Fairport Convention
I Fairport Convention sono un gruppo folk rock inglese. Fondati da Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, Ashley Hutchings e Shaun Frater, i Fairport Convention, iniziando come gruppo di cover di rock della West Coast, sviluppano presto un loro stile che mescola il rock con la musica tradizionale folk inglese, contendendosi il titolo di più grande folk rock band inglese con i Pentangle. Dopo numerosi cambi di formazione si sciolgono nel 1979 per riformarsi per un concerto nel 1985, da allora continuano a suonare e pubblicare dischi. In parte il continuo successo che ancora oggi hanno i Fairport Convention è dovuto all'annuale festival di Cropredy, nell'Oxfordshire, ora rinominato Fairport's Cropredy Convention e che riunisce ogni anno almeno 20.000 fan sin dal 1974.
Biografia
Il gruppo suona per la prima volta dal vivo in una chiesa nel Nord di Londra nel 1967, ne fanno parte il bassista e frontman Ashley 'Tyger' Hutchings, il chitarrista solista Richard Thompson e il chitarrista Simon Nicol e Shaun Frater alla batteria. In questi primi tempi si riuniscono per le prove nella casa di famiglia di Nicol, detta Fairport, da cui il nome del gruppo Fairport Convention (Convention in inglese vuol dire riunione, incontro). Nasce così una band che suonerà per 40 anni. Tuttavia questa prima formazione suona solo nel primo concerto, poi il giovane Martin Lamble, presente in quell'occasione come spettatore, prende il posto del batterista. È solo il primo cambio di formazione di una lunga serie che caratterizzerà la storia dei Fairport Convention. Si aggiunge subito dopo la cantante Judy Dyble (Judy Aileen Dyble, nata il 13 febbraio 1949, a Wood Green, Londra). Dopo pochi mesi che hanno iniziato a suonare l'incontro con il produttore Joe Boyd gli permette di firmare un contratto con la Island Records. Si aggiunge, su suggerimento di Boyd, una voce maschile: Iain Matthews; questa formazione incide il primo album, Fairport Convention, tra la fine del 1967 e la prima metà del 1968. Il disco contiene due cover, probabilmente gli episodi più riusciti del disco: Time Will Show the Wiser di Emitt Rhodes e Chelsea Morning di Joni Mitchell e Jack O'Diamonds. In questo primo periodo i Fairport si rifanno a Joni Mitchell e Bob Dylan nel materiale e nello stile, tanto che molti credono siamo americani e questo gli frutta l'appellativo di 'Jefferson Airplane inglesi'.
Nel 1969 Judy Dyble viene sostituita dalla cantante folk Sandy Denny, che ha già inciso dischi come solista e con gli Strawbs. Esce What We Did on Our Holidays, secondo album, della band, a metà strada tra il folk rock americano del primo disco (Eastern Rain di Joni Mitchell e I'll Keep It with Mine di Dylan), e quello inglese (nei tradizionali She Moves Through the Fair e Nottamun Town) e contenente due classici della formazione: Meet on the Ledge e Fotheringay su testo della Denny. Il 1969 è un anno molto prolifico per i Fairport Convention: Ian Matthews lascia il gruppo, Sandy Denny rimane quindi la voce solista, e si aggiunge il violinista-mandolinista Dave Swarbrick: esce Unhalfbricking. C'è ancora Dylan: Percy's Song, con l'ultima partecipazione di Matthews, Si Tu Dois Partir, versione in francese di If You Gotta Go, Go Now, Million Dollar Bash. Ma il brano più innovativo è la rilettura del tradizionale A Sailor's Life, in undici minuti i Fairport Convention mescolano folk rock e psichedelia. Nel disco compaiono chitarre elettriche e violino, fisarmonica e battiti di mani (al posto della sezione ritmica), una vera fusione tra folk e rock. Nel maggio avviene però una tragedia: il pulmino su cui viaggia la band ha un incidente sull'autostrada M1, di ritorno da un concerto a Birmingham: muoiono il diciannovenne Martin Lamble e Jeannie Franklyn, la fidanzata di Richard Thompson; gli altri membri del gruppo rimangono feriti. Inizialmente il gruppo pensa di sciogliersi, poi però, una volta guariti, iniziano la registrazione del terzo album dell'anno: Liege & Lief. Arriva Dave Mattacks alla batteria. Hutchings si dedica alla ricerca di brani tradizionali da rileggere in chiave rock, consultando anche gli archivi degli etnomusicologi Cecil Sharp e Francis Child: cinque degli otto brani che compongono l'LP sono "tradizionali".
Nel 1970, nonostante i successi di Liege & Lief, Ashley Hutchings lascia il gruppo per fondare gli Steeleye Span, mentre Sandy Denny, insieme al marito Trevor Lucas fonda i Fotheringay con cui pubblicherà solo un album (Fotheringay 1970), per poi dedicarsi a una carriera solista. La band sostituisce Hutchings con Dave Pegg e decide di fare a meno della voce femminile. Il gruppo pubblica Full House e il live Live at the L.A. Troubadour, subito dopo anche Richard Thompson abbandona il progetto: Simon Nicol è l'ultimo membro fondatore della band.
Nel 1971 escono i due LP Babbacombe Lee e Angel Delight, i primi due album dei Fairport Convention con la stessa formazione.
Nel 1972 anche Nicol e Mattacks lasciano il gruppo: continuano Pegg e Swarbrick insieme a una serie di musicisti che si alternano. Ma nel 1973 c'è il ritorno di Mattacks, ed entrano il marito di Sandy Denny Trevor Lucas e il chitarrista statunitense Jerry Donahue. La band incide Rosie e, nell'anno successivo, Nine.
Nel 1974 anche Sandy Denny torna nei Fairport Convention, partecipando al primo disco live Fairport Convention Live e scrivendo quasi per intero il disco Rising for the Moon. Nel 1976 lascia di nuovo il gruppo, attraversa una crisi matrimoniale e cade in depressione: sotto l'effetto di tranquillanti, morirà nel 1978 cadendo dalle scale. Insieme alla Denny lasciano anche Lucas e Donahue, Mattacks viene sostituito da Bruce Rowland. I rimanenti, con la produzione di Nicol, pubblicano Gottle O'Geer. Nicol torna nella band che incide The Bonny Bunch of Roses nel 1977 e Tipplers Tales nel 1978 con l'etichetta Vertigo.
Nel 1979 il gruppo si ritrova senza contratto discografico e l'udito di Swarbrick va peggiorando: i Fairport Convention si sciolgono con un tour di addio che termina a Cropredy, paese dove abita Dave Pegg. Nessuna etichetta vuole pubblicare l'album live, Pegg fonda la Woodworm Records e pubblica Farewell, Farewell. Ma l'anno successivo il gruppo si riunisce nuovamente per un concerto a Cropredy: nasce il Festival di Cropredy. Di questi anni vengono pubblicati i live al Festival come bootleg ufficiali. Nel frattempo Dave Pegg diviene bassista dei Jethro Tull, mentre Nicol e Swarbrick formano un duo acustico.
Nel 1985 Peg, Nicol e Mattacks tornano in studio, al violino arriva Ric Sanders dei Soft Machine, insieme al polistrumentista Maartin Allcock. Questa sarà la formazione più duratura, undici anni, dei Fairport Convention. Nel 1996 Allcock viene sostituito da Chris Leslie, nel 1998 Mattacks lascia il posto a Gerry Conway. Questa è la formazione ancora esistente.
Componenti
La formazione attuale è:- Simon Nicol (chitarra, voce): dal 1967
- Dave Pegg (basso, mandolino, corista): dal 1970
- Ric Sanders (violino): dal 1985
- Chris Leslie (violino, mandolino, bouzouki, voce): dal 1997
- Gerry Conway (batteria, percussioni): dal 1998
- Ashley Hutchings (basso)
- Bob Brady (pianoforte)
- Bruce Rowland (batteria)
- Dan Ar Braz (chitarra)
- Dave Mattacks (batteria)
- David Rea (chitarra)
- Dave Swarbrick (violino, voce)
- Iain Matthews (voce)
- Jerry Donahue (chitarra)
- Judy Dyble (voce, arpa)
- Maartin Allcock (chitarra, mandolino, tastiere, voce)
- Martin Lamble (batteria)
- Paul Warren (batteria)
- Richard Thompson (chitarra, voce)
- Roger Burridge (violino)
- Roger Hill (chitarra)
- Sandy Denny (voce)
- Tom Farnell (batteria)
- Trevor Lucas (chitarra, voce)
Discografia
Album studio
- 1968 Fairport Convention
- 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays
- 1969 Unhalfbricking
- 1969 Liege & Lief
- 1970 Full House
- 1971 Angel Delight
- 1971 Babbacombe Lee
- 1973 Rosie
- 1973 Nine
- 1975 Rising for the Moon
- 1976 Gottle O'Geer
- 1977 The Bonny Bunch of Roses
- 1978 Tipplers Tales
- 1985 Gladys Leap
- 1986 Expletive Delighted
- 1987 In Real Time
- 1987 Heyday
- 1989 Red & Gold
- 1990 The Five Seasons
- 1995 Jewel in the Crown
- 1996 Old New Borrowed Blue
- 1997 Who Knows Where the Time Goes?
- 1999 Cropredy 98
- 1999 The Wood and the Wire
- 2001 Fairport Convention XXXV
- 2004 Over the Next Hill
- 2007 Sense of Occasion
Singoli
- 1968 If I Had a Ribbon Bow
- 1968 Meet on the Ledge
- 1969 I'll Keep It With Mine
- 1969 Si Tu Dois Partir
- 1970 If (Stomp)
- 1970 Now Be Thankful
Live
- 1974 Fairport Live Convention
- 1977 Live at the L.A. Troubadour
- 1979 Farewell Farewell
- 1982 Moat on the Ledge - Live at Broughton Castle
- 1986 House Full (live)
- 1992 25th Anniversary Concert
- 2002 Heyday: BBC Radio Sessions, 1968-1969
- 2004 The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood
- 2005 Journeyman's Grace
- 2006 Off the Desk
- 2007 Live at the BBC
Raccolte
- 1972 History of Fairport Convention
- 1975 Tour Sampler
- 1991 The Woodworm Years
- 2003 Rhythm of the Times
- 2009 Fame & Glory
Boxes
- 1998 The Cropredy Box
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and electric folk band. Formed in 1967, they are widely regarded as a key group in the English folk rock movement.
Their seminal album Liege & Lief is considered to have launched the electric folk or English folk rock movement, which provided a distinctively English identity to rock music and helped awaken much wider interest in traditional music in general. The large number of personnel who have been part of the band are among the most highly regarded and influential musicians of their era and have gone on to participate in a large number of significant bands, or enjoyed important solo careers.
Since 1979, they have hosted the Cropredy Festival, which is the largest such annual event in England. Individually and collectively the members of Fairport Convention have received numerous awards recognizing their contribution to music and culture. As of 2016, they continue to record and tour.
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, North London (the same street on which Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks grew up), which lent its name to the group they formed together as Fairport Convention in 1967 with Richard Thompson on guitar and Shaun Frater on drums. After their first performance at St Michael's Church Hall in Golders Green, North West London 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. They soon added a female singer, Judy Dyble, which gave them a distinctive sound among the many London bands of the period.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. 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 McDonald) 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 American folk and folk rock acts such as Joni Mitchell(Canadian), 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.After disappointing album sales they signed a new contract with Island Records. Before their next recording Judy Dyble 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. 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. The second of these albums featured a guest appearance by Birmingham folk fiddler Dave Swarbrick on a recording of "A Sailor's Life", a traditional song brought to the band by Denny from her folk club days. The recording of this track marked an important turning point for the band, sparking an interest in traditional music in Ashley Hutchings that led him to detailed research in the English Folk Dance and Song Society Library at Cecil Sharp House; this theme would become the basis for their next, much more ambitious, recording project.
These two albums began to gain the band wider recognition. Radio DJ John Peel championed their music, playing their albums on his influential BBC shows. Peel also recorded a number of sessions which were later released as the album Heyday (1987). They enjoyed some mainstream success when they entered the singles charts with "Si Tu Dois Partir", a French-language version of Bob Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now". The record just missed the top twenty, but secured the band a slot on Top of the Pops, Britain's most popular television pop music programme at the time. In 1969 four members of the band, one uncredited and three with pseudonyms, featured as backing musicians on the album Love Chronicles by Scottish folk artist Al Stewart.
Developing electric folk
On 12 May 1969, on the way home from a gig at Mothers, a club in Birmingham, Fairport's van crashed on the M1 motorway. Martin Lamble, aged only nineteen, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson's girlfriend, were killed. The rest of the band suffered injuries of varying severity. They nearly decided to disband and Matthews left, eventually to form Matthews Southern Comfort. However, they reconvened with Dave Mattacks taking over drumming duties and Dave Swarbrick, having made contribution to Unhalfbricking, now joined as a full member. Boyd set the band up in a rented house in Farley Chamberlayne near Winchester in Hampshire, where they recuperated and worked on the integration of British folk music into rock and roll that would result in the fourth album Liege & Lief.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 characterized by the ‘fusing [of] time-worn folk with electric instruments while honoring both’.
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. Although this is often referred to today as folk rock, the bands and press of the time used the term electric folk or English folk to distinguish it from more American inspired music. The descriptions are now often used indiscriminately or forgotten; however, 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. 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.
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. 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’. The album reached number 13 in the UK Chart and stayed in the chart for eleven weeks. The same year the band released a single 'Now Be Thankful' and made its American debut, touring with Traffic and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
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 Hertfordshire and this inspired the next album Angel Delight (1971) the band's first to chart in the US, peaking at number 200 on the Billboard 200 and their only top ten album in the UK. The next project was an ambitious folk-rock opera developed by Swarbrick, based on the life of John 'Babbacombe' Lee, ‘the man they couldn’t hang’ and released with the title Babbacombe Lee (1971). The concept format, originally without clear tracks, excited considerable press interest and it received good air play in the United States where it reached number 195. A version was produced by the BBC for TV in 1975 with narration by Melvyn Bragg. These two albums were also notable as the first time that Fairport had recorded consecutively with the same line-up, but inevitably stability did not last: Simon Nicol left early in late 1971 to join Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band and he was soon followed by Mattacks.
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. 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 Rising for the Moon (1975), which became the band's highest US chart album when it reached number 143 on the Billboard 200 and the first album to reach the top one-hundred in the UK since Angel Delight, reaching no 52. During the Rising sessions, Mattacks fell out with producer Glyn Johns and was replaced by former Grease Band drummer Bruce Rowland. Poor UK sales for Rising did not aid morale and, despite the relative success of the line-up, Lucas and Donahue left the band, as did Denny in 1976. She died aged 31, in 1978, of a cerebral haemorrhage after falling down a flight of stairs.
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 and after producing two of four contracted albums, 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.
1979–85: 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.No record company wanted to release the live recordings of the tour and concert, so the Peggs founded Woodworm Records, which would be the major outlet for the band in the future. Members continued to take part in occasional gigs, particularly in festivals in continental Europe, and after a year they staged a reunion concert in Cropredy which became the annual Cropredy Festival. Over the next few years, it grew rapidly and emerged as the major mechanism for sustaining the band. In August 1981, the band held their annual reunion concert at Broughton Castle, rather than the usual Cropredy location. The concert was recorded, and released on the 1982 album Moat on the Ledge.
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 Half Moon at Putney and the Gloucester Leisure Centre. In 1983 the magazine Fairport Fanatics (later Dirty Linen), was created: a testament to the continued existence of a dedicated fan base.
The remaining members pursued their own lives and careers outside of the band. Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks had recorded and toured with Richard and Linda Thompson at times in the 1970s, and did so again during this period, culminating in their appearance on the Shoot Out the Lights album and tour in 1982. Bruce Rowlands gave up the music business and moved to Denmark and as a result Dave Mattacks returned as drummer for Fairport’s occasional gigs. Dave Pegg was the first of several Fairporters to join Jethro Tull which gave him well-paying steady employment. Simon Nicol had teamed up with Dave Swarbrick in a highly regarded acoustic duo, but this partnership was made difficult by Swarbrick’s sudden decision to move to Scotland, where, from 1984 he began to focus on his new project Whippersnapper.
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 former, ‘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.
1986–97: 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.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.’
At this point, with Mattacks busy with other projects, the band shifted to an acoustic format for touring and released the unplugged Old, New, Borrow Blue as ‘Fairport Acoustic Convention’ in 1996. For a while the four-piece acoustic line-up ran in parallel with the electric format. When Allcock left the band, he was replaced by Chris Leslie on vocals, mandolin and fiddle, who formerly worked with Swarbrick in Whippersnapper, and had a one-off stint wit the band replacing Ric Sanders for 1992 Cropredy Festival. This meant that for the first time since reforming, the band had a recognized songwriter who contributed significantly to the band's output on the next album Who Knows Where the Time Goes (1997), particularly the rousing ‘John Gaudie’. By the time of the 1997 thirty-year anniversary Festival at Cropredy, the new Fairport had been in existence for over a decade and contributed a significant chapter to the history of the band.
1998—present
In 1998, Dave Mattacks moved to the USA and Gerry Conway took over on drums and percussion. Fairport produced two more studio albums for Woodworm Records: The Wood and the Wire (2000) and XXXV (2002). Then for Over the Next Hill (2004) they established a new label: Matty Grooves Records. In this period the band toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Australasia, Europe, the USA and Canada, and staged a major fund raiser for Dave Swarbrick at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. In 1998, members of the band began their association with the Breton musician Alan Simon. Working in collaboration with numerous others, members of Fairport (predominantly Nicol and Leslie) have performed in and participated in the recordings of all Simon's rock operas, including the Excalibur trilogy (1998, 2007, 2010) and Anne de Bretagne (2008).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).
In January 2015, four years after their previous studio album of original material (Festival Bell), Fairport Convention released a new one entitled Myths and Heroes.
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. 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?.
Fairport Convention in a Dutch television show in 1972
Fairport Convention in AVRO's TopPop (Dutch television show) in 1972
Who knows where the time goes - Fairport Convention - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2xODjbfYw8
12 lug 2007 - Caricato da Elfman101
Fairport Convention were one of the most innovative and influential British bands of the late 1960's and are ...
Fairport Convention "Time will show the wiser (1967) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTHgr19CaRk
09 mag 2006 - Caricato da smile67
Rare, earliest performance of this great band with original vocalist Judy Dyble. She would soon be replaced by ...
Fairport - Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Session 1969 - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bzXV1UPD80
29 gen 2011 - Caricato da lubuskie
Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where the Time Goes - BBC Session 1969. Audio with various still images.
Fairport Convention - Matty Groves - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1it7BP5PckI
06 apr 2008 - Caricato da Dennis Metselaar
Fairport Convention - Matty Groves. ... Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention - Farewell Farewell ( Promo ...Fairport Convention Angel
Ann.www.amazon.it/Fairport+Convention+Angel
- CD e vinili a prezzi convenienti. Spedizione gratis (vedi condizioni)
Risultati di ricerca
Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief (Full Album) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMrW46qP4mw
08 lug 2014 - Caricato da bluedivide100
1. Come All Ye - 00:00 (Denny, Hutchings) 2. Reynardine - 05:02 (traditional - arr F C) 3. Matty Groves - 09:33 ...Who knows where the time goes - Fairport Convention - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2xODjbfYw8
12 lug 2007 - Caricato da Elfman101
Fairport Convention were one of the most innovative and influential British bands of the late 1960's and are ...Fairport Convention "Time will show the wiser (1967) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTHgr19CaRk
09 mag 2006 - Caricato da smile67
Rare, earliest performance of this great band with original vocalist Judy Dyble. She would soon be replaced by ...Fairport - Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Session 1969 - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bzXV1UPD80
29 gen 2011 - Caricato da lubuskie
Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where the Time Goes - BBC Session 1969. Audio with various still images.Fairport Convention "Suzanne" - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wl4I7fKUQI
30 ott 2010 - Caricato da sbritt
My favourite cover is by Fairport Convention, with Simon Nichols taking ... coen. comunque quella dei fairport ...Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where the Time Goes? - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sNPorNyME0
14 mar 2014 - Caricato da TrixxyKatt
Studio version from the album, "Unhalfbricking" (1969). Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving But ...Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention - Farewell Farewell ( Promo ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8_eFRZP1uQ
15 ago 2010 - Caricato da Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention - Farewell Farewell - Video montage mixing footage of Sandy Denny ...Fairport Convention - Matty Groves - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1it7BP5PckI
06 apr 2008 - Caricato da Dennis Metselaar
Fairport Convention - Matty Groves. ... Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention - Farewell Farewell ( Promo ...
27 dic 2010 - Caricato da Idolip
Full House, released in 1970, is the fifth album by folk rock group Fairport Convention and was their first ...
A Sailor's Life - Fairport Convention - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrGtFxtWXU
29 ott 2010 - Caricato da MrSpudTuber
Fairport Convention's version of this poignant traditional song marks a pivotal point in the development of ...
Fairport Convention "Suzanne" - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wl4I7fKUQI
30 ott 2010 - Caricato da sbritt
My favourite cover is by Fairport Convention, with Simon Nichols taking ... coen. comunque quella dei fairport ...
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