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

[Will S]

A new album would be very interesting, providing the songs were new and not just rehashes of past glories.

Agreed. I think Myths and Heroes was the first album for a while that didn't include a re-recorded song and it was all the better for it.

I am just relistening to Myths and Heroes for the first time in a while, and it stands out to me as the best album of the post-Maart era by quite a way.  There are some great favourites of mine on there - John Condon, Weightless, The Man In The Water amongst others.

[davidmjs]

A new album would be very interesting, providing the songs were new and not just rehashes of past glories.

Agreed. I think Myths and Heroes was the first album for a while that didn't include a re-recorded song and it was all the better for it.

I am just relistening to Myths and Heroes for the first time in a while, and it stands out to me as the best album of the post-Maart era by quite a way.  There are some great favourites of mine on there - John Condon, Weightless, The Man In The Water amongst others.

It's an incredibly low bar (for me) but I've always thought Over the Next Hill was the strongest Chris era album.  But I really like John Condon and rate the other two you mention so I'll give it a first spin in a decade or more...