TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Just found this lot under the bed!

The first three are the lads doing Walkawhile.

For those who don't know, this was Fairport's "Farewell Farewell" tour and the gig was in a marquee at Thoresby Hall, Notts. The lineup was Swarb, Simon, Peggy, and Bruce.

Excuse standard of shots - large aperture, slow film, blah blah. Practice, in my case, does not make perfect.



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And these three - two of Flatback Caper and one of Sloth. Seem to have cut Simon's head off on the Sloth one - sorry!  ;D

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Just found this one too - few years earlier - Swarb seems to have got everywhere!

(Sorry, it's not him really - couldn't resist it   ;D ;D ).

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Cor well done Ed, we wuz there!

Superb photos, Ed....what a band those four were....  :)

 What's going on in that last picture, please, Ed? It looks Stalinesque!   ???

Nice pics though. Hardly recognised the lads ... esp Peggy with hair

Sad that it seemed alright to smoke while playing in those days, I know it was kind of Swarb's trademark, but it looks so awful.

That was only the second time we'd seen Fairport.. and I can still hear Swarb's haunting fiddle bit in Sloth.. the best ever!

The gig was in a big marquee on the lawns of Thoresby Hall... and guess what...

We were there yesterday afternoon again and there was a big marquee on the lawns in exactly the same spot!!

Thanks for posting them Ed!

 ;D ;D

This seems as good a place as any to ask - what is Bruce up to these days, and is he in good health?  Hope so....such a great drummer.  Last I saw of him was being interviewed in that excellent Ronnie Lane documentary.  Simon?

Ian  - it's the Killingworth Sword Dancers on the Quayside in Newcastle. I'm not sure if they are still at it - their website seems to have disappeared. They are actually rapper dancers (the "rapper" is a whippy metal thingy with a handle) You tend to get rapper mostly in the north east but the above lads did standard-ish morris as well.   Rapper involves this incredibly complicated circular dance which can involve one BIG bloke doing a sort of forward roll over two others, still holding the rappers. At the end of the dance they somehow manage to lock the rappers together in the star shape and hold 'em up as per photo! Add to this the fact that the whole dance is done at about 300 mph and you can imagine how flash it can be.

Eliza Carthy sometimes plays for the Goathland Plough Stots which are another lot of rappers (!) in err...Goathland. They always do their stuff in January so I haven't seen them yet.

There are in fact THREE tenuous Fairport connections with all this!

1) - they have a rapper "star" on the wall in the pub in ITV's Heartbeat. Geoff Hughes appears in Heartbeat. By a strange coincidence various Fairports appeared in the background on the programme a couple of years ago.

2) A bunch of us were up in Newcastle around 1975 for a friend's wedding. After the "do" we commandeered the hotel TV lounge to watch the documentary about John Babbacombe Lee starring Swarb, Sandy Denny, etc etc. About 6 "refreshed"  Geordies came in - "Whaaaatt - not watchin the football lads?" but happily settled down to watch the prog as well. The following (Sunday) morning we all went doon Quayside and there were the Killingworth dancers so I took several phots.

There is a third connection as I believe the Fairports used NOT to go doon a bomb in Newcastle as Lindisfarne were the preferred folk rockers.  

Why aye, end of Open University dissertation man! Glad everybody enjoyed the Fairport Fots. More to come if I can stand all the scanning etc.      

Repeats of Heartbeat are currently being shown on weekdays.. with Geoff Hughes!

I speak with him on the phone from time to time - he is enjoying his musical retirement by the sea in the West Country running a small eco-friendly cottage industry. Sold his drum kit years ago and doesn't miss it. Content and happy, he doesn't seem to feel the need to drop in at gigs if we're nearby, and I think the last time he came to Crops was in one of the anniversary years, 1997 or 2002.

Top chap!

Thanks Simon, that's great to know....  :)  Next time you speak to him, tell him we're asking after him...and send him our love  ;D

 Thanks Ed. Incredibly atmospheric pictures one and all; I've seen that rapper 'star' dance performed once, and it astonished me. The lack of bandaged hands on display astonished me even more.... ;D

  Really good of you to share all of this. Thanks again.

                                                                    Ian  [;-)

Thanks folks.

Talking of one Geoff Hughes....

He wouldn't sell me a tee shirt - I had to buy one off (gasp....) CUPMAN!!! I didn't dare take a photo of the latter cos he is a superhero.

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As a complete aside did you know phil Collins bought his first proper drum Kit when he was 15 off Bruce? ;D ;D

If only Bruce had held out for more money.......

 ;)

Jules

Wow - I remember when the Quayside looked like that!

Now its all yuppies and alcopops.