TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

A proposal for a debate:

Had the 1970 Fairport line-up (Swarbrick, Nicol, Thompson, Mattacks, Pegg) stayed together all these years, they would have produced brilliant album after brilliant album and would now be a household name (even more so than they already are). Discuss.

far better they did'nt, they would all be superstars and would travel around with security and not speak to the likes of us. and we would'nt have had the large diverse amount of music that we have from the individuals

Then there would be no Cropredy, and they would only play stadium tours every four years.

Jackdaw

We'd have to look down on them and call them "sell outs" and moan about how Dave Pegg is always in the gossip columns with a different bimbo every week, and how can they sing songs about England and her traditions while living in tax exile on Mustique..........

they would make a good version of spinal tap  ;D

.. and this board would not exist.. so there are loads of people I would never have met...

you would recieve so little abuse Jen

Neither would you Billy Boy!!

only when you wear that outfit Jen  ;)

Why wouldn't this board exist? I think it would, with many more members....

I don't believe that they would have churned out great album after great album, and even if that were so, Fairport were never more than a minor group in the A&R canon - their strength was in the offshoots and the talent that was influenced by them.

There are very few bands that we can compare the scenario with - the Rolling Stones possibly, and count how many great songs and albums they have produced since 1975...nope I can't think of any more examples. Dissolution is a natural phenomenon: without it creativity stagnates.

try telling the monastarys that after henry VIII had finished with them

I think the FH lineup (brilliant as it was) was a little too late in the band's history to reach major mass appeal.  They had essentially back themselves into a niche corner.  On the other hand, the Unhalfbricking lineup could have had some breakout potential, although far from being assured.  

As others have implied, major mass appeal would not necessarily have been a great thing.........even in the early seventies.  They might have gone glam!  :o

Ahhhhh, we enter the alternative reality where 'Rubber Band' gave them that elusive Number One single

;)

Yes and the momentum of Punk was stiffled by a barber shop quartet resurgence in the late 70s.........and an actor became president and...........well......some of it happened anyway.  But still, not a pretty picture!

Concept albums, Solo records, divorce, rehab, collabortions on faux-Borneoan side projects, an emotional reunion at Live8, we can only wonder about how such things would have panned out. Well, most of them. Actually, just the one...

Without the tensions that departures, new members and styles etc brought, they might have become RT's band or else just split up altogether in the mid 70's , which I would have thought most likely.

Their undoubted and varied talents have, however, kept all of them as professional musicians X years later, when others e.g Mick Mulligan who died this week, gave up music and ended up running a grocery shop (nothing wrong with that!)

What if Sandy had not died? - Would she have rejoined in 1979, 'rescued' what the media would now call the 'folk-rock franchise' and taken it 'mainstream'?

Good job we're not discussing this in a real pub, we'd never get home ;D

It's a bit like a gamble between a very high and a very low box on "Deal no Deal", or settling for something very good in the middle. I'm sure I'd settle for what we've had.

PS Above comment doesn't mean I like Edmonds!