Fairport Convention
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Fairport Convention: Babbacombe Lee
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1972
FOR THEIR SEVENTH album, Fairport Convention has presented us with a "concept" or "unified theme" LP (avoiding the oppro-briously-connotated term "rock opera"). ...
Audio interviews
Fairport Convention's Simon Nicol (1991)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 1991
The veteran Fairports guitarist talks about the group's evolution, from first meeting Ashley Hutchings at school to its present day line-up: Richard Thompson and Judy Dyble joining; being signed by Joe Boyd to Witchseason Productions; their first recordings; the introduction of Sandy Denny, and the move towards more traditional folk; the crash that killed drummer Martin Lamble; new members Dave Mattacks and Dave Swarbrick; albums such as Unhalfbricking and Liege and Lief; Sandy and Ashley leaving, and then Nicol's own comings and goings to and from the band, setting up the Cropredy festival, and the band's continuing existence.
File format: mp3; file size: 50.2mb, interview length: 52' 16" sound quality: *****
Fairport Convention's Dave Pegg (1995)
Interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages audio, June 1995
Dave Pegg talks about Liege & Lief, Unhalfbricking, the departure of Richard Thompson and the death of Sandy Denny.
File format: mp3; file size: 35.4mb; Interview length: 38' 43"; sound quality: *****
List of articles in the library
Pink Floyd, Incredible String Band, Tomorrow, Tim Rose, Fairport Convention: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 7 October 1967
SUNDAY'S SAVILLE bill was most groovy, opening with the Fairport Convention who are beginning to find their way, followed by American Tim Rose who was ...
8th National Jazz & Blues Festival: Lazy Sunbury Afternoon...
Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 17 August 1968
PLAGUED BY DISASTER AND COUNTLESS SETBACKS, THE SUNBURY FESTIVAL PRESENTED SOME OF THE BEST MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT EVER SEEN. RM WAS THERE. ...
Fairport Convention's Martin Lamble: Previous Occupation — Child
Report by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 24 May 1969
THEY WERE playing 'Meet On The Ledge' at London clubs last week. It is a tune people most associate with Fairport Convention. ...
The Rolling Stones, Plastic Ono Band et al: New Singles
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 5 July 1969
ROLLING STONES: 'Honky Tonk Women'/'You Can't Always Get What You Want' (Decca). An important single for the Stones, but a disappointment for us . ...
Profile by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 29 July 1969
"WELL, YOU'D put your arm round its neck, y'know, like this" (demonstrating) "and hold it on the seat next to you, like another person." ...
Fairport Convention: Unhalfbricking — Is This Word Pornographic?
Profile and Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 2 August 1969
Lon Goddard from the Underworld ...
Fairport Convention: What We Did On Our Holidays
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1969
THE FIRST thing I did on receiving this album in the mail was stick it in my cardboard album box – with a good mind ...
Fairport Convention: Fairport Convention (A&M SP 4199)
Review by Danny Goldberg, Fusion, 3 October 1969
THIS RECORD would be worth the price of purchase just for one cut: the group's rendition of an early Dylan song 'I'll Keep It With ...
Added attractions to Fairport's concert... plus Gypsy
Review and Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 4 October 1969
LAST Wednesday's Fairport Convention concert at the Royal Festival Hall contained additions to the great prospect of Sandy and the bunch live on stage. Fairport's ...
Fairport Convention: Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 18 October 1969
THERE'S only one question in my mind after having heard the Fairport Convention's superlatively excellent performance at the Fairfield Hall last Friday: why the hell ...
Fairport's future... and Tyger's plans
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, 20 December 1969
A CLOAK of mystery has been hanging over the Fairport Convention since their reported split a month ago. ...
Fairport Convention: Liege and Lief (Island Stereo ILPS 9115).
Review by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 27 December 1969
RELEASED AFTER Sandy and Tiger left the group, this LP would appear to be the last by the Fairports in their most famous line-up, with ...
Fairport Convention: Partings and Laments
Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 3 January 1970
THE FAIRPORTS' newest LP Leige And Leif is by far the best thing they've done in the eyes of the Crawling. In the eyes of ...
Fairport Convention: Hampstead Country Club, London
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, 7 February 1970
DAVE SWARBRICK recovered from a neck operation three days earlier to fiddle the audience literally off their feet, when Fairport Convention celebrated a triumphant return ...
Fairport Convention, the Humblebums: Lyceum Ballroom, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 21 March 1970
ANY DOUBTS about the future of the new-look Fairport Convention since Sandy Denny's departure were immediately shattered after their opening number at the Lyceum on ...
Fairport Convention et al: Electric folk
Overview by Karl Dallas, The Times, 18 April 1970
IT IS EASY to forget that pop, nowadays, has become an organic process. The music industry is still mostly in the hands of people whose ...
Matthews Southern Comfort and Fairport Convention: The Roundhouse
Live Review by Karl Dallas, The Times, 25 April 1970
If A PROMENADE CONCERT, in the traditional Royal Albert Hall manifestation, is an event allowing for direct comparisons between related but differing musics, then Thursday ...
Fairport Convention: Troubadour, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 1970
English Folk Material by Fairport Convention ...
Fairport Convention: Unhalfbricking/Liege and Lief
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 11 June 1970
UNHALFBRICKING AND Liege and Lief are the two last albums by the Fairport Convention with Sandy Denny. ...
Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Santana et al: Bath Festival — Hub Of World's Pop Talent
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 July 1970
THE PROGRAMME for last weekend's Bath Festival of Blues & Progressive Music stated... "All times subject to possible change." And they weren't joking either. ...
Fairport Convention: Full House (Island)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 11 July 1970
AYE, GATHER round me bully boys – once there was a time when Fairport albums were as hard to obtain as a Grope O'Shanter at ...
Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention: Palladium, London
Live Review by Andrew Means, Melody Maker, 1 August 1970
Incredible night of string bands ...
Fairport Convention, Roger Ruskin Spear, Allan Taylor: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 17 October 1970
FAIRPORTS ALMOST LOSE IT TO ALLAN ...
Fairport Convention: Angel Delight
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1971
Angel Delight is a happy event, for it sharpens and solidifies the tentative steps the Fairport Convention took in Full House, their first post-Sandy Denny ...
King Crimson, Fairport Convention: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA
Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 21 March 1972
KING CRIMSON, which performed locally for the first time in two years Sunday afternoon at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, is the very embodiment of ...
Fairport Convention: Babbacombe Lee
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
"JOHN LEE, the jury has found you guilty of willful murder, and the sentence of the court upon you is that you be taken from ...
Fairport Convention: With no original members remaining Fairport back to square one, says Dave Pegg
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 22 April 1972
DAVE PEGG looked puzzled. Adjusting the rim of his giant hat, he mused the question over. He wasn't too sure whether Fairport should continue to ...
Richard Thompson: The Session Great That Nobody Knows
Interview by Tony Norman, New Musical Express, 22 June 1972
THE TERM "GUITAR hero" is used with increasing regularity. Pete Townshend's splintering aggressive antics have won him the tag; Alvin "up and down the fretboard ...
Fairport Convention: Town Hall, Watford
Live Review by Rosalind Russell, Disc, 10 February 1973
Fairport Below Par ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Let It Rock, April 1973
THE NEW Fairport Convention LP is going to alienate some fans – a radical change in musical approach by a popular band will always do ...
Fairport Convention: The Banana Convention
Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973
THE WAY DAVE PEGG sees it, what America needs is Fairport Convention's High Banana Content Programme. ...
Fairport Convention: Fairport And The Mysterious Lady
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973
"FOTHERINGPORT CONFUSION", states Trevor Lucas with a wry smile. That's his pet description of the present Fairport Convention. After all, the band comprises part of ...
Fairport Convention: Nine (Island)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 6 October 1973
I'VE BEEN trying for some time not to like a Fairport Convention album. After the endless catalogue of disaster and misfortune, it seemed vaguely unnatural ...
The Strawbs: Hero and Heroine; Fairport Convention: Nine
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
The Strawbs and Fairport Convention are conveniently linked by their past importance in modernizing the British folk scene (and their use, at different times, of ...
Report and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 28 September 1974
Sickness and diseases may bring you down, and FAIRPORT CONVENTION have had more than their share, but they always come back for more. BOB WOFFINDEN ...
Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Alan Stivell: The New Face Of Ethnic Music
Overview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 28 December 1974
Are Steeleye Span last year's thing? Is Alan Stivell just a Celtic showman? And where is Richard Thompson now that Bob Woffinden needs him most ...
John Wood: Pioneer of the 'English Sound'
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 26 June 1976
THOUGH SOUND recording celebrates its centenary next year, it is only in the past ten to 16 years that studio techniques have reached the present ...
Goin' Back With Ian Matthews, part 1
Retrospective and Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, September 1976
IT CAME AS no great surprise to me that Ian Matthews should come quite so high in the recent poll concerning who you'd like to ...
Interview by Steve Burgess, Dark Star, December 1978
I HAVE THIS adrenaline-fueled, hyper-hallucinatory recall of the first time I saw Richard Thompson away from club stages and makeshift podiums in Hyde Park. He ...
Live Review by Hugh Fielder, David Hepworth, Sounds, 11 August 1979
OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY ...
Joe Boyd: "Our own little Motown"
Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, June 1987
In the late '60s, Joe Boyd helped create a peculiarly English form of folk-psychedelia, producing albums for Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band and Nick ...
Fairport Convention: Trebles all round!
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, March 1989
The revived Fairport Convention are celebrating their thriving cottage industry, Woodworm Records, with a 40-date tour. But it wasn’t always beer and skittles... ...
Fairport Convention: Conventional behaviour
Report and Interview by Martin Aston, The Independent, 17 August 1990
Martin Aston spoke to the members of Fairport Convention ahead of their anual reunion show at this week's Copredy Folk Festival ...
Fairport Convention's Simon Nicol (1991) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1991
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Simon. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Johnny Black, MOJO, August 1994
I'M MARTIN," SAYS THE ONE WITH THE CURLY HAIR. "D'you know Ken Dodd's dad's dog died?" ...
Fairport Convention: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Mark Cooper, MOJO, April 1995
TWO FAIRPORTS STILL STICK IN my mind from the late '60s, early '70s. The first was London's answer to Jefferson Airplane, furiously eclectic and frequently ...
Profile and Interview by Alan Clayson, Record Collector, 1997
Alan Clayson reels in the years of the multi-faceted mainstay of Fairport Convention. ...
Fairport Convention: Now Be Thankful...
Overview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, February 1997
…for 30 years of Fairport Convention. Jim Irvin gets a guided tour through their scrapbook of joy, tears, beers, jigs, reels and panties. ...
Fairport Convention 30th Anniversary: Cropredy Festival, Oxfordshire
Review by Colin Harper, MOJO, October 1997
IF SOMEBODY back in the "summer of love" had told Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson and Judy Dyble – members of North London's premier Jefferson Airplane ...
Retrospective by Jim Irvin, MOJO, June 1998
Revered by everyone from Frank Zappa to The Spice Girls. Led Zeppelin's one and only guest star. One of Britain's greatest singers. Yet her true ...
Fairport Convention: Fairport Convention, What We Did On Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking
Review by Jim Irvin, The Word, April 2003
Three reissued albums find Fairport Convention on the edge of greatness ...
Fairport Convention: Chronicles
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, May 2005
FAIRPORT'S ANNUAL reunion festival at Cropredy in Oxfordshire celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, long since established as one of the primo dates on the ...
Joe Boyd: White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s (Serpent's Tail)
Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 14 May 2006
THIS PROTEIN-PACKED memoir entwines a number of stories that reach well beyond the subtitle's modest brief. At one level it's a boy's own adventure. Joe ...
Fairport Convention: Fairport Still On Course At 40
Interview by j. poet, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 June 2006
FAIRPORT CONVENTION kicked the British folk revival into high gear in 1969 when they released Liege and Lief, their first album with Sandy Denny as ...
Fairport Convention: "There was a manic feeling in the air"
Retrospective and Interview by John Harris, The Guardian, 3 August 2007
In 1969, reeling from the shock of a tragic car crash, Fairport Convention recorded an album that would change British folk for ever. John Harris ...
Fairport Convention: Come all ye rolling minstrels
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Young, Uncut, September 2007
They were a bunch of uptight Londoners who wanted to be the Byrds. But after a tragic road crash, Fairport Convention holed up in the ...
Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, Record Collector, September 2007
IMAGINE BEING the original woman singer in the most esteemed British folk-rock group of all – only to be replaced, after just one album, by ...
What They Did On Their Holidays: Fairport Convention at Farley House, Summer 1969
Book Excerpt by Rob Young, 'Electric Eden' (Faber), August 2010
NOTE: This is an excerpt from Rob Young's superb new folk opus Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music, published in August 2010 by Faber & ...
Review by Jim Irvin, The Word, September 2010
A monumental box for a great voice. ...
Sandy Denny: "I don't think she ever gave the future the time of day…"
Retrospective by Rob Young, Uncut, October 2010
When Sandy Denny left Fairport Convention at the height of their success, she seemed destined for solo stardom. What went wrong? With the help of ...
Fairport's Cropredy Convention
Live Review by Mike Atherton, Record Collector, November 2012
IN MIDDLE ENGLAND, an Oxfordshire field came back to life to celebrate the 45th anniversary of folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention, whose acoustic set launched this ...
see also Sandy Denny
see also Judy Dyble
see also Ashley Hutchings
see also Bob Pegg
see also Steeleye Span
see also Richard Thompson
see also Dave Swarbrick
see also Jerry Donahue
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