TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I believe I've just proven myself a hopeless anorak: I got a myspace Friend Request from somebody named "No Fixed Abode" so I went to check out their page. Turns out they're a duo who've released their first album last April. OK, so I started reading their bio and the first thing that stuck out was "Ashley Hutchins (yes THE godfather of folk) Bass guitar ", which made me doubt they had ever even met the man. But I saw Jude among their friends so I accepted the request and left a comment saying they should fix that typo.

Then I got to thinking (mistake, I know): did I have the spelling wrong? So I typed "Hutchings" into Google and sure enought, site-after-site of Tyger Hutchings info. Whew!  8)

Then I typed "Ashley Hutchins" in (just to be sure), and to my amazement, I see pages where Ashley Hutchins, founder of FC and SS, is discussed (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/folk_music/103052) as well as pages where both spellings are used:
http://www.amazon.com/Ashley-Hutchings-Rock-Fairport-Convention-Steeley/dp/1900924323  ???

So, which is correct? or are both accepted?  :-\

Nope.

Hmmm, what is the myspace URL Bob ?  I know of a 'No Fixed Abode' duo from Derbyshire (who are *excellent* BTW, played Big Session this year).



Edit: I've just got a 'friend request' too, and it is indeed Una & Tony, truly delightful people and always a treat live, I had no idea they were on myspace ::) :D

What was really making me doubt myself was seeing the people who used "Hutchins" in this very forum!  :o
See for yourselves: just enter "Hutchins" into that search box up there and see what I mean  ;D a real eye-opener  :)

A bit like Nichol and Saunders (that well known double act!)

I am frequently called Julie Dyble on the internet Bob, and it's sometimes corrected but mostly not.

Ashley's name is Hutchings, but it gets mis-spelt frequently as does Simon Nicol.

I think it's because people don't bother to check. Which is, I think, sad :(

"A bit like Nichol and Saunders (that well known double act!)"

Saunders?

Oh you mean Rick!

Could be worse .......... Simone Nicol?

In the olden days we used to have a drummer called Mattocks.

T-R

"No Fixed Abode" are indeed an excellent duo, based in Derbyshire, but with a brilliant Irish female vocalist, who I believe is opera-trained. Saw them at a local festival a year or two ago, and they played a barnstorming but intelligent set. They have a couple of CD's out which are well worth listening to.

In Holland there's the definitive rock encyclopedia by OOR, updated every 2 years with a brand new issue (I don't know if they still do but they sure did until a few years ago as I have the 1988 and 2000 issues). Big book, hardcover, 400+ pages. Fairport DOES have its seperate entry. That's the good news.
The 1988 issue mentions Martin Allock joining (both times Maart's mentioned he's called Allock, so it's not a mere printing error). Worse, though not a spelling error, is that this encyclopedia sees Dave Pegg leaving Fairport in 1987, to "join Jethro Tull". I remember the 1990 issue has these same mistakes plus a few more, though I forgot which ones - I had that one from the library at the time - which prompted me to write a letter with about 10 corrections. It got me in the credits in the 1992 issue. (Anorak!)
Nichol, Saunders, Allock, Mattocks. At least Pegg was typo-free of that line up (but then how do you misspell that - Peg? Egg? Depp?). Then there's Gerry Donahue end Jerry Conway which I've seen several times ... and the most persistent of all, even among fans (!) - Leige And Leif. Or was it Lief And Leige. Errr...

Then again, who cares about spelling these days. In 5 years MSN chat language is the st&ard.

Actually.... http://www.poeticexpressions.co.uk/POEMS/EU%20Speak.htm  ;)

PS -
On the whole the Dutch OOR encyclopedia is quite good, though too often too subjectively written, but ... well if any Dutchman out there has the 1990 (or possibly the 1992) version (I may have the years confused here), I now remember further toe curlers in the Fairport chapter. There was something about a then recent album being called lame having several "misguided" Dylan covers (huh?) and the listing of 2 albums in the discography which never even existed. In 1990 Trevor Lucas continued to produce records in Australia, which was no mean feat given that he had died the previous year.
Though the story up to then was the usual Fairport-story-in-a-nutshell without factual errors as far as I remember, the post-1980 part of the Fairport entry was lazy journalism at its worst, for the biggest part been made up by someone who did not really bother to check facts ... or, God forbid, listen to albums - interesting that this was even listed, but then-double cassette The Other Boot was called "interesting" due to the inclusion of several Led Zeppelin songs courtesy of guest singer Robert Plant. Well, Plant performed at the event but was not in fact included on the Other Boot! (though he was on the Cropredy Capers video release of the same event).
 
If I can find this encyclopedia anywhere, we might have a further feast of error spotting.

Percy is on the Third Leg double cassette set as well though isn't he?

No, he's on 25th Anniversary Concert - Cropredy 1992.
(which had not taken place when the piece in the encyclopedia was written)

By the way, checking the other big rock encyclopedia I have - Times Books' The Great Rock Encyclopedia, by one Martin C. Strong, 950 pages ... there is also a seperate Fairport entry and you guessed it: it's that guy names Saunders again on fiddle. Does every piece on Fairport need to have a name spelling error? Other facts in the bio are short and not very helpful, not much more than a listing of who replaced who, with anything post-Swarb marginalized by a mere mention of "the band continued recording throughout the '80s and '90s amid constantly changing line ups". Must say, its discography is fairly detailed and at least does not, like its Dutch counterpart, have albums listed which were never released at all.

So, what's the '86 performance on, then?  it's released on something, but I'm damned if I can remember what it was...oh, here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAj2GK8EJgI

From the Cropredy Capers video of Cropredy 1986. It just wasn't on The Other Boot which is also from Cropredy 1986.

But there was one line up throughout the 80's and 90's (bar a few years).

Patrick Humphreys even calls him Sauders in the sleeve notes to the Lasting Spirit collection. Another thing I have never understood is why on Genesis Hall and Percy's Song, the dulcimer part is always listed as 'violin' including in the songbook. It doesn't even sound like a fiddle.

One more encyclopedia. Pioneers Of Rock 'n Roll - 100 Artists Who Changed The Face Of Rock, publ. by Billboard Books. I bought it for nearly nothing once, it's standard biographies of 100 artists who etc etc.
Here, Fairport has again its own entry as one of rock's 100 prime movers and has its 3-page chapter between The Everly Brothers and Fleetwood Mac. That's pretty cool, especially in a US book. I wondered who'd be the owner of the obligatory misspelt name in here.
And it's Simon! Who in this book is called both Nichol and Nichols.
 ::)

Indeed, which tells you something about these kind of write-ups.

Hmmmm, I'm not sure that's true (even with the 'bar a few years' proviso - 8 out of 20...a few?  Discuss!) is it.  'There was one lineup from 1985 to 1997' doesn't have quite the same impact I agree, but it does have the benefit of being true!