TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I wondered if anyone would care to share any memories of unusual Fairport shows down the years.  I daresay that this subject has been discussed before, but then I suspect that most subjects have been discussed here before!  Whatever, here’s one for starters.  I always try to catch a couple of shows each tour, and 2002 was no exception. I first went down to Somerset for the Yeovil show, and then ten days later headed for Worthing.  Vikki Clayton was supporting the band on this tour, and all went well in Yeovil, but at Worthing something was clearly amiss.  Vikki had begun the show by playing some songs from Looking at the Stars, Fairport joining her for the title track, but, unusually, she remained on stage as Fairport began the first half of their set.  It transpired that Simon, sitting silently with his guitar in the background, had completely lost his voice, necessitating, as you can imagine, some last-minute set-list changes (I discovered during the interval that Peggy had rung Vikki up earlier in the day, explained the problem, asked her which songs she knew the words to, and then later called her back to tell her which ones she’d be singing!  And not to tell anyone that there’d be a few surprises at the end ;o)).  So lead vocals were shared between Chris and Vikki throughout the show, with Anna Ryder, who wasn’t due to be appearing, on hand to help out during My Love Is In America and Talking About My Love.  But the best bits did indeed occur towards the end of an understandably shortened second half.  Crazy Man Michael made an appearance, followed by a surprise Tam Lin (both with VC on lead vocals). I have to say that Tam Lin is one of my personal all-time favourites, and a song that was miles away from being included in any likely set-list at that time (before you ask, personally I think the new version is very good indeed), so you can imagine my delight when it was introduced as being “for a friend from Croydon who’s in tonight”.  I have moved since ;o)  Anyway, we then got Matty, of course, again with Vikki taking the vocals, back for an encore of some jigs and finally Vikki one more time for a wonderful Who Knows Where The Time Goes?  And then goodnight.  That’s all folks.  No Meet tonight.  

So there you have it.  A hugely enjoyable gig despite the circumstances, and my entry for the Unusual Show Awards.  Anyone else?

Wasn't there a show the year Simon injured his leg when instead of him leaving the stage for the interval, the crew threw a black sheet over him?  I'm sure I've seen a pic somewhere... one of Chris Bates' perhaps?

The most different gig I've seen was the recording of the Granada show in the dunes at Ainsdale (Southport), when sets by Steeley & FC were followed by a "jam" featuring members of both bands. As far as I know, the sound guys didn't record it.....

Probably the Bosworth battlefield gig a couple of years ago when the stage was the trailer part of an articulated lorry. The sound system and lighting completely overwhelmed the power available which kept tripping out and the set continued by torchlight into the gathering gloom.

Terrific venue, lovely people and a great show - although the benches were a bit firm!!

Before anyone reminds me :-X

How much is worth not to Goaty?  ;)

What about the one on  May Bank holiday about 5 years ago when they played outdoors in the centre of Chipping Norton. Maart played instead of Chris, who was unavailable. Loved it even though it was underrehearsed and Simon forgot a few words.
Also the unamplified gig in Deddington church with the acoustic line up of Simon, Peggy, Ric and Maart, with other guests including Chris and Beryl. The lights failed and everyone carried on singing in the dark.

The Millennium New Year's Eve show in Beverley was certainly a little 'unusual'....a) because I reckon it's almost certainly the only Millennium NYE I'll attend (even if it was a year early) and b) because the mass singalong to Hard Day's Night was a genuine unexpected delight.  And finally because Mr Pegg kissed me.  I've never washed since...

I was lucky enough to be at both the Bosworth gig and the Deddington one...

At Bosworth some of my friends held their torches up to illuminate the band... I seem to recall Ewen missed this one...  ;D ;)

At the Deddington gig Ralph McTell was a special guest.. that was in 1994.

Just goes to show what a great set of people they are. Give the paying public a bit of good old music and show them the audience is appreciated.

All too easy to cancel a gig when someone takes sick.

We went to a barn dance in Fareham a good few years ago, and Peggy and Simon were in the barn dance band.

A great evening was had by all. They were very unassuming, and just played along with the band.

Paul

We caught them playing in a tiny hall attached to a bar in Braedstrup, Denmark, in October 2005. We were touring on holiday, and happened to see a poster, and got tickets an hour before the gig.

The stage was about 8 feet wide - a very intimate affair.

It was absolutely fabulous.

Canterbury Marlowe if I remember correctly....



Put on by the town mayor at the time, I believe. She's still a Councillor & is likely to be at the end of tour party in Chippy, in a week or so.



Oh wow! Yes, definitely my favourite 'unusual' gig....the place  absolutely rocked. I even appeared in the front row when I was actually at the back taking photos!



Yup, me too - along with the others mentioned above. Bring on the next one.....

Didn't the mayor waffle a bit, which in the end prevented an encore.

Ah the days of Ewen the Navigator  :D

The wrong day wasn't it??

 ;D ;D ;D

Wrong place wasn't it Goaty ?

I knew it was one or the other.. expect you're right Nuts...

 :P :-X

Ah yes, the Battle to find Bosworth..

Ashby Fest, mid 90's for me. Not particularly unusual except for being in a marquee but the least formal of any gigs I've been to and huge fun. (not that that's unusual either)

I remember that one too clive.. I think we've talked about it..

 There were a few 'refreshed' peeps there.......

I thought it was right place, wrong day and no one about to help. Sorry Goaty.

Another fairly unusual gig was the Fairport Ceilidh Band in the Heineken tent in Portsmouth....I really can't remember when this was, but suspect early 90's.  I can remember the usual lineup plus Swarb and Roger and Beryl but there may have been others as well.  So packed it was impossible to dance which is a bit challenging for a Ceilidh band but it was still great fun.  It was also a week or so before I was due to see Swarb and Carthy at a gig in Wingham in Kent, and so I ran up to Swarb at one point and said excitedly 'I'm going to see you in Wingham next week' with a big grin on my face.  He looked at me and said 'That's nice' and walked off  ;D  And quite right he was too...oh the innocence of (relative) youth...

Anyone go to the New Years Eve ceileidh in Gloucester one year...now that *was* odd! Very few people & the prtomoter lost shedloads!

Anyone here remember a show at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon back in the (early?) '90s when the evening ended with a slanging match between that guy who used to manage FC (was he just the tour manager?  Anyway, I am sure you know who I mean) and a member of the audience.  I can remember him shouting from the stage something along the lines of "we're never going to play this effing place again".  I think quite a few people had already left the venue, but those of us still there couldn't believe what we were seeing and hearing!  Anyway, not an unusual show, but certainly an unusual ending!!

The late, great Jonah presumably?

The number of places Jonah threatened the band would never play again would be a long list.  ;D

I think I've posted this before, but the most unusual gig I went to was a late 90's acoustic show in Kings Lyn. On came the band, minus Simon. A sheepish-looking Peggy told us that Simon was still in his hotel room and they couldn't wake him! They played a few morris tunes before asking if anyone in the audience wanted to come on stage and have a go! A good 30 minutes later a visibly 'refreshed' Simon appeared, and played a rather emotional (if truncated) set......v odd!

Adam

I was at Gloucester. Fred Wedlock support, brilliant (Cropredy, Fred?) We had a great time, didn't notice anything amiss, but I was reasonably lubricated. I reserved our tickets at the door by telephoning Johnny Jones, his mum answered the phone and said she'd pass the message on, very odd.
Also of course the new year's one at Cambridge a couple of years before, that was BRILLIANT, dance, break, short 'normal' set, more dancing.
And the one at the tent in Portsmouth. It was billed as a celidh but it seemed most of the audience were unaware, I remember some slow handclapping at one point from those seated at the sides of the tent. And yes, it was much too packed to dance properly.

The late, great Jonah presumably?

I suspect you might be right..... ;)

[/quote]

I was at that one. The sheet only stayed on for a few seconds, but Simon kept falling asleep as he was on strong painkillers. All in all not a great gig and Vikki would have been very welcome in that case (I'm sure Simon would agree).

During the Wintour 2005 (Southend on Sea gig) , Peggy was looking rather down and Mrs Keith had bad vibes, going so far as to say "I think something very bad is going to happen to the band soon." Not long afterwards Peggy walked off the USA tour, and we all thought Cropredy would be cancelled  :o

It got better.

An unusual gig was the one without an audience at Wiesbaden, somewhen in the late 90s.

I organised the tour and we had this new venue in Wiesbaden. While organising it and working out the contracts, I always talked to a "Peter". I knew he had a financial partner, I forgot his name. One week before the gig I called the venue to ask how the ticket sales are and if everything is fine.
This partner answered the phone and seemed to be a little confused and told me that Peter quit his job and that he is now in charge. But he said: "Everything´s fine." (in German, of course)

The day of the gig came.
Rob called me at 2ish to tell me that
a) there was no PA
b) this guy does not speak or understand English
c) he saw a Fairport poster at the door, announcing the gig A MONTH LATER

Shock, Horror

He handed the phone over to this guy and I told him that we have a contract, that clearly names a) a technical rider with all the equipment we need (the guy´s answer: "But I don´t understand that. It´s English") and b) the date was shown in the first line of this contract (no answer).

I think my voice was a bit loud. >:(

When I arrived at the gig 1/2 hour later, the PA was there. But we had just 10 or 12 paying people in the audience. Fairport played a complete set.

A month later the guy called me saying (in German): "There are more then 60 people at the door and they are not amused to hear that they are a month late."  :o

A couple of years ago I saw Fairport at an outdoor gig during Ludlow Festival. The Strawbs, Little Johnny England and Julie Felix also appeared. Chris was incapacitated due to having recently had something surgically removed from inside of one of his internal organs and PJ Wright deputised superbly. They also dedicated a song to my daughter after she had drawn a picture of the band and presented it to Peggy during the afternoon. [;-)

Happy memories

Cheers Nigel

That was a seriously good gig, that was!

Not so much unusual, but definately magical.....

Masham town hall mid 80's (86? It was the year of the 'fox hat' joke), drove to the venue in a howling snow storm, and then in to a storming gig (standing only venue, and we jigged like a very jiggy thing).
Stumble out, sweaty and exhausted to find the sky clear, a fabulous snow covered landscape. And then to cap it all - the local Cafe had opened, so we stood at midnight eating bacon butties and drinking scalding coffee.


A year later I stood next to Dave Pegg in the pissoir - but thats aanother story.

I stood next to Simon Nicol in a toilet in the Ipswich Caribbean centre during the interval at a Nicol/Sanders gig (which was magical and brilliant). Although concerned about the distance they must have travelled to play I suppose I could have chosen a better line to introduce myself in the gents than "So, do you chaps have anywhere to stay tonight...?"  

In a similar vein ...  I was trying to get the band to autograph a copy of OTNH for Ancient Muse in the 100 Club, Oxford Street. I had everyone's except Peggy's. The next minute my husband (5ft 3") marched Peggy (6ft plus) out of the loos and said, triumphantly "there you are I've got him!". I've never seen an autograph signed so quickly! I have to say that Mr B was very, very drunk ....

 :-[

Sorry for being slightly off topic. not an unusual show but a memorable one with an even more memorable hangover ....

 ;D

Skirky. You deserve a medal, simply for posting that. Deep respect.

The only unusual FC gig I attended was the one that didn't happen in Newport (circa 2003). Tickets had been purchased, but we arrived to discover that the venue was still under construction :o

The 'unusual' gig that sticks in my mind was Fairport's appearance at the Chorley Wakes Festival in July 1977.

For reasons that are lost in the mists of time Simon's T-Shirt & Swarbs's trousers  :o were removed during the course of the set & hurled into the audience.  I recall Swarb standing front stage centre leading the band in a rousing set of tunes to finish the set (probably Sir B McKenzie) clad only in a T-shirt & Y-Fronts & Mr Nicol strutting around the stage topless.

Mr Pegg spent most of the set studiously avoiding being drawn into the strip-tease activities of his colleagues.

The music was brilliant, though, & Fairport were by miles the best thing on at that festival.  It was just around the time of 'The Bonny Bunch of Roses' first coming out so there was loads from that in the set.

Happy days.

GS, I think there's a picture of a shirtless simon and trouserless Swarb and a story about that gig on the back of one of the Swarbrick Nicol reissue CDs. Something along the lines of Swarb had offered Simon's shirt as reward to the audience for doing something-or-other and Simon retaliated by giving them Swarb's trousers.Sorry that's no less vague is it, but the picture is amusing.

Yes it's on 'Close to the White Bear'.. a double compilation issued in1998 by Woodworm...

I'm trying to scan and post the pic.. but with no success I'm afraid!

I've mentioned this one here before, ranking as potentially tragic but certainly unusual was when we saw Fairport at Sheffield Uni way back circa '75.
Apart from memories of an animated Swarb prancing about in denim bib and braces was the show stopping moment when some idiot hanging over the balcony which runs around the old Students Union hall dropped a beer bottle which landed and, I think, smashed on Sandy Denny's head. She was sitting at the piano when it happened.

I may have been 3 sheets gone myself and can't remember too much detail but it certainly was an horrendous thing to see, she was carried off. There was quite a long pause then the band played without her for a few numbers after which she returned, she must thankfully have been OK, and the show was completed.

As an aside a few years later we saw the wild front man from "The Darts" throw himself backwards into the crowd from the same balcony (a ten foot drop?) I was one of those with upstretched arms who caught him, tore my shirt though !

If I can find it at home I'll try to scan and post it tonight

That's really quite significant Pete. Now I know Sandy had a history of having to be "helped up" of an evening, but I've never heard of her getting hit on the head like that. I wonder if it had a part to play in her later tragic demise.

A bit of a difficult one to speculate about I would have thought........... :-\

True Jude, and there's no evidence. But it is certainly a new story to me.

i saw them at UMIST when Sandy had rejoined and at one point some buffoon chucked a plastic pint pot at the stage which whacked Sandy on the napper and momentarily disoriented her. Trevor nearly jumped into the crowd but was beside himself with rage demanding"who hit my old lady with that glass",it all smoothed over after a few moments, but i must admit to having wondered if that had anything to do with her eventual demise

To GS and Dr Monk, I too remember the July Wakes gig near Charnock Richard in July 1977.

I've still got the fading newspaper-style programme for the event.

As I recall it, various items of clothing didn't just end-up in the audience, they also ended-up in the ornamental pond to the side of the stage.

I recall at least one band member also ended-up in the pond though I can't remember who it was.

The gig was great.  Unfortunately it was followed by a torrential downpour overnight which rather spoilt the rest of the weekend.

I had a weird experience in Chesterfield during CL's first tour. Me and mate from Uni came down from Sheffield, spent a day in some very bad and weird pubs, and the ended up getting a lock in in a hogshead pub... Peggy bought us a few drinks and my mate was disappointed that Peggy was drinking Boddingtons (What're you drinking that **** for?). I can't remember much, but we were so gassed I think we made complete knobs of ourselves. Then my mate suddenly discovered there was a 1:00am train to Sheffield, so we fled to the station. I've still a Hogshead whisky glass from that night! I think we, erm, managed to annoy the guys a bit... Ahem.

The gig was bloody brilliant, though! We saw Steeleye Span a few weeks later, and they were rubbish.

Does anyone have any photos of this?  :D

Blimeyheck. Sudden memories of brown velvet dungarees  :o :D :D

And brown underpants  ???

Perhaps it was all a dweam  8)

Cambridge Folk Festival couple of years (might have been 2003, thinking about it), Fairport deputized for Linda Thompson, who had cried off last minute because of throat problems. Fairport did a one hour "greatest hits" set. Very good, but a bit odd, given the circumstances. Everybody expecting Linda, then a very rushed Fairport on stage who had just got the call to leave their homes in Oxfordshire(?) a few hours before I believe.

I went to a New Year's Eve ceilidh in Gloucester one year - I think it was 1988/89 - a group of friends and I happened to be spending a few days in the Forest of Dean and saw that it was on, so turned up.  I don't remember how big the audience was, just that it was different.  Unfortunately it was one of my first Fairport gigs, and I was only just getting into folk music.  I'm sure I'd appreciate it more now than I did then!

Will

To go off topic slightly I went to a really weird Oysterband gig about 5 or 6 years ago at Bodelwyddan Castle in N Wales. The gig was in a circus style big top and was sponsored by a firm of accountants (although I'm one I didn't know until we got there). They had a similar tent alongside in which they had provided a slap up meal for a lot of guests. There were a lot of problems with the power supply so they put the bar on free ! They eventually found that if they if they turned off the power to the hospitality tent the gig tent ewas Ok. By this time most people had had a skinful. The gig was a riot with half the audience in best bib and tucker and half in jeans and T Shirts and everyone dancing away like maniacs (and in some cases together). The circus style tiered seating was a bit dodgy though.
Perhaps we should have a new now for more general wierd times?
Seeing the Oysters on Friday!!

Unusually bad ?

A crowd of us went to The Corn Exchange, New Years Eve 1983 (give or take 1 year)
Fairport were playing for what was billed as a Ceilidh. It was absolutely dire with the sound system set at an horribly painful level.
We stuck it for an hour or so then left in disgust!

I knew I'd find it somewhere.......

http://www.fcfansite.fsnet.co.uk/wt-2001-25feb-photos-martindriver.htm