TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Good grief, is there no end to the places where Fairport turn up unexpectedly?  :o

Ian Rankin's ace detective, D.I. Rebus, has been known to put a Fairport CD on the player when he returns to his lonely Edinburgh flat nursing wounds, grievances and an alcoholic beverage.   But here's a new one:  writer Phil Rickman, featuring detective/exorcist Merrily Watkins and her boyfriend, a singer-songwriter of the folk-acoustic persuasion.

You could have knocked me down with a black rod while reading 'Midwinter of the Spirit':  Fairport and Norma Waterson have been given a name-check and I'm only half way through the blighter. 

Fairport, folk and crime - why's that, I wonder?

Sir Robert Peel
Investigator

The album wasn't Babbacombe Lee by any chance??

Oi Peely do you want us to mention all the books Fairport aren't in for completeness?

I've just finished Treasure Island by that impostor Stevenson, not a Fairport name check anywhere.

Now there was Shadow the Sheep dog, Reach fer the Sky..... The Iron Man...

Puggs (on Pirate red books jealous eh?)

I suspect Phil Rickman is a bit of a closet folkie. Nearly all his books have references to 'our sort of music' in some way or other.

For example, 'The Man in the Moss' and 'December' both centre around a female singer/songwriter character called Moira Cairns. 'The Wine of Angels' features another singer/songwriter, male this time, who's a bit hung up on Nick Drake.

They're all good reads too, if you like spooky stuff...

Puggs - if you have Sky you might want to know that Living2 tv is currently running the "Long John Silver" series staring Robert Newton. No mention of Fairport that I can gatherl
I remember watching it as a kid. I suspect you remember watching it with Captain Kidd.

Alas the dish interferes wiv Ames' wind hereabouts an we in't got it.

Got back one day to find Ames had cable installed...... bit of a problem that  ;D

So no that Long John (who was never a pirate you know, was actually a City Gent wot liked hangin round wiv the lads, we used to call him Sixpence...) is orf the screen fer know.

But I'm grateful to 'e..

In Peter Robinsons "Piece of my heart" I find myself in Fairport mood already in the first chapter when "Who knows where the time goes" is played in the car - alas, the Judy Collins version, but still - and with frequent references to late 60´s pop festivals, Fairport Convention is named both here and there.
Really look forward to a good crime novel concerning pop music, festivals and Fairport! ;)
Staffan

Well, Ian Rankin's latest has T in the park and the G8 musical shindig in Edinburgh so all we need to do is get the lads to relocate Cropredy to the outskirts of Edinburgh and there you go  :D [;-)

Mind you there'd have to be a murder or two somewhere, and no Matty Grooves doesn't count!

I could murder a PIE! about now if that helps....