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Overall an excellent set from Fairport despite the field getting colder by the minute. Fairport '67 were delightful, Judy's crochet antics during "Reno Nevada" very funny. Loved Fairport '69's version of "Suzanne".

The "Liege & Lief" section was great, but why they decided to perform "Farewell Farewell" and "Crazy Man Michael" as the current FC and recreate the rest with Chris While, RT, Ashley Hutchings and DM is beyond me, maybe they hadn't rehearsed those two numbers ?

"Full House" FC with Chris Leslie on fiddle and mandolin played fine renditions of "Sloth" and "Poor Will", and they can be forgiven for a slightly uneven "Sir Patrick Spens".

Sally Barker's mid-set rendering of her own "Money Talks" was something that worked on the Wintour but didn't really cut it in the field, desperately imploring a reluctant crowd to "please" sing along. "Rising For The Moon" with Sally's lead vocal was enjoyable, however, as was a surprise version of Fotheringay's "Ballad Of Ned Kelly" led by PJ Wright, and Ralph McTell's moving "White Dress".

The Maart era was ably represented by "Jewel In The Crown" and "A Surfeit Of Lampreys".

One of the best renditions of "Hiring Fair" I've heard in years followed featuring DM on keyboards.

WKWTTG with Chris While was superb, but choosing to follow it with "Our Bus Rolls On" (the terrible attempt at an "Angel Delight" update) killed the mood somewhat, despite being an optimistic statement of intent.

Banjo "Matty Groves" (which has surely had its 5-year lifespan ?) was next, and an emotional MOTL concluded a very decent three hour marathon, although I might've mentioned at the beginning how chilly the arena had become, causing many around us to bail for the warmth of their sleeping bags before the end.

Brilliant!  A couple of duff tracks, but the rest was superb, as were the guests.
RT, what a man, what a guitarist.
In contrast to previous times, very, very few seemed to be packing up early and leaving.
Three hours flew by.

Great.
Proper Cropredy set, the likes of which we haven't seen for many a long year.

No backsliding chaps.

Agreed. I'd have happily paid my money just for Sloth, the rest was pretty much all bonus. As Albie says, the time flew by.

Excellent set with enough from most eras to keep us all happy and sorry I like the By the Cherwell and the Bus Rolls On. Sad bit was that as my back was so bad I had to listen to the last two hours laying down in the tent.

My thoughts exactly

I really hope that set was recorded and/or filmed.  That's one to remember for the rest of one's days. (Notwithstanding the slight misunderstanding during Sir Pat).

And the first ever crochet solo at Cropredy, I believe.

Brilliant set!  I watched the first hour and a bit from right down the front before my feet called me to bail (I'd been there since the start of Dougie MacLean's set), and watched the rest from higher up the field.  Loved Jude getting the knitting out in RT's solo during 'Reno, Nevada'.

Little bit of a mixup with the words in 'Sir Patrick Spens', and am I right in thinking that during 'The Hiring Fair' Simon sang that he was going to sell his neighbour?  Which would put a rather different spin on the whole song!  

I'm a little surprised that more wasn't made of Swarb's passing this year from the stage.

Great to see all the old members getting a turn, including some nice guitar from Maart.

And arranging for the shooting stars during the set was amazing too!

Thoroughly enjoyable set. Some personal favourites were missing from the setlist, but I'll forgive them as it must be pretty difficult to condense 50 years into 3 hours. It was a real treat to hear songs from the Judy/Iain years - and to hear 'Sloth' again was brill.

Awesome. Didn't understand why Sally sang one her own songs, surely if the guys needed a break Maart could have just done a solo, ah well. Thought it was brilliant, and RT was amazing. One BIG GRIPE...given the significance of the event, there was a crowd of 'blokes' laughing and shouting and generally being a pain up near the back. We couldn't get any nearer with our big gang, and it was more than annoying that people who should have been in the pub paid so little respect for the band, and the other people in the field.
Personal highlights, Time will show the wiser, Crazy Man Michael, Hiring Fair, Sloth and , oddly, The Bus Keeps Rolling.

Tough luck, you must gave found only the second lairy group who hadn't a clue where/why they were there, except that it was a weekend in the country to get pissed at. There was another group of them by the bar, but they did keep themselves together, and it was easy to move away from them. I thought there were far fewer of that type this year, tigether with fewer children but a (lot) more dogs! One each I don't mind under control, but three on three leads just weren't controllable. Leads a-tangle!

Seriously good festival, congrats all round, prob the best in 15 years for me.

One particularly loud group were behind us as we were watching Plainsong. They dispersed in time for Cats in Space (and I wished they would have come back ;D)

At the front for Fairport this year I was happy not to have had the usual drunk lads pushing to the front and then talking loudly through the set.  Instead there were four Americans to my left and 3 Germans just behind me, all of whom weer obviously taking it all in and enjoying it.  

There was one annoying guy at the front for another band who didn't like being asked to shut up by someone else, but the guy who was asked to do so during Dougie MacLean's set was remarkably compliant - enough so that the lady who'd asked him to be quiet thanked him later for doing so!

Similar down the front the night before for RT, except that the larger group was lads and lassies. The smaller group of numpties were old enough to have known better, but didn't. I moved a bit, which is the good thing about standing, you can find a numpty-free zone.

i did mean to mention Jude's knitting, we howled laughing at the perfect recreation a FC set in 67 ;D

In recent times, I have started to wonder if I have been falling out of love with Fairport and my affections have strayed. After that I am back in the fold. An absolute joy from beginning to end. I could pick hairs about the odd choice or omission but who cares? I haven't enjoyed Fairport so much for years.

Especially wonderful to hear the '67 set and then Richard and DM throughout. I may even be warming to some of the newer songs which seemed to feel right in the field. (I had thought Summer by the Cherwell was something PJ was glad to be shot of, but then recently it all made sense. Shopping in Tesco a woman I certainly didn't know smiled at me in a very friendly way. "Still got it" I thought and then I realised she had smiled because of the Cropredy t-shirt I was wearing. I remembered the line from the song about "smiles r cognition from people you haven't met" and realised PJ had got it tight after all.)

Loved the set, very fitting for the 50th

In the past the winter tour support act had a solo spot at Cropredy. That seemed to end last year.
Last years winter tour artist joined Fairports to do one of his own songs, so, possibly, the same for Sally.

Swarb died last June and he was marked by this emotive montage (https://youtu.be/fZIImXlZKyk) last year.

I thought Fairport's 1997 Cropredy set (the 30th anniversary and the one Ashley narrated) was good, but that this year's was better because a) it wisely concentrated on the 'glory years' b) it was mostly but not strictly chronological c) it featured performances of really old songs performed by the current line-up, which not only mixed things up nicely for the audience but also involved Ric, Chris and Gerry from the start and throughout the evening and d) it featured truncated - but not necessarily inferior - versions of many songs and instrumentals, all the better to cram in as much material as possible. The result was quintessential Fairport.

Pre-festival speculation about Robert Plant's appearance - and reports that he was actually there on the day - all led to nothing, but it didn't really matter. It was Fairport's 50th, not his! (Actually, I was more let down by the no-show of Tom Farnell and his 'special' tambourine but, then, as Peggy said 'He's from Birmingham'...)

Absolutely splendid.

Spot on!

Well I think they pretty much nailed it and dealt really well with the intermixing of old and new members. All in all for me a very special and emotive musical experience. An unexpected highlight for me was Time Will Show the Wiser... Full of energy and tight as a duck's bum, and amazing to see five out of six of those original members lashing it out with such gusto and obvious love 50!! years later. Sloth with Richard blew me away, as did Rising for the Moon.

Yes there were gaffes,but if anything they made it all the more human IMHO. All of those members past and present (and suitable tributes to those passed on) brought home to me the true sense of the amazing musical family that is Fairport. I felt privileged to be there to witness such a truly special event, and I'll be buzzing for a long time..

Yes, sorry about that. Got a little confused with my dates!

The best Fairport Cropredy set I've witnessed, speaking as a relative newbie to the festival (2002).

Brilliant to see Maart on stage...The second time for me in recent weeks, having just seen Mancunia (Highly recommended!) play at the Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon... :)

Chris While was wonderful as ever, and the finest singer of the Sandy era songs and anything else for that matter...

Richard Thompson...Have run out of superlatives...Incredible !...

Such a privilege to witness the power of the Peggy and DM rhythm section again... 8)

If I was to sum it up I could do no better than the comment from StephenB “I felt privileged to be there to witness such a truly special event”

This was the best set I have heard them play in a long-while if not ever in the 10 years or so I have been  regular attendee.  I doubted my back would survive the 3 hours of standing but the enjoyment of being at the front was enough to mask the pain (getting out of my chair to walk back to Field 7 30 mins later told me that it might have been a mistake however!).  Yes there were number I might have wanted to hear and Sir PS went a bit awry but overall it could not be faulted, and it brought back just how tight a unit they were back in the day.

As regards the crowd, unlike some previous years, where I was standing was full of people who actually wanted to listen and enjoy.  If however you were at the left hand side of the stage and your view was blocked by a very tall bloke swaying slightly I can only apologise as that might well have been me.

Totally agree - very special and loved every bit including Richard's joke about Simon and Sir Patrick Spens nearly surviving a shipwreck...!

It was nice hearing Ballad Of Ned Kelly to represent Trevor and I loved Thompson's joke about Simon being half Irish/half Scottish.

This obviously by way of Radio Oxford's stream, of which I managed to catch about 2/3 of it

Excellent set, and I loved all the early stuff. Hoping for a bit of Babbacombe Lee, for two reasons. It was the first Fairport I ever heard, and my son's partner comes from Babbacombe, and hasn't heard it yet.  ;D Apart from that, wonderful.

Thought Chris While did very well to do the impossible, and stand in for Sandy.

Paul

When Simon was introducing the current line-up towards the end of the set, and said 'Dave bl00dy Pegg' - made me smile.

Possibly realising that the next anniversary is Peggy's, not Simon's....Peggy having had a longer single stint in FC that he has. Peggy's 50th in 3 years time (2020)

Hats off to Chris Leslie too, who had to do another impossible task. Where he sometimes put "twiddly bits" into the singing of some of the earlier songs these days, he sang them straight and true to the original versions on Saturday and no-one could have bettered his fiddle playing.

Well, Swarb might have. Chris did a mighty Swarb impression, though. And indeed, he's a very nice man.

A very long time ago.  He hasn't had the energy for playing well with Fairport since before his first erroneous Obit.

Chris is a brilliant Swarb substitute.  It's a tragedy of immense proportions that this isn't (generally) the role he has filled.

(All imho only, of course).

Ric has freely admitted (in this years programme I think) that he can't "do" Swarb as well as Chris.

FWIW I don't think anyone needs to "do" Swarb or be his substitute - Ric and Chris are their own musicians and put their own mark on what they're playing.

I enjoyed the FC set, particularly the very early stuff. I also thought everyone looked tense when RT was there, but relaxed when he wasn't. If you look at Chris in F of F he's grinning his head off, he wasn't Saturday night  :-\

Would have liked Red and Gold but you can't have everything!

I suspect that's just concentration.  Without being disparaging, FoF are all absolutely brilliant musicians...they could do that stuff in their sleep.  He was out of his comfort zone and with a lot of responsibility on his shoulders playing the early Fairport stuff.  I don't think i'd have been that relaxed either...  ;) :)

Well someone needed to, on Saturday night.

What struck me (and I might be imagining this) was the way that Simon and RT always seem to work together with what seems like effortless ease, although they do both look to be concentrating very hard! A sign of two extraordinarily talented musicians who have worked together a lot over 50 years of course but there always seems to be some underlying "chemistry" there. I know RT has said some very complimentary things about Simon in that regard in the past, Saturday night showed why.

To me, the question that came to mind after Saturday night though is, when is the original 1967 line-up (with DM) going to record their long-awaited second album? No slight on any other Fairport incarnations intended at all but given the performance they put on (and everyone played an equally large part in it), that would or certainly could, be something VERY special indeed!

I knew it would be good, but I didn't expect it to be that good... it really was the best ever (since 1990).

The whole three hours went by far too quickly though, at double the length of time it would have been too short for me.

What a delight to see RT with them again, and Ashley who without whom...
Brilliant to have Maart up there again and DM, and, well, everyone...

I am still in Cropredy heaven and will be for a very long time.

It must have taken so much emotional effort on the part of everyone on stage to have made this so perfect, we forget that they are all human just like us and so huge congrats to each and everyone that gave us such a wonderful night.

Beautifully put, Jenny! Seconded!!  ;D

Where's the 'like' button when you need it?!!

Thank you, and too late now to edit the spelling mistakes!

Thank you Chris Bates, shame re my spelling mistakes!

*whispers- think I've fixed it Jenny  :D*

However RT did try to upstage Judy, by playing guitar all though her knitting solo.
(Stolen fro FaceBook)


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Honestly.... some people  ::)

So nice to see Ashley getting credit on here. With all the (justified) praise for RT and DM it is often easy to overlook him, but his playing was tremendous.

It is ironic but when they started, Richard used to be the shy one, apparently often playing with his back to the audience and hiding behind his hair. All change now as it seems whenever he appears, the others defer to him as the leader. Probably not true and a misleading impression I get, but he does have a great stage presence.

Well put Jenny.

Seeing that first album lineup on stage gave me goosebumps even before a note had been played. And then it started, they just completely nailed it as far as I'm concerned!
I have always loved the sound of Judy and Iain singing together and I was not disappointed.
When it came to the Sandy material I don't think anyone could have done a better job than Chris While did.
I have seen a few grumbles elsewhere from people saying there was too much emphasis on the early years, but for me this had to be the way the set went. I really don't think we will ever get all those past members in one place again.
This brings me to my only disappointment of the set. There is one song which has always been a favourite of mine which I have never heard them play live. That song is "Book Song", I never expected them to play it on Saturday, but I did hope!
Thank you Fairport for giving such a brilliant set. I really hope it was being recorded for an album (although I'm guessing Sir Patrick Spens might not make it to the cut!)

Absolutely hilarious...  ;D

I couldn't quite believe it either!

Unbelievable Jeff!!! :o

Thank you dear Jude xx

Thank you Diane xx

For me the whole thing was a joy. Considering how hard everyone had already worked that weekend, it went really well. The odd non-sinking ship (and did Chris While omit the fiddler verse of come all ye, causing Ashely to give Chris Leslie a hug afterwards...?) is easily understood and forgiven, all part of a live performance in my book.  Not sure we will have the pleasure of the like again. Still grinning and can't believe my eyes and ears!

Would pay good money for a DVD of the whole thing, even if is was just what was on the big screens.

I cannot put my praise better, so I quite you Jenny., if you don't mind?  ;)
And being a longtime Friend of Fairport, I could never imagine that they would not concentrate on the first albums, line-ups and years. I especially cherish seeing and hearing Judy, Ian, Ashley and DM.
I can tell you: the Saturday Fairport set was well worth the travel!  :)

Why thank you Mr Swedish Staffan, how kind.

I went to Stockholm in June and I thought it a beautiful city!

Exactly Jenny, so well put.
Time will show the wiser and Reno Nevada had me in tears, goodnes know what it did to the lads! (And Jude!)

Does anyone have a set list please?

Here you go!

Bottom of the Punchbowl / East Neuke of Fife / Ye Mariners All
Summer By The Cherwell
Time Will Show the Wiser
I Don't Know Where I Stand
Reno Nevada
Suzanne
Farewell, Farewell
Crazy Man Michael
Come All Ye
The Deserter
The Lark in the Morning Medley
Tam Lin
Walk Awhile
Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman
Sloth
Now Be Thankful
Sir Patrick Spens
Fotheringay
The Ballad of Ned Kelly
Talk About Money (Sally Barker)
Rising for the Moon
White Dress
A Surfeit of Lampreys
The Hiring Fair
The Hexhamshire Lass
Jewel in the Crown
Who Knows Where the Time Goes?
Our Bus Rolls On
Dirty Linen
Matty Groves
Meet on the Ledge (Encore)

check your messages mrs Bridie, maam 8)

Diolch yn fawr!  ;D

I've had a conversation with someone who made that point, too unbalanced in favour of the early years, and RT given too much time on stage on the Saturday evening.  :o  

Well, as an RT fan who started coming to Cropredy 25 years ago without knowing much about Fairport or their music, I was delighted that this year's Fairport set leaned heavily on the early years, and the early, now ex-, members.

I've even splashed out on the new "First 10 Years..." CDs (well, the download, at least!).

And as for the words "too much" near a mention of RT ... after a couple of "RT-Lite" Cropredys in recent years, I really enjoyed his time on-stage with Fairport, solo, with the Nichol/Mattacks/Pegg band, and with Morris On.

Serious query from me as someone who wasn't there.
I was lucky enough to see the 30 th anniversary set at Cropredy which was wonderful.
People are saying that the latest set, 50 th, was the best but......
how much of the set was a present Fairport set cos it would seem that for long periods, Ric, Gerry and even Chris , were not on stage?
Reading ,it it seems very RT orientated, which I would have obviously loved cos his is the Fairports I fell in love with.
Just didn't seem to be much from Maart era or post 97?

Here's a setlist with the personnel listed if that helps

Bottom of the Punchbowl / East Neuke of Fife / Ye Mariners All (Ric Sanders, Simon Nicol, Gerry Conway, Dave Pegg, Chris Leslie)
Summer By The Cherwell (Ric, Simon, Gerry, Peggy, ChrisL)
Time Will Show the Wiser (with Iain Matthews) (Iain Matthews (lead vocals), Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, Judy Dyble, Dave Mattacks, Ashley Hutchings) I Don't Know Where I Stand (with Judy Dyble) (Judy Dyble (lead vocals), Iain Matthews, Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Ashley Hutchings)
Reno Nevada (with Iain Matthews) (Iain (voc), Simon, RT, Judy, DM, Ashley)
Suzanne (with Chris While) (Chris W. (voc), Iain (voc), Simon, RT, Judy, DM, Ashley)
Farewell, Farewell (with Dave Mattacks) (Ric, Simon, Gerry, DM, Peggy, Chris L.)
Crazy Man Michael (Simon (voc), Ric, Gerry, Peggy, Chris L. (8-string guitar))
Come All Ye (with Chris While) (Chris W. (voc), Simon, RT, DM, Ashley, Chris L.)
The Deserter (with Chris While) (Chris W. (voc), Simon, RT, DM, Ashley, Chris L.)
The Lark in the Morning Medley (with Richard Thompson) (Simon, RT, DM, Ashley, Chris L.)
Tam Lin (with Chris While) (Chris W. (voc), Simon, RT, DM, Ashley, Chris L.)
Walk Awhile (with Richard Thompson) (Simon, RT, DM, Peggy, Chris L.)
Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman (with Richard Thompson) (RT (voc), Simon, DM, Peggy, Chris L. (fiddle))
Sloth (with Richard Thompson) (RT (voc), Simon, DM, Peggy, Chris L. (fiddle))
Now Be Thankful (with Richard Thompson) (RT (voc), Simon, DM, Peggy, Chris L. (mandolin))
Sir Patrick Spens (with Richard Thompson) (Simon, RT, DM, Peggy, ChrisL, Gerry)
Fotheringay (Simon (voc), Ric, Gerry, Peggy, Chris L.)
The Ballad of Ned Kelly (with PJ Wright) (PJ Wright (voc), Sally Barker (voc), Gerry, Peggy, Maart)
Talk About Money (with Sally Barker) (Sally Barker (voc, guitar) and Maartin Allcock (electric slide guitar) only)
Rising for the Moon (Ric, Simon, Gerry, Sally, DM, Peggy, Maart (keyboard), Chris L. (mandolin))
White Dress (with Ralph McTell) (Ralph McTell, Maart, Simon, Gerry, Sally, DM, Peggy, Chris L.)
A Surfeit of Lampreys (Ric, Gerry, Simon, DM, Peggy, Maart, Chris L.)
The Hiring Fair (Simon (voc), Ric, Gerry, Peggy, DM (kbd), Chris L. (mandolin))
The Hexhamshire Lass (Ric, Simon, Gerry, Peggy, DM, Chris L.)
Jewel in the Crown (Simon (lead vocals, electric guitar), Ric, Gerry, Peggy, DM, Maart (electric guitar), Chris L. (8-st)
Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (with Chris While) (Chris W. (voc), Simon (voc), Ric, Gerry, Peggy, DM (kbd), Chris L. (fiddle))
Our Bus Rolls On (Chris L. (lead vocal), Ric, Simon, Gerry, Peggy)
Dirty Linen (with Richard Thompson) (RT, Maart, et al...)
Matty Groves (Simon (lead vocals), Chris L. (banjo), Ric, Gerry, DM, Peggy)
Meet on the Ledge (Everyone and many guests on stage)

There's a thorough setlist here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/fairport-convention/2017/festival-site-cropredy-england-13e505f9.html
showing who played on each track.

We lost Ric after track 2 and - apart from an amusing intro - he didn't re-appear until track 18, when the current band were re-united for Fotheringay. Then there were a handful of numbers with Maart, before the current line-up returned for track 24, The Hiring Fair.

I'd echo most of the above - certainly best of the 8 times we've seen them this century. Highlights: Time will show the wiser, Suzanne, Come all ye, Jolly hangman, Hiring fair & Rising for the moon. Only disappointments were having "new" rather then "classic" versions of Farewell Farewell & Matty Groves and that they evidently failed to get any of the Gottle o' Geer line-up together (it looks from YouTube that Peggy tried to contact Roger Burridge).

Peggy did!  I found an address for him and a phone number but all to no avail. Which was rather sad. :'( Roger has a band Brinytide who are playing at the New World Festival in  Randolph, Vermont this September if anyone is from/around those parts.

Every time I've seen RT with the then-current Fairport, he pushes them up a gear if not several gears! So no wonder some of them looked a little tense when RT was on stage. He adds a sense of danger and unpredictability - in a similar way to what Neil Young did with Crosby Stills & Nash.

I suspect a number of us have found post-GLADYS Fairport a little too ready to stay in their comfort zone. With Maart, for all his inane card playing and drinking songs, he did unleash the occasional howl of danger - 'Metal Matty' from the 25th, for example! Chris, for all that he is a VERY capable singer and musician, tends to let Fairport luxuriate in their comfort zone. (He lets them put on their woolly jumpers and slippers, musically speaking. To continue these odd analogies, Maart made the occasional really loud and smelly f**t that shook people up.)

RT, on the other hand, has something of the psychopath about him - and some of his playing is just bonkers machine noise - yet I personally have never known it not work.

There is simply no being comfortable with RT around.

On the way back, I was listening to 'Sloth' from the 2002 festival. Jerry is - was? hopefully will be again one day - one of the few guitarists on the planet who can keep up with RT and even throw in the odd trick or two RT doesn't seem to have in his repertoire. Yet on 'Sloth', RT even pushes Jerry. When Jerry's soloing, you can hear RT behind him pushing the beat and playing harmonics that will burst through if Jerry doesn't keep on top of it.

As with Young and CSNY, I'm not much of a Neil Young fan and I'm not much of an RT fan but, gosh, can I appreciate what they do to their respective musical partners!

Every time I've seen RT with the then-current Fairport, he pushes them up a gear if not several gears! So no wonder some of them looked a little tense when RT was on stage. He adds a sense of danger and unpredictability - in a similar way to what Neil Young did with Crosby Stills & Nash.

I suspect a number of us have found post-GLADYS Fairport a little too ready to stay in their comfort zone. With Maart, for all his inane card playing and drinking songs, he did unleash the occasional howl of danger - 'Metal Matty' from the 25th, for example! Chris, for all that he is a VERY capable singer and musician, tends to let Fairport luxuriate in their comfort zone. (He lets them put on their woolly jumpers and slippers, musically speaking. To continue these odd analogies, Maart made the occasional really loud and smelly f**t that shook people up.)

RT, on the other hand, has something of the psychopath about him - and some of his playing is just bonkers machine noise - yet I personally have never known it not work.

There is simply no being comfortable with RT around.

On the way back, I was listening to 'Sloth' from the 2002 festival. Jerry is - was? hopefully will be again one day - one of the few guitarists on the planet who can keep up with RT and even throw in the odd trick or two RT doesn't seem to have in his repertoire. Yet on 'Sloth', RT even pushes Jerry. When Jerry's soloing, you can hear RT behind him pushing the beat and playing harmonics that will burst through if Jerry doesn't keep on top of it.

As with Young and CSNY, I'm not much of a Neil Young fan and I'm not much of an RT fan but, gosh, can I appreciate what they do to their respective musical partners!

Good post

Two good posts in fact!  ;)

Yep (apart from the not being much of a NY or RT fan, of course.  That's just silly)  ;D

Indeed

I'm not much of an RT fan (I appreciate his genius in playing and writing but it's not to my taste) but I love NY  :D

Great FC set.
 The first record has been my most listened to Fairport album over the past couple of years, so I loved the big chunk of Jude and Ian stuff, and the now already legendary knitting moment was genius. A little bit miffed at the lack of Maart era tunes as he was there, but with there only being the one FC set as opposed to the two in previous anniversary years, it was quite understandable.
As for the current band doing some of the classic era material, I think the reason was possibly just that those tunes are already in the set anyway.
A fab ending to a great weekend.
 

Agreed - maybe they could play for a bit longer next time ;). However I did like Simon's comment along the lines of about how in retrospect he realises how great the Maart era records were.

Quick question - does anyone know which ex members actually made it back for MOTL?

I guess Tom Farnell was there but did Bod Brady and Roger Burridge make it in the end, Cathy LeSurf maybe, any others we may not have expected?

DW

Roger Burridge didn't return Peggy's attempts at contact, I believe.

yup see my earlier post....

That's a very good idea, I think