Good evening.
We've got something a little bit different tonight
for you.
We're going to tell you the story.
Fairport Convention, the story
so far.
You heard last night
how a bunch of middle -class, well -behaved,
just -out -of -school kids rose from playing church halls an d bowling
to become one of the most original
and much -loved bands
in Britain.
Original because they were
alone
in the so -called underground music scene of 67,
68,
in performing short, intelligent,
melodic singer -songwriter numbers,
usually from America,
and then proceeded
to invent British folk rock
by wedding traditional songs
and instrumental tunes
to a rock treatment.
Much loved,
as evidenced by the tremendous
support that the band received
when it experienced the dreadful road crash in 1969,
which robbed it of its drummer,
Martin Lamble.
John Peel, no less,
writing at that time said,
this group has brought me more joy
during the past two years
than any other I can think of.
The things they have
done for Radio One
have brightened weeks, not hours.
It is true, therefore,
that any review I write
will be coloured with love.
Suffice to say that the record,
Unhalf Bricking,
made me feel warm and comfortable
and part of them.
It is an LP
that you will want to hear daily
for a very long time.
Fairport Convention,
we love you very much.
Judy, Simon, Richard, Tiger, DM,
and Swab,
you heard last night,
recreating something of those
special 60s days.
Ian wasn't present,
but I'm sure would have liked to have been,
had non -musical
considerations not intervened.
As for Martin,
you were cheated of
the opportunity to hear his playing.
We have the records, the pictures,
the memories.
I've no doubt
that he would have developed
into an even more sensitive
and outstanding drummer had
he lived on.
Patrick Humphries says in his newly
reprinted updated
Meet on the Ledge book,
when Fairport began their career
the Beatles had barely released Sgt. Pepper,
let alone anthology.
Jimmy Page was
still in the Yardbirds.
Jimi Hendrix was still on the planet.
And Elvis, Elvis
had not yet left the building.
Well, the first part of our
story is over.
Ian Matthews left and formed
Matthews Southern Comfort,
who of course had a number
one single with Woodstock.
Sandy left to form her own group,
Fathering Gay,
and I left to delve into folk
rock even deeper,
in forming Steel Eye Span.
CHEERING
Our tale tonight begins in 1970
with a Birmingham
buddy of Swarbs
joining on the bass, Dave Pegg.
CHEERING
So let's make a start,
as we need to fit 27 years of music
into the next 4 hours.
Fairport Convention,
the full house line -up.
On bass,
he's a groundbreaking musician.
He takes my breath away.
He started the fashion for
playing tunes,
you know, jigs and reels
on the bass.
He started the fashion
among folk -rock bass players for
baldness.
Everyone followed him, including me.
Without him,
and especially his wife Christine,
none of us would be here today.
This field would simply be a convenient
toilet for grazing farm animals.
Oh! Correction!
Apart from being a
convenient toilet
for grazing farm animals,
this field would be empty.
Dave Pegg!
On drums, this man has played
with the best many, many times.
You want to know if Sir Paul McCartney
counts his royalties
in his recording studio breaks?
Ask DM.
You want to know if Chris Greer
still supports Middlesborough
even though they were relegated,
ask DM.
You want to know if Mary Chapin Carpenter
is any good at putting up wooden shelves?
Think about it, ask DM.
From the top of his double paradiddles
to the bottom of his boom -chucka -chucks,
he is the king.
Let me hear you welcome him,
Dave Mattox on the drums.
On rhythm guitar,
he may be the grizzled old grey -bearded
elder statesman of Fairport in 1997,
but to me he's still the
cheeky little kid
with an acoustic 12 -string technique
to leave his contemporaries
dumbstruck.
The baby of the group
with the oldest head,
the broadest shoulders,
the widest vocabulary,
the best potential,
one day he's gonna start writing songs
and then watch out you singer -songwriters,
watch out. Simon Nichol.
On lead guitar.
Everyone has beat me
to the book of superlatives.
If you don't know that he's the
best songwriter,
the best guitarist
and nearly the best leg
great bowler on the planet.
Where have you been sleeping?
Richard Thompson!
On Fiddle, the maestro
when he joined Fairport all those years ago,
it was an honour to have him in the group,
the most influential fiddler bar
none in this country ever,
let him know he's welcome,
Dave Swarbrick!
Fairport Convention 1970,
the Full House line -up.
Thank you very much indeed.
Welcome to Cropperdink.
We're hoping this will be
our best ever year,
and so far it has been.
So thanks all for coming.
This is a song which Richard and
Swarbrick wrote in 1970
before they wised up
and left the band.
I'm afraid it was a case of...
A case of who'd have thought
it at the time,
but it was musical differences.
They were musical, we
were different.
That joke courtesy of the Bushbury Mountain
Daredevils.
Thanks guys.
So do I.
And this is a song called Walk Awhile.
