Fairport Chatter

[Shane (Skirky)]

This, today, from The Guardian:

Over two days in August 1996, Oasis played to 250,000 people at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire. Riding high on two bestselling albums, the concerts were seen as the crowning moment in their career.

The Guardian covered the weekend but Caroline Sullivan’s review concentrated on the Charlatans, one of the support acts. There was a picture of the Knebworth crowds on page 7, but the main review that day was of folk-rock band Fairport Convention’s Cropredy festival.

https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2026/08/17/Cropredy_review,_the_Gdn,_12_August_1996.jpg

[Gouty (Gary)]

That's Don Backhurst there, on the left. Known as 'the Red Indian' in less enlightened times, he was a ubiquitous character for many years, both in Fairport circles and locally in the Guildford area. The last time I saw him, he was wading through the mud at the top of the field, in sandals, with precious festival food in both hands! A couple of days later, he died. Hard to reconcile that laid-back hippie with a veteran of D-Day, but there you go...

[sliprigilio (Al)]

That's Don Backhurst there, on the left. Known as 'the Red Indian' in less enlightened times, he was a ubiquitous character for many years, both in Fairport circles and locally in the Guildford area. The last time I saw him, he was wading through the mud at the top of the field, in sandals, with precious festival food in both hands! A couple of days later, he died. Hard to reconcile that laid-back hippie with a veteran of D-Day, but there you go...

I grew up in Guildford and Don was well known and quite a character! A man of many parts!  His son (Tony) was a musician and had a band (House) that played regularly in the area

Cheers

Slippy