TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

The first track that i heard of Fairport's was the XXXV version of Portmeirion. I then borrowed the CD from my teacher who played it to us. But the first album I brought was Some of Our Yesterdays 1985 - 1996.

My big brother had what we did on our holidays so whatever the first track on side one of that was

House Full, on vinyl some time in the 80s (still got it somewhere), so Sir Patrick Spens was probably the first FC track I ever heard.  I never bought any more until my first Cropredy.

The first album was Expletive Delighted before I really knew who Fairport were, had always been in the Steeleye camp.  Quite liked it, but the CD that really did it for me (takes a deep breathe, wait for it)  THE WOOD AND THE WIRE. ;D

I don't see what people have got against The Wood and the Wire and XXXV, I think they're fantastic albums! I like XXXV more that TWATW. I wish they'd do more from it at Cropredy and on Tour

Wood & Wire - dodgy copy given to me by my father after he and my mother dragged me to a gig in Croydon one Wintour...  Would've been what, the early 2003 wintour?  2004 was my first Cropredy - Tull tipped the balance!  Haven't looked back (well, not before 1985!) since  {:-)

Liege & Lief in december 1969. It was only vinyl then. ;D. Picked it up while browsing through "New arrivals". The cover looked weird but reading the small print on the back, it seemed like an electric band with a violin player. Sounded interesting and the rest is history.... ;)
Staffan
who since has never looked back

I came late to Fairport via a slightly circuitous route as has been documented elsewhere and I can't quite remember. I think the first track I heard was Si Tu Dois Partir from an Island various artists compilation in the early 80s. Then probably Time Will Show The Wiser on Guitar,Vocal. Other than that though I saw Fairport live before I ever heard an album. My first was In Real Time, bought (& signed) immediately after a gig. Quickly followed by Liege & Lief & then Five Seasons.

The first track I ever heard was Tam Lin (played on WBCN, a Boston, MA station, on Halloween in the early 70s). I never heard who the group playing it was, but I knew I loved the guitar work and the fiddle was somewhat exotic, given that I was a pimply teenager who listened exclusively to hard rock at the time.
Several years later, I found out that an "obscure" group named Fairport Convention had done the song. But that's all I knew until I started exploring British folk rock a few years ago, leading to my purchase of Liege and Lief on CD. Subscribing to Rhapsody allowed me to explore more of the catalog, and now, the BBC set is hopefully on its way to my CD player.

Si tu dois partir on the radio when it was in the charts. (Being an old boy ;D)

First album I heard (and then went out & bought) was a friend's copy of "Angel Delight", in 1971. Then JBL when it came out, then the back catalogue as it then stood.  From then on - it was every FC album as they escaped were released.  And Swarb's solo LPs. And Richard's. And Sandy's.

First time I'd seen FC was on "Granada Reports" - must have been late 60s(?) - performing (or maybe miming to) MOTL.

Mine was The Five Seasons, bought after I had first seen/heard Fairport at Cropredy 1990.  After that I bought History of Fairport Convention to catch up on the "old" Fairport, and thence onto various others in no particular order!

I don't think I have heard Five Seasons since about 1995 when my tape got chewed up in the car.  Have never replaced it.....  :-[ (one or two good tunes on there, though, I seem to remember?...Discuss....  :-\)

No discussion necessary. Still one of my favourites of "late" era Fairport. Claudy Banks, Mock Morris 90, Gold, Sock In It, The Wounded Whale. Definitely replace it I say! :)

Oh right! I had forgotten that I had been able to borrow a vinyl copy of JBL from the local library back in the 80s sometime! I've never heard the album since then!  :'(

Five Seasons is GREAT!! I picked it up from a 2nd hand CD store that was closing down (not sure if it's currently available "new").  It's got Ginnie and Wounded Whale on it, not to mention Gold and All Your Beauty...  Worth getting hold of again

The first time I saw or heard Fairport was when they did "Time will show the wiser" on TV, as featured on some documentaries (It all comes round again etc). I bought the second album (Holidays) when it came out and then got the first (a rare mono copy) second hand from a guy called Richard Thompson!! He idolised RT and wanted a stereo copy so he could isolate one channel and listen to the solos better. I've bought every other album pretty much as they were issued including CD reissues (apart from a few of the compilations).
Harsh cries of anorak...

(PS Ollie, the pedant in me has won the fight again - the title should be the "...First Fairport Album you Bought/Heard"...)

Just trying to be educational...

Coat on, heading for door...

That's not the first time someone has got me on my speeling.  ;) I knwo that I can;t spekl ot use puntuation and I type very quicly sometimes!!

That's OK, I do try to fight the pedant but sometimes he's just too strong (and yes, he's definitely a he!)

I'm just grateful you're not typing in txt spk... ;)

OK, back on topic please...

mine was jewel in the crown borrowed from the library in about 2000, quickly followed by a live gig and my first cropredy ;D

My first FC album was Unhalfbricking. On vinyl. Then followed a disgracefully long gap before I started playing CD "catch up" about five years ago. ::) {:-)

first i ever heard was liege and Lief closely followed by Babbacombe lee. My dad had the albums and played them to death- i've been a fan ever since ;D ;D

The first one I bought was In Real Time (which I really thought was live until last year) and is still one of my favourites. Definitely the best version of Hiring Fair IMHO.  :)

Then I saw FC on their 1990 Wintour and bought Five Season which I also enjoyed a lot, but I then bought WWDOOH the same year which I wasn't so keen on (have since revisited it 15 years later and am pleased to report that my tastes have matured and I like it now!).

Like GF I'm now playing catchup and thoroughly enjoying the process!!  ;D   Babbacombe Lee is my current favourite.

Talking Elephant reissued it in 2001 (in a rather horrible sleeve! >:( Restore the original I say). It is available on their website.

WWDOOH  ??? _{I will know this and I'll kick myself and It'll hurt}

What we did on our holidays...

OUCH!! That hurt  :'(  :-[  ;)

L&L on tape from Petersfield Library in circa. '79 (borrowed Pentangling the same day and my mate Joel Renbourn suddenly pointed out to me that his Dad was in them.  I had no idea!)

Then got The History of on tape, and completed the first 5 before seeing them for the first time at Wimbledon Theatre at one of their Jan gigs in the early 80's.  Came home with the Attic Tapes from that one.  And on and on it went...  :)

I remember buying  -" History of FC " -on vinyl,(ages ago ) you know the one with a pretty ribbon and family tree on the cover .
Long since lost,. But not worried  as I  try not to buy  "Best Of`s / ultimate collections/greatest hits ,,etc " usually .
"Live "albums I do buy/enjoy . .
 All the tracks are on their   proper LP`s which I bought at a later date  anyhow [;-) .

1972 Nottm College of Pirate Education, Babbacombe Lee. That was the first one I remember hearin. But I reckon I must have heard earlier stuff as I knew the name well.

What is very annoying is that around that time Fairport played Nottm Uni with Sandy..... would love to have seen her.. :'(

If we're talking about the same gig...it's a couple of years later...

Fairport Convention
Nottingham University
27 November 1974

1.   Down In The Flood
2.   Rising For The Moon
3.   Solo
4.   Toss The Feathers
5.   It'll Take A Long Time
6.   The Brilliancy Medley
7.   One More Chance
8.   The Hexhamshire Lass
9.   Fiddlestix
10.   All Along The Watchtower
11.   Sloth
12.   Six Days On The Road
13.   Matty Groves

First CD heard was History, first CD bought was History, a few years later L&L followed.  Borrowed WATW from the library and put it back, fairly quick.  Though I am likely to buy it sometime soon.

I bought Leige and Lief sometime in the mid 1980's. It was before I saw em open for Tull in 1986/87/88 era. The cd changed my life in a way. It and Below the salt pulled me far into the celtic/traditional/ folk area. I had always been fascinated with the sound from Tull's Songs from the woods or Gentle Giants medieval sound. But Liege and Leif opened up the world of traditional music with a ballsy sound. Not your singer songwriter warbing on stage (not that that is bad) I look back on that day with great happiness.

I heard Who Knows Where The Time Goes on the radio back in about 1976 or so and loved it straight away.  I had taped it but I lost the tape a few months later.  I eventually got the track again on a Q Magazine freebie in about 2003 or so (whenever the remaster came out), and then my brother bought me Unhalfbricking a while later.  It took me far too long to chase up that initial love affair with WKWTTG but I've been catching up ever since.

Jules

the first album i bought was "Angel Delight" as it was the first lp that came out after i had started working for my current employer, and i couldnt afford lp's up to then
 so i did a bit of catching up and its been downhill all the way ever since

My parents had 'History' and often used to play it so it was always there in the background.
It's much more their era than mine, but as I hit my teens and started to play the guitar I became much more interested in the music of the late sixties/early seventies than the **** that was in the charts and raided their collection a lot. I was particularly interested in rock history and, as a complete anarak, was taken with the Pete Frame family Tree on the cover. I probably knew all the line-ups before I got round to listening to a second album..

The first track I heard was "Genesis hall" which someone had the good sense to play on national radio in Norway in 1969. My first Fairport LP was "Full house", which I bought as a 14 year old. Still my favourite FC album.

Babbacombe Lee was my first back in about 1972 ish I guess. Groovy tunes

I think it was the 25th anniversary box set of CDs, I can't find anything else.

Favourite of those is Babbacombe Lee.

I know i had heard a few cuts of the earliest albums on the radio( in the late 60's Boston was an excellent place for music!!)but didn't hear a complete album til Aug 1970---my first week at college--a friend played L&L for me. I was hooked. Barely waited to buy all the texts I needed before splurging a good hunk of my limited funds on L&L,WWDOOH.  I think FC take up the most space on our music shelf now even without counting in the ones by RT, RandLT, Sandy etc.
Saw them first in London, autumn 1972, then not again til they made the long trek up to Maine on the XXXV tour.  

Slightly off-topic, but being a librarian I cannot help but notice how many posts mention their first encounter with Fairport´s music through a (local) library record/CD collection. Having heard about the same experience over here, I´m happy that a lot of people might not have found Fairport´s music had they not bumped into their records in the library´s collection.
Back to topic  ;D ;D ;D
Staffan

First for me was Bonny Bunch Of Roses, original LP in 1977.  The band was touring Australia and Simon, Peggy and Swarb were on a national radio show playing and discussing the tracks from the album.

Then came History Of, then came everything else!


mh

I first heard Fairport's "Walkawhile" on the 1970 compilation album "Bumpers". First actual album I bought was XXXV and then I have slowly acquired (most of) the rest.

There's 32 'wasted' years in there Andy just awaiting a decent excuse, um, explanation  :)

Nowt really. I saw them in the early 1970's but never bought a recording until I saw them on the XXXV tour. Just one of those things.

The first LP I ever acquired was in 1970 at the age of 14 and was 'Nice Enough To Eat', a superbly eclectic Island Records sampler which featured Cajun Woman from Unhalfbricking. I was intrigued enough to buy a copy of Unhalfbricking a short while later and I still think it is one of the greatest albums ever made.

The first two Fairport albums and Liege & Lief followed within the next few months. From Angel Delight onwards I lost track of Fairport activities for quite a few years (distracted by the delights of The Grateful Dead and many others) but came back on board after seeing Fairport at The Hawth in Crawley sometime in the late 80's.First Cropredy was in 89 and I have been a regular ever since.

This thread has exposed my failing memory (another year older today actually).

I've really tried hard to remember what must have been the first track I heard; I just seemed to be aware from late 60s.

Logically it probably would have been whatever track John Peel (or his early partners - remember them anyone?: 'Top Gear' with Peel and ...?) played first.  As an obsessive teenager I never missed a show.  So that's a clue for a new challenge - should I start a new thread?  What was the first track played on Radio 1?

Oh heavens I've just realised it might have been Radio Caroline or Radio London.

I do know the first album I could afford was Unhalfbricking.

That got me to my first ever concert (of any sort):  Liege and Lief at Fairfield Halls.  I can still remember the shock of the first amplified guitar chord!  Then leaving with my ears ringing and the thought that I wanted everyone to listen to this band.  Having to wait a couple of months before L&L came out, think it was just in time for Christmas - the first LP I ever had on pre-order!  

Oh such exciting times!

First heard - L&L ( a girlfriend's elder sister had good taste in music)
First album bought - "History" (was a guiding light to listening to many other musicians)
First saw on TV - Top Of The Pops (STDP) - great  sense of humour
First saw live - The Farewell Tour - can they be done under the Trades Description Act??

Cheers,

Jules  :)

The first time I heard of Fairport was when I saw them in Heidelberg 1987 opening for Jethro Tull and I was blown away from the first minute. I can't exactly say what the first albums were I bought, but within four or five weeks after this show I had Full House, expletive delighted!, Moat on the Ledge, History of and cocktail cowboy on Vinyl from a second hand shop and In real time on CD. Until 1990 I had the complete back catalogue and hat do wait for their new releases to get a new Fairport album......
But it was an exiting time, because much of the stuff was deleted on lp and not out on cd yet, there was no ebay/internet so it was very hard to find all these lps, (two of them I found in the basement of an italian lp shop in Asti.....) That was a great time, and such a joy, when I tracked down another item. Its a little bit sad, but nowadays I can't get such feelings anymore, with gemm, ebay and so on there are not so great troubles to find what you search.....


Alex

It was a compilation called Now and Then. I bought it because I had randomly purchased some tickets to see Fairport, and thought it might be a good idea to hear something first. I was so shocked by how many CDs were available I went for a compilation. I don't need to listen to it anymore now, as three years later I have a shelf full of Fairport and Fairport related CDs (and more on the way!)

I think it must have been the 'History of...' album, which my brother had.  But I don't think I bought any for myself till after I first saw them in Sheffield in 1996.  Started with Gladys Leap, which is what they promoting then, and carried on buying the new ones as they came out and the old ones as I discovered them.

My first was the Sandy Denny 4LP box set from the mid-80s (with obviously many FC tracks), which I bought late November 1988. A strange first thing to buy but I was confident enough after I read an article about her. I was 20 years old then.

(Actually, two years before I had bought Liege & Lief (the LP) at a flea market for next to nothing. I played a bit of the first track and it was all scatched so I didn't go further at that point, although I did make up for that following 1988)

Following the Sandy box which blew me away beyond description I got Bright Lights and Shoot Out by R&L Thompson which did exactly the same. The first FC albums proper, not counting that scratchy L&L 2 years earlier, were Gladys' Leap and a scratchfree Liege & Lief (the single sleeve Island reissue. I obviously liked the folkdout cover better so put the reissue LP in the old LP cover!). So then I got thinking, WHY are these 2 albums miles apart stylistically, but both intrigueing? Why are only the rhythm guitarist and the drummer still there on Gladys compared with Liege & Lief; why is the guitarist on GL singing whereas you don't hear him vocally on L&L? What happened inbetween? Don't I know that new bass player from a Jethro Tull album? I want to find out more! And this was less easy in the pre-internet days. Gradually, I learned and never stopped.
A few months later I was at Cropredy 1989 and was there every year up to 2002. Missed 2003-2005-2006. Kids. Family. Phah ;-)

Exactly! I remember I had this list of albums still-to-buy, which was huge, and I went to many record fairs. For years I never found albums like Prospect Before Us, Smiddyburn or even Angel Delight but in the end I was successful and when I did there always was such a YESSSSS moment.
I remember gaping remaining holes in my LP collection were the first FC album and the first Matthews Southern Comfort album which (OK: sad!) irritated me no end.
Then gradually lots of things came out on CD; and when the internet became commonplace you never really had to search hard anymore save a few exceptions. Indeed, I never had that YESSSSS moment anymore which I had when I found an LP I had been after for a long time. Well - finding is not so much the problem; dosh is!

They were promoting Gladys' Leap in 96???

First heard loads of  bits and pieces in the late 1960s
First album I listened to in its entirity was Unhalfbricking.
First one I bought was Liege and Lief and then History of...

Was much more into Bob Dylan in those days and sort of weaned onto Fairport through the 1970s and backtracking through RT and Sandy.

Think for someone coming into FC now you can't go far wrong with History of.. plus Then and Now ... at least that is what I have given a friend who is coming to Cropredy for the first time this year.

John Peel played Chelsea Morning from the first album on his Saturday afternoon show in the 60s.  The following weekend I took two weeks of my paper round earnings and the bus into Glasgow and bought it.  Hooked then and there and ever since.

A certain Dame Jude of this parish has a lot to answer for.  ;)

First album bought = the 'History" double, on vinyl complete with ribbon! (I'd already got R<'s "Bright Lights" and decided against "Henry" because of the apparent absence of fab female vocals and thought I'd check out his old band!)

First contemporaneous line up heard = a TV session by the "Rising for the Moon" incarnation.

First live line-up heard = the "Gottle o'Geer" lot playing the much missed Friars Aylesbury club. Pleasant enough but I was more into R< and the Albions - but a few years later, I caught the "Farewell" tour at Sunderland Poly where they played MOTL after a long gap....and I was hooked!

Oops!  Slip of the finger there.  I think I meant '86  :-[

Aaah Memories.

The first FC album I heard in its entirety was 'Angel Delight' - my mate Pete the Fiddler brought it round one evening saying you have to listen to this.  At the time (to my shame) I had thought Fairport was a novelty band, only having heard Si Tu Dois Partir when it was in the Hit Parade (& seeing them on TOTP).  Listening to Angel Delight that evening was a real road to Damascus moment - instant convert.  The next day I went into our local music shop (Muir's in Dunfermline - sadly long, long gone) intending to purchase Angel Delight only to discover they didn't have it in stock - but the chap behind the counter said they had a new album only just come in that day & handed me History of ... which I duly purchased & what a revelation that was as well.  

Shortly after that I was talking to another friend enthusing about this "new" band I'd discovered only to discover that he had all of the albums up to & including JBL, with the puzzling exception of Unhalfbricking.  He loaned me Henry the Human Fly & L&L.

I started buying all of the albums - Fairport, RT, Sandy etc - & then when CDs took over bought them all again (up to & including the At the BBC set).  What a wonderful trip it has been & long may it continue.

As I've noted in my first ever contribution (see: "So how did you get into..."), a friend lent me Holidays and then FC, in the late sixties, but I didn't actually buy anything (cheapskate!) until I saw "History of..." in WH Smith's in Brighton, where I lived from Sep '71 to Sep '73. The next one was "Rosie", which had been trailed on "History...", followed by "Full House".

After that it get's a bit blurred, but I kind-of got more or less each new one as it came out, whilst also heading backwards to fill in the gaps of what I hadn't got at the time they came out.

I was heavily in to Pentangle long before I was fully-converted to FC, and also Steeleye, too.

I had listened to some of Richard & Linda (specifically IWTCTBLT), which a friend had, and also it got a lot of radio play, but didn't realise quite what a genius he was until I stumbled across Hand of Kindness (can't remember where), but didn't see him or start collecting properly until about five years ago.

DC

Wow, it would have been quite something to have gone to the Farewell tour. Welcome to Talkawhile (known on here as TAW)

I found Nine in a record shop second hand in 1978. Had been a Maddy Prior groupie for a while after she danced with me ( I didn't know she danced with everyone!!) at Southport Theatre in the early /mid 70's. when I went to college in Manchester I couldn't afford new records so bought a few second hand ones from "the eighth day" co-operative.  Still have them. Reminded me of where I belonged - they were Fairport Nine, Pentangle- Basket of Light and Bert Jansch - LA Turnaround

After being enthralled with "Fog on the Tyne (pre Gazza - 1989) - my first foray into Folk Rock, I took "What we did in our Holidays" out of Central Library, St Helens.  This was followed a week or two later by Red and Gold.

"Bloody hell - sounds nothing like the other one!"

By then hooked............

http://www.talkawhile.co.uk/yabbse/index.php?topic=1471.msg110412#msg110412

This is a really weird coincidence, I nearly wore a hole through the vinyl of Fog on the Tyne - before I got into Fairport via What we did on our Holidays... cue spooky music.... although Red and Gold was an album I got much much later for some reason.

Hello Linda! Nice to see a new face.  :)

Can't help feeling Red & Gold would have been a disconcerting place to start, both in terms of quality (title track aside) and being representative. I can understand the shock of the contrast between that & WWDOOH though. I had much the same experience with Five Seasons & Liege & Lief.

Oh blimey, I seem to have been here before......

Heard  - Like others, heard wee bits on Peely's Top Gear in 1968. Wunnerful Radio 1 was fizzy AM, so they didn't really register, also the tranny kept falling in the bath (I wished he'd stop doing it). Turned out friend Rod (the sod, not the Mod) owned a copy of What We Did On Our Holidays.

"Oh yeah, Fairport Convention, heard em on the wireless, American aren't they?" Perused LP front cover - "whaaaat the HELL is this?? What are Standell amps? Hey look, they are plugged into electricity pylons!" Then looked at the back - "Ooh, that little bird singing looks nice, what  a lovely dress. And those chaps look pretty cool. And what's that dog doing lying in the middle?".

Played it - "Good stuff, haven't heard these Dylan songs before." Taped it (reel to reel 7 1/2 IPS). Realised I really loved it.

Bought  - Unhalfbricking. Finally realised which one Richard Thompson was. Could not believe how good and varied the songs were. Fell in love with Sandy.

And there we are, nearly 40 years later, see you at Cropredy  ;)    

I was browsing through the 'F' section in the Notting Hill Record and Tape Exchange in the mid 70s when I came across this album called "Rosie" and had to get it for obvious reasons .

Loved it, decided to explore further, and bought "History of..." Was hooked, and "History of..." was one of the first batch of cds I bought when I finally got round to upgrading.

Unfortunately, since I was never much of a gig-goer when I was living in the UK, I didn't actually get round to seeing FC live until the "Jewel in the Crown" tour at the late-lamented Bottom Line in NYC. Have been kicking myself at intervals ever since.

Rosie

PS The first 2 times I spoke to Ric, when I told him my name he said "We've done an album with your name" (or something like that)

First one heard would have been L and L specifically Tam Lin which you would hear on underground FM and being about 13 found it very spooky sounding, liked it alot, wondered how they had developed the capability to go several hundred yrs back in time to make a recording. First one bought was Movable Feast, next was Gottle O Geer cause I liked the cover  but not its contents which tempered my interest until the Peggster joined Tull and moreso until Martin A and Ric joined Fairport