Fairport Convention

2007: 40 Years Of Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention, the greatest band of all time, the greatest album of all time, Liege and Lief; the combination? an exquisite mix of The British Tradition and a band in their full confidence, a mix of the old with the new, witness the power of the combined writing powers of Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick on Farewell, Farewell and Crazy Man Michael. What we have here is not just another band that came out of the late sixties, but something incredibly unique, the birth of truly British music, as Ashley Hutchings would describe it years later in a song, appropriately called Wings, we had finally grown "our home-made wings", and things would never be quite the same again.

With that, we welcome you to this, our tribute to Liege & Lief. We're not going to ramble on, as is our usual wont, but simply let the album, and those involved speak for themselves, plus of course, the usual relevant links to here and there. Now....onward......

Returning from a gig in Birmingham on May 14, 1969, the band's van crashes killing drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklin. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised for two months with acute facial injuries.

After the crash, Fairport got together for a meeting and decided they would carry on. It was, at this point that Dave Swarbrick joined as a full member of the band, on fiddle and they also auditioned for a new drummer, this turned out to be Dave Mattacks, who also, as it turned out, played piano as well. Fairport had, in Ashley Hutchings' words, "opened a whole new can of worms with

A Sailor's Life and we decided there and then to go wholeheartedly in that folk rock direction. So that was quite an auspicious meeting". Fairport moved down into an old Queen Anne house in a viilage named Farley Chamberlayne, near Winchester and began work on

Liege and Lief

Ashley. " After the crash, we got together for a meeting and decided we'd carry on, bring in Dave Swarbrick on fiddle and audition for a new drummer. We'd opened a whole new can of worms with A Sailor's Life and we decided there and then to go wholeheartedly in that folk rock direction. So that was quite an auspicious meeting."

Sandy Denny, vocals

Dave Mattacks, drums

Ashley Hutchings, bass guitar

Simon Nicol, guitars

Dave Swarbrick, violin and viola

Richard Thompson, guitars.

Recorded at Sound Techniques Studio,

October 16 - November 2, 1969
Engineer: John Wood,

Sound Techniques Ltd.
Producer: Joe Boyd,

Witchseason Productions Ltd.

Photography by Eric Hayes
Sleeve concept & design by Fairport and Roberta Nicol
with special thanks to the

English Folk Dance & Song Society at

Cecil Sharp House

Island ILPS 9115 December 1969

Side One:

Come All Ye 4:55

Reynardine 4:33

Matty Groves 8:08

Farewell, Farewell 2:38.

Side Two:

The Deserter 4:10

Medley:

*The Lark in the Morning;

*Rakish Paddy;

*Fox-Hunter's Jig;

*Toss the Feathers 4:00

Tam Lin 7:20

Crazy Man Michael 4:35.

All tracks Trad. arr. Fairport Convention
except Track 1 Sandy Denny / Ashley Hutchings
Track 4 Richard Thompson
Track 8 Richard Thompson /

Dave Swarbrick

Island ILPS 9115 December 1969

Swarb, RT and Sandy

massive thanks go out to

coramunroe for the you tube video feeds

to be found on this site

sam-and-lizzie