everyone except DM coming out to play Budapest (though I could be wrong on that). It really was more than a band discovery for me that night, it was a discovery of a new form of music that was unknown to me, but which 25 years later still thrills and excites me, and has led me to discover and appreciate so much more music in fact.

Unfortunately, the Galleria is no more. I'm still not sure what's going to replace it.

Yep..slight thread drift I realize, but noticed that last time I was up there two years ago Bob.

But getting back to topic I just remember Fairport went down a storm. I think for them it was a we've got nothing to lose kind of thing...just go out there and have fun every night in these American arenas, and if we win people over, then all the better. It must have worked because over the years I have met several people who came across Fairport on that same tour, and even if they didn't become the mega fan I became, they seem to think quite highly of the them.

I got into Fairport very late on via the glam rock/heavy rock/Americana route that others have also alluded to.

I think it was only five years ago when I bought my first Fairport CD. That was after hearing Meet on the Ledge in a Classic Rock magazine freebie. And it was only 2008 when I first saw them. I've seen them seven times in four years now though and there's only one band that I've seen more times than Fairport.

That's a weird route!  I can't believe it's a common one.  How does heavy rock lead to Americana, and thence to Fairport?   ???

Jules

Slade/T-Rex -- Deep Purple/Humble Pie -- The Byrds/Jefferson Airplane -- Fairport Convention/Steeleye Span

Simple really...

Oh, OK, when you said Americana I was thinking the recent version of that term, rather than 60s West Coast.  I get you now.

Jules

I have a couple of weird ones.

Steve Harley at Crystal Palace garden party 1975 - supported by Steeleye Span - started looking for individual members solo stuff - Ashley - Fairport.

And I guess quite a lot of people of my age grew up from glam rock to rock in general - Led Zeppelin - Sandy on 'BOE' - Who is that amazing woman singer ? - Who is this Fairport that she sang with ?

I first heard ( to my knowledge) Zep in the early months of '75 and ended up queueing for a day and night for Earls Court tickets, only the get into the doorway of the record shop selling them and the shout of 'All tickets here are sold out !'

Never did see Zep live, I had a ticket for the first Knebworth show and went down with glandular fever the week before.

Led Zep at Earl's Court... queued for hours in St John's Market in Liverpool with a mate for 2 tickets - very few left when we got ours.

I drove us down to London, we dropped the car at mate's girlfriend's brother's place in Fulham & walked to the gig via a pub or two.  

Band comes on, goes into "Rock & Roll", Page skips across the stage, jackplug pops out of guitar, so we get a few bars in dub while a roadie scuttles on & fixes it!  I hadn't been a fan until then, but what a live band!

Most of my life I only knew of Sandy through "The Battle of Evermore."  (Mrs. John From Austin advises that she had the "Northstar Grassman" LP in college, but it had disappeared from her collection by the time we got together.)  My first RT album was "Mirror Blue" in 1994, but the excessive production really turned me off at the time.  I didn't rediscover him until a live solo performance at the Texas Union Ballroom in 2001.

I officially converted to Fairportism around the same time, thanks to "Meet on the Ledge - The Classic Years 1967-1975."  It's been an orgy of back catalog acquisition ever since.

I didn't get to see them until the first Cropredy warm-up gig in 2007.  By then, I knew all the words and every note through RFTM.  I still have a lot of holes in the post-reunion discography, though the tunes "Jewel in the Crown" and "The Wood and the Wire" are as good as anything they've ever done.

I wondered what you were going to say there Ian!   :o  ;)

In 1988, I was in high school, and the cool older kids I hung around with were constantly playing a cassette of "In Real Time."  I acquired my own copy and was discovering Jethro Tull around the same time, so I rapidly became a fan of Dave Pegg's bass playing.  For a few years I listened exclusively to the Maart/DM/Peggy/Simon/Ric lineup's albums and finally got to see the band live in 1991 at an intimate venue called The Hearth in Pennsylvania.  Over the past couple of decades, I've branched out into enjoying various songs and tunes from throughout Fairport's history, and I eagerly await each new CD by the current band.  I've been fortunate to enjoy gigs over the years in Ohio and California.

I agree, I think Fairport made a good number of fans on that tour.  A couple years later, I saw Fairport open up for Tull at Great Woods for the Performing Arts with my brother and a cousin. Unfortunately we missed the beginning of Fairport's set and only caught their last few songs.  But I remember my cousin picking up "In Real Time" on cassette on the way out at the souvenir stand.  He had never heard of them, and the few songs he caught just hooked him.

The only songs I remember them playing in Worchester were "The Hiring Fair" and the "Big Three Medley" I think is what they called it - The Swirling Pit ->Matty Groves -> The Rutland Reel/Sack The Juggler, though I was totally confused at the time, shouldn't it have called "Big Four Medley"?   ;)  I just remember Ric's violin at the end of "The Hiring Fair" just filling the arena, sounding eerie and unworldly and just thinking that if I was so completely blown away by an opening band I'd never heard of, what's Tull going to be like?  When "The Cocktail Cowboy Goes it Alone" came out, I was so thrilled that "The Swirling Pit" was on there.

I think on Budapest only Ric came out, to do the violin bit that he did on the album.  That, and the Great Woods' shows were the only times I saw "Budapest" with the violin.  It's a great live song, but without violin, it kind of misses something.  I do remember most of Fairport coming out for a song; I think it was "Skating Away..." though for the life of me, I couldn't tell you who played what.  Maart on accordion?

I know memory is a shaky think, and the best concert most people have seen is either the last one they saw or their first concert, but that was, if not the best concert I ever saw, definitely in the top five.  Fairport was great, and I discovered a new band that I still love.  Tull was on (though, to be honest, even if they didn't play all that well that night, I wouldn't have cared or likely known the difference!) but with the addition of various Fairport members on a couple songs, they fleshed out the songs live which really improved the show.  

Hello folks, I am loitering Jules...

I remember holding an original copy of 'Full House' at a record fair aged about 16 in 1983, I loved the cover, but didn't hear the music at the time.

In 1986 I came across 'The History Of Fairport' double LP with the book. Took a chance on it, love at first hearing. Very quickly got 'What We Did On Our Holidays', which has remained in my top 5 favourite records ever since.

After that there was no stopping me, got the Sandy 'WKWTTG' box for Xmas that year, and first saw Fairport live at the Half Moon in 1987. Had a good chat with a nice chap who I later discovered to be Jerry Donahue. Countless gigs since, my absolute favourite being Cropredy in 1992 I think, when Ric Sanders had broken his arm, and we got Robert Plant on the Friday night, and maximum 'Full House' with Swarb on the Saturday. Fantastic.

Hi Nick!

Jules

Thats how I heard them for the first time too... I bought the first lp on the back of Ribbon Bow. Still have it, as well as the originals of all the stuff up to and including Full House.

A certain Bob Pegg was around West Yorkshire at that time , and he had picked up on a Joni Mitchell song Gallery. That was before even her first lp was released, never mind the second one which the song was actually on. I mention this as Fairport also did some Joni stuff (incl Chelsea Morning) around that time too. Since then I've been intrigued as to just how they learned of those songs.

Joe Boyd knew Joni and brought her demo songs over from the US to try to get a publishing/recording deal for her in the UK, naturally he played them to us and we instantly latched on to several and made them our own.. :D

Thank you Jude, thank you so much. And even though he will most probably never see this post, a HUGE thank you to Joe Boyd too...

 ;D ;D ;D

I was a very late starter to Fairport really!...In the late 80's early 90's I was in a band playing pubs and the occasional function around the Oxford area.

One day our drummer Tony managed to secure us a gig at The George Inn, Barford St Michael. I'm guessing we probably played there 2 or 3 times in total. Hanging up on the wall of the back room was a framed copy of Fairports "Red and Gold" LP. It was only then that I twigged the connection between the pub and Fairport Convention...Dave Pegg and Woodworm Studios were just down the lane. I'm not sure our little band were ever going to set the world alight with our rather pedestrian sounding Rhythm and Blues set, but they were nice gigs, and I can remember the landlady Tracey and her husband treating us really kindly...Anyway to cut a long story short...I was interested to discover this band called Fairport Convention, so bought a copy of "The History Of" which I loved (still do!), and "In Real Time" which contained the current band lineup of the time, Maart, Simon, Peggy, Ric, and DM.

From that day I was completely hooked...alas our little band is no more...but happy days! :)







    

It was in 1981 and I was a MEGA Jethro Tull fan when my biology teacher said one day: "Do you know that Dave Pegg plays in a better band?" And he gave me the L & L album. Good man  ;D

If I'm not mistaken Tracey the landlady is heard calling time on the song Closing Time (Jewel in the Crown)

You're absolutely right Martin! :)

Actually, being typically slow on the uptake, I only realised that quite recently, and many years after we played at The George Inn..:-[  ::)

you would have thought he'd have given you and album on which Mr Pegg actually played!  ::)

Yikes, I'm a newcomer. But when I get in to something, it's done obsessively so :)

In the last few years, my tastes reverted back to folk and acoustic music both new and old. I somehow managed to be a fan of artists like Roy Harper, Nick Drake, Pentangle, etc without having known much about Fairport. Eventually I came across I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight and fell in love. As it turned out, this Thompson fellow was in a band prior to that... ;)

Genesis Hall was the song that hooked me several years ago.

What a nice thread and funny to read how people got into Fairport, forgive me if I'm a bit late but I only discovered this forum a couple of days ago.

The first time I heard Fairport was in 1968 when I bought their first album, in that year a lot of albums were released (The Byrds, The Mothers of Invention, Fleetwood Mac etc etc). As I had in that same year started my first job and earning money a lot of that money I did spend on records (too much according to a colleague who said I could have bought a nice secondhand car instead). Every Friday I did go to a record shop to listen to all the new albums that had come out and one day I listened to the first Fairport album and liked it immediately. It stood out from the rest because to me it sounded different and although several of the songs were by American writers it still sounded very English to me and maybe that is what attracted me to them. My favourite songs were Time will show the wiser, I don't know where I stand and Chelsea morning. After that I bought all the albums when they were released and by the third one I was complete hooked and Fairport was my favourite band. I was very disappointed when they stopped after the release of Tipplers tales and in those 10 years (1968 to 1978) I just could not understand when talking to people about music that they had never heard of the band, because for me it was Fairport, Fairport and Fairport.

I saw Swarb on some BBC TV programme in the mid-70s and that was my 'Beatles on Ed Sullivan' moment. From there, a bit of research led me to Fairport and I subsequently devoured their back catalogue (or as much of it was available to an impecunious teenager in pre-iTunes days).

Didn't actually get round to seeing them until 1983 and had no idea what to expect. Needn't have worried. It was one of that year's Cropredy warm-ups at the Half Moon, Putney, and when Jonah took the mic he announced: Dave Swarbrick, Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Cathy Le Surf... Peggy came on at the end!

Didn't miss much after that! Saw the pre- Gladys line-up (Simon, Peggy, Swarb, Bruce) a few times, then suddenly there were these two new faces with them, playing all these new songs! (Something about a 'hiring fair' rings a bell...?  ;))

First heard Fairport Convention when my English teacher played Sir Patrick Spens from Full House for us to compare the original poem and Fairports interpretation and have been a fan ever since, already knew of Dave Swarbrick from folk festivals my parents had danced in at Brum, and knew Dave Pegg's father as he was caretaker at my primary school where my mum taught folk dancing I can remember seeing Dave P's daughter at the school when her grandfather was looking after her I  think this was when Fairport was appearing in America.
First saw them in concert at a small chapel in Sutton Coldfield shortly after Richard Thompson had left the group.

Unusual route here I think - went to the National Theatre in 1980, the Albions were the backing band and I instantly loved them. A friend said that in that case it was obligatory to also hear Steeleye & Fairport. First I picked up "Prospect Before Us" at Bond Street HMV (believe it's just re-opened). Liked that, so a few days later bought "History" at a local record shop (probably the one one they had) - I believe never having heard a note of FC but knowing it was many of the same musicians as the Albion Band ! I instantly loved the first LP of the pair, mainly due to Sandy's vocals, but I believe it was at least a year before I got used to the "yokel" vocals on the second LP. Finally saw FC at Cropredy 1982. Only found out many years later that that was the first time that they used the now-hallowed field !

First heard them in 1984. I noticed that my aunt had The History of Fairport Convention, so listened to that. Loved it! Saw them for the first time in January 1987 at City Hall, St. Albans, then dozens of times after. Also saw a fair few Simon Nicol and Ric Sanders gigs, and even a gig billed as Nicol, Mattacks & Whetstone. Last saw them at Cropredy in 1994.

Tamlin appeared on the WBCN Halloween playlist one year (early 70s) and I spent years trying to find out what/who that amazing group was.

I was interested to read that for some of you "In Real Time" introduced you to Fairport. I must admit that of all FC LPs, this is the one for which I have an admittedly snobbish disdain - because it is in effect a "fake live" album, the applause having been dubbed on afterwards. Also, it was strange how, having resolved to go it alone on Woodworm, they then returned to Island. Were they then promptly dropped by Island when In Real Time failed to deliver the sales or was it always going to be a one-album-deal ?

I would have thought that it was always going to be a one-album deal, coinciding with a fair number of Island Records' 20th anniversary products coming out that year.
The applause were indeed fake, coming directly from a John Martyn live recording.

Dave Pegg;
 
"I was still working with Jethro Tull and Ian had come to Cropredy in 1986 and seen Fairport. He suggested we support Tull, be payed to be on their US tour. We thought it was a great opportunity for us. But we needed an album for it, one which would be distributed in America.

So I went to Island Records, told them we were off to the States with Tull, a really big tour, and that I wanted some dosh to do an album. I wanted Island to put it out in the States to guarantee that people in America would be able to get it. Island coughed up about twenty-five thousand bucks or thereabouts.

We'd thought about recording the album at Cropredy but decided it would be too risky. So we went to a studio in Bray and we made the album in a day: we just set up and played it live, though we added some applause from a John Martyn live album. It was called Live at Cropredy although it was actually recorded fifty miles away. But we had a first rate album for the States, and it's a great album, as live as it gets."

It was my first FC album and is still my favourite, mainly because it has such goods tracks, and it sounds as though everyone (including the "audience") is having a good time. It cheers me up  :)

I didn't know for years that it wasn't live, and even when I found out it didn't make a difference. It must have been a good John Martyn concert!

Interesting that it was made with a USA tour in mind ... I actually remember that on the UK tour Simon Nicol told the audience that his solo album was outselling it ! Although it was worth buying for many of us at the time, because some tracks were taken from Roses / Tipplers, and the Vertigo albums were unavailable for ages.

I wonder if it sold well in the country it was intended for.

Total sales, who knows, I can say that I have seen it in a few peoples collections over the years, from people who have nothing else by the band. Like Bridget it remains one of my favorites. Over the years I have tuned out the fake applause as such, and just focus on the music. Viewing it as such I think it is  pretty solid work, and a precursor of sorts to By Popular Request.

Red and Gold actually got into the UK Album charts.

Probably the John Peel radio connection - I certainly saw them in a studenty bar/'refec' in Brighton 67/68 sometime... Spent my Woolies Saturday  job money on Ribbon Bow etc, and can remember pre-ordering WWDOOH from our local record and hi-fi emporium.
Many joys and tears over the years since.

Ah, good old Bumpers. I have a copy. I also have the Island History of Fairport Convention, which I'm almost sure wqas the first Faiport album I bought. It led to others, I'm happy to say. My first hearing of the band, I'm afraid, is lost in the mists etc.