TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Been wanting to start this one for a while.....

One date so far - support from The 4 of Us http://the4ofus.com/ - rather good Irish band.

Saturday 16th February - Bath Forum
Early Bird tickets here
https://bathforum.ticketline.co.uk/order/tickets/13336795/fairport-convention-bath-forum-2019-02-16-19-30-00

I'll add the 2nd February 2019 at the RNCM, not the Lowry by the looks of it this year!

https://tickets.rncm.ac.uk/single/SYOS.aspx?p=13870

14th Feb The Anvil
22nd Feb Alban Arena

The Stables near Milton Keynes, Wednesday 13th Feb. Tickets already booked!

Indeed! I think I got front row

Exeter Corn Exchange, Friday 15th February.

23rd Feb - Union Chapel

The Atkinson Southport Friday Feb 1 - tickets booked

Me too - thanks for the heads-up Tony

Thanks for posting. Tickets booked for the RNCM. Will make a nice change from the Lowery  

If the Wintour Dates were printed in the Cropredy programme would someone mind posting it here, Thanks

Won't be with my programme till Tuesday now. Will post if no one beats me to it

Hi......has anyone got a list of the winter tour dates if they were in the Cropredy programme.......cheers

Oct 11 Norden Farm
Oct 12 Cheltenham
Oct 13 Banbury
Oct 14 Solihull
Oct 16 Leicester
Jan 30 Tewkesbury
Jan 31 Crewe
Feb 01 Southport
Feb 02 Manchester
Feb 03 Lincoln
Feb 05 Peterborough
Feb 06 Doncaster
Feb 07 Stockton On Tees
Feb 08 Gateshead
Feb 09 Leeds
Feb 10 Loughborough
Feb 12 Bury St Edmunds
Feb 13 Milton Keynes
Feb 14 Basingstoke
Feb 15 Exeter
Feb 16 Bath
Feb 17 Bromsgrove
Feb 19 Canterbury
Feb 20 Canterbury (2nd night)
Feb 21 Worthing
Feb 22 St Albans
Feb 23 London Union Chapel
Feb 24 Banbury

Nothing in Wales then......

No, although they have filled Pontardawe's Arts Centre and Brecon's Theatr Brycheiniog in the recent past. Maybe playing at Swansea's Garage put them off?

I can't get on with the acoustics at Union Chapel. Nell's was great last year...……………………...

I was surprised they chose that venue - totally unsuited to them and the demograph of their fans.

I go to the Union Chapel most years to see FC and have sat in various places from right down the front to right at the back and never had a problem

I saw them do the Babbacombe Lee show there a few years back and had to sit upstairs because I was a bit late arriving. The acoustics were terrible. On the other hand, I sat downstairs for Mike Nesmith not long afterwards and that was fine.

Have to admit that I’ve never sat upstairs and,given what you’ve said I think I’ll avoid that  :)

Why did he ask you to sit downstairs?

I've sat upstairs there twice - both times the acoustics were just fine.  More space than downstairs too.

Will this be a sit down acoustic tour or a stand up electric one?

DW

Autumn sit down, winter stand up electric..
  I expect.

The 4 of Us, or is it just two? Can’t imagine Fairport will have a “full band” on before them. They look and sound really good. Looking forward to it.

May is a sit down acoustic tour usually, isn’t it?

Just the two....but still going out as the four of us....

I missed this news. I have the first album by The 4 of Us and like it very much. I lost touch with them after that. I wasn't going to do the Wintour this year (too many other things competing for my hard earned cash) but I might pop along now.



Edit: I beg their pardon, it was actually their second album, Man Alive

Erm, it would appear that Saving Grace (appearing with FC and The 4 of Us at the Basingstoke, Bath and St Albans gigs) feature a chap named Plant on vocals & harmonica, according to a report & pic on the Fairporters fb page... just ordered my ticket for Bath - which more than makes up for missing my annual trip to Tewkesbury.

Booked for St Albans - I'm missing Tewkesbury too unfortunately

Having to miss my usual visit to the Union Chapel this year as having to go to a friend’s 60th fancy dress party. Having to go as somebody whose name starts with J as that’s what the host’s name starts with. Only thing I could come up with was Joliet Jake Blues (John Belushi)...easy to do methinks  ;D

Shame about the J thing. Otherwise you could have sent someone else along in fancy dress as you and gone to the gig.

Maybe I could change my name?  :o

Jingers. Sounds like a Dickensian solicitor.

Incidentally, I hate fancy dress parties, or any party, or any gathering of more than about 4 people really. Last one I went to I dressed as Mr Orange from Reservoir Dogs. Black suit. White shirt. Huge pool of deep red blood oozing from my stomach. I have never been invited to another one since.

I hate fancy dress also but think my Joliet Jake gets me off lightly...black suit, white shirt, thin black tie, white socks, big sideburns, trilby hat (or is it a fedora?) and dark glasses

Anyone doing Loughborough? I'm considering it!

Tewkesbury
Standing ovation.
Well deserved.

Southport last night - excellent show. The audience were great and another standing ovation at the end. Some nice electric guitar from Simon and Ric's got some new jokes. The 4 of us as support were pretty good too - they told some nice stories between songs.

What Peter said , excellent setlist. Some definite surprises, at least they were to me.

Get well soon Bernie.

What Peter and Tony said  :D

Couple of very pleasant surprises in the set list. The chaps looked relaxed and happy.

And ditto for Bernie. A broken hip is no fun at any age  :(

In the tour programme, it says that the combined aged of the band in 2019 is 353, which is the anniversary of the Great Fire of London. According to Wikipedia, this year Simon will be 69, Gerry 72, Peggy 72, Ric 67 and Chris a mere 63. According to my maths, this makes 343. Have the band made a basic error, or is someone telling fibs on Wikipedia? Surely Simon isn't 79?
  I can't find anything of great interest that happened in 1676 - the was a fire in Southwark that destroyed 625 houses.

Thought they were really good in Manchester last night, although, Simon fluffed is lines on one song.
 Thought the setlist was a good mix of old and new songs

It was a nice venue, although a bit strange. The RNCM Concert Hall is designed for an orchestra, with no real stage, so Fairport were playing on the floor with the audience (almost) around them, looking down      

So, who’s got tickets for the three gigs where they’re helping out an up and coming singer with his new band?  [;-)

I did momentarily get over excited and consider dashing along to Bath, but then, er, didn't.  Happy memories of the Priory gigs 2 decades back, mind.  God, that was fun.  I'm very intrigued by how they sound...look forward to seeing/hearing something.

Bath Forum next week...

Sunny Basingstoke for me...

OMG just seen this  :o Now. How do I get to all of them, front row seats?   :D

And St Albans for me.

Book when they announced it, Bridgwit - I did & secured a front row seat!

Lucky you! Enjoy it :)

Simple. First you build a time machine...

(Feeling smug because we have front row seats for Basingstoke)

Basingstoke last night. The 4 Of Us were really good, one of the best Wintour supports in years.

Saving Grace were a real treat - playing with incredible dynamics and emotion. If you're familiar with the type of music Mr Plant made when he was collaborating with Alison Krauss and Patty Griffin, that would give you a rough idea of the sort of material and sound Saving Grace are going for. Could've listened to a whole evening of them, hope they do more gigs asap.

Interval time, and on to our heroes : a varied set including highlights such as My Love Is In America, Bankruptred, The Deserter (Liege & Lief) and Honour & Praise. A band on very good, enthusiastic form - well worth seeing if you're wavering.

Bankruptured! Now that is indeed a tune dusted off I would have loved to have seen. Did Peggy play guitar on that one or was everyone on their 'usual' instruments?

No changes, everyone on their "usual" instruments for that one - enhanced by some great fiddle and mandolin interplay from Ric & Chris...

Wonderful, thanks for that Dan. Cracking photo of you and Peggy on the interweb. Peggy's Rising For The Moon Tshirt is indeed fab.

Peggy's "Rising For The Moon" T-shirt ? Like this one ? He told me they were £25, nothing to do with FC themselves, and that they also do a good "Full House" one.

Just home from Bath. The 4 of Us were quite good, Savage Grace very good indeed, and I thought Fairport rocked out much more than on recent Wintours. In contrast, Moondust and Solitude, Chris's new song, managed to be touching and personal as well as anthemic. Imo, of course.

I, too, was at the Forum in Bath last night for my first non-Cropredy Fairport show.

I'm afraid The 4 of Us didn't really do anything for me - nice enough chaps but the songs didn't live up to their extended spoken introductions.

Saving Grace were superb though - three fantastic musicians behind Suzy Dian's and Robert Plant's vocals.
From my front-row seat (I booked the tickets immediately after Cropredy) they were all enjoying themselves immensely.
I don't usually go for American country-style / bluegrass-y influenced music but the blues-y influenced and perhaps hints of Eastern/Arabic music really worked well with Robert Plant's distinctive vocal tics, grunts and timings. He also played a lovely maraca fade-out at the end of one track. I'll be first in queue to buy an album by this band, if one ever surfaces.

I quite enjoyed Fairport too - after 26 years of peering at them from the field it was good to see them in a more 'intimate' setting.
Most of the songs were familiar, with Chris Leslie's new Apollo 11-inspired number being new to me: when the taped mission control radio kicked-in, I wondered if he'd been listening to Public Service Broadcasting, who's "Race for Space" has a similar vibe.
Nice to see a stage impressively free of gimmicks - or even equipment of almost any sort! The chaps' talent and musicianship is obviously pretty deeply ingrained after their years together.

All in all, an excellent evening and I was particularly fortunate to have got front-row seats for the show.

were you at the same gig? :-)

Bloomin predictive text, I meant Fairground Attraction were great...

Not when Fairport opened for them at the East Town Theater Detroit...

With the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing this year, I'm sure a TV or film production could consider using Moondust and Solitude, Mr Leslie's new song...

Well I am not a fan of Plant but individually and collectively Saving Grace were excellent at St Albans. The Fairport set seemed a little shorter than usual, was it my imagination? Thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Saving Grace was superb....can't wait for more. RP seemed very happy with the audience reaction.

AS RP took over FC's first set before the interval, yes, they played fewer numbers overall.

Anyone keep a full setlist as well as an RP-playing setlist? I'd be interested in knowing whether their second set was the same or whether the single set played with RP also playing was a selection of usual fuirst & second sets at a 'normal' gig on this tour.

From the various setlists posted at Setlist.fm (see https://www.setlist.fm/search?query=fairport+convention) it looks like Saving Grace were accommodated by dropping several numbers from the usual first set, and just 1 from their second. E.g. comparing St Albans with Canterbury...

• Devil's Work
• Hawkwood's Army
• Jonah's Oak
• Close to the Wind

are dropped from the first set and just Dirty Linen from the second.