TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Our first Cropredy was 2002, so we missed out on arguably the festival's imperial phase, and I'm interested in the way FC's Saturday set has changed.

Is is true that it used to be much longer than it is now? And was much more likely to wander through the lesser-visited parts of the back catalogue?

Before anyone says it, I'm not complaining - I'm as affected by age as anyone else! - just interested to know how different (or not) it used to be.

Yes - they certainly used to do a 3 hour set 2100 - 2359. I'm not sure they ever started at 2030 though, with a midnight finish.

Yes - often over 3 hours - 1997 set list suggests length of gig.

Seventeen Come Sunday
Danny Boy
Jenny's Chickens
Mason's Apron
Walk Awhile
Flatback Caper
Now Be Thankful
Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman
Sir Patrick Spens
Level Pegging
Journeyman's Grace
Angel Delight
John Lee
Pop Plinn
Rain
Zimmerman Blues
Cut Across Shorty
Sloth
Hens March
Four Poster Bed
Rosie
Me With You
Polly on the Shore
Haxhamshire Lass
Rising for the Moon
White Dress
Solo, John Barleycorn
Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter
Quiet Days of Brotherhood
Wat Tyler
Portmeirion
Hiring Fair
The Gas Almost Works
Cat on the Mixer
Three Left Feet
Red and Gold
Claudy Banks
Jewel in the Crown
Woodworm Swing
Who Knows Where the Time Goes
John Gaudie
Sailing Boat
Wishfulness Waltz
Dangerous
Royal Seleccion No. 13
Brilliancy Medley
Cherokee Shuffle
Matty Groves
Rutland Reel
Sack the Juggler
Fiddlestix
Dirty Linen
Si Tu Dois Partir
Meet on the Ledge

DW

Now that's a setlist!

Just needs Sailing Boat, Wishfulness Waltz and Dangerous taken out to be almost perfect ;)

Wasn't that setlist over the two evenings, though?  I think they played both Friday and Saturday for the 30th anniversary.  That's the year that produced the Cropredy Box CD I believe.

I'm certain they did. It definitely used to start in daylight. When I first attended at the start of the 90s I went with someone who was a football journalist. He had to rush off and cover the first match of the season at a stadium in London. The match finished about 5pm and he usually missed the first couple of songs of Fairport's set when he got back something after 8pm. The set time used to be extended because they had stuff like the drawing of the raffle in the middle of it.

Yes, I definitely remember Red and Gold being played (maybe that year - 1997?) as the sun went down behind Jonah's Oak (not that it was called that then) and the sky turning the appropriate colours.

Fairport's start times from the programmes I have to hand...
2004 2030
2005 2030
2007 2030
2008 2100
2009 2100
2010 2100
2014 2200
2015 2130
2016 2130
2017 2100
2018 2130
2019 2130
(all end times midnight)

2004 was a late start then...

Did you mean 2014? This was the "Year of the Prog" - my favourite Cropredy ever  :D

There was certainly a lot of acts to pack in!!

Saturday 9 August
•Richard Digance
•Reg Meuross
•Blackbeard's Tea Party
•Treetop Flyers
•Cara Dillon
•Marillion
•Al Stewart
•Fairport Convention

Oops, yes 2014, sorry.

I seem to remember that they once even started prior 8 pm - somewhere late '90 / or very early years in this century

Actually looking at the Cropredy Box, this setlist was just for Saturday!  I was there (my second visit) but don't remember how early they came on (and I think it's the only year I was at that I don't have a programme for).

Yes, they played an early years set on the Friday with material from the 1st album up to L&L.

Incidentally, I don't think they actually played Seventeen Come Sunday. That was a bonus studio cut on the album.

Wasn't "Seventeen Come Sunday" done as a one-off for filming by Ken Russell? Was that at the 1997 festival?

That definitely happened one year and they mimed to the studio version for the filming. Don't think it was '97 but I may be wrong.

IMDB suggests the film came out in 1977 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183349/) so I guess the filming would've been 1996 or '7

Pretty sure it was 1997

DW

On reflection I think you are right and that is why it is listed as the first song on the Saturday setlist because they did not actually play it. They mimed it and filmed it before the real set began. They then sang (with the crowd) Danny Boy down the phone to Danny Thompson who was unwell at the time after which the proper set began.

I'm sure I've seen at least 4 hour sets.

6 pm it was on the Friday something like that anyway! ;D

I was there for it to happen, so it must have been 1997, and your recollection of the timing chimes with mine.

I was only ay Cropredy in 1996 and 1997, I remember the filming of Seventeen Come Sunday, I recall they ran through it twice, sure it was 1997.

2007 was (I think) a 4 hour plus set - called on early by Danny Thompson and taking requests to fill the time until Matty etc.  Or of course I am completely mistaken!  :)

Ken Russell 'In Search of the English Folk Song'

Where can you see/get this film?

There's a US DVD release https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Fairport-Convention-Grainger-Orchestra/dp/B01EW12G3G, but not in stock.

A quick Google found the video hosted on a Japanese YouTube-like website: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av10955094/
(The video has an English soundtrack)

Thanks very much  :)

I may be misremembering, but in my time (1984-2010) I recall Fairport always starting before 8pm and normally going on until very close to Midnight.  '4 hour' (give or take) Sat night sets were the norm.

2014 was the year Peggy was out of action having injured his hand, so I'm guessing that was the reason for the shorter set that year.

I certainly have memories of them playing for hours and it still being light when they came on stage!

Me too - I went every year between 1989 and 1992 and remember very long sets starting in daylight.

Yes, me too. 1990 - 2012. Having listened to the 2012 set last week I can confirm that it was 3 hours & 58 minutes long so must have started at 8pm. I have the full 1991 & 1992 sets on cassette somewhere too so I will check them later but I definitely remember walking to the field from the campsite in daylight and Fairport had already started and were playing Insult To Injury.

I recall some of the early ones, 1980-85 were all around the four hour mark.  :)

8pm per my 1991 Cropredy programme..

As I recall, the Fairport slot often started before the allotted time, sometimes by the means of the previous act bringing the band onstage...  I'm probably making this all up, but who knows, there may be some truth in it.

Assuming the clock in my camera was right, I've got them starting at 7:45 in 2003.

That's great - I remember Storm, a guitar and percussion duo I think.

DW

That's the kind of time I recall....and does the programme say 8?

One reason may well be that fewer old members are around to have guest spots these days.

Well, Jerry and Richard doing Sloth together took up half an hour...  ;) ;D

I certainly could not fully testify to how long some of the sets were in the early 1980’s…I remember one set being approximately 3hrs 20 mins…which included a WC break! I think this was 1982 and in addition FC played the whole of Babbacombe Lee on the Friday night (this is when it was a two day festival).

Poor buggers! They're getting on in years, you know! I'm not surprised their Saturday set is shorter than it used to be!  :)

2002 was definitely still 4 hours. It was my first one, so that I remember clearly. Still have that glittery hat of Peggy's in my collection.. :D
It changed quickly after that to 3 1/2, in 2003 or 2004.

They used to do a proper Cropredy set, not just a skightly rehashed wintour set with a guest appearance.
What was the year when they finished Matty before 1145 and admitted they had run out of material before they could start MOTL?

2009?

Think so, my last year at the festival! Who knows where the time goes?  ::)

I remember 2005 being a particularly good one. After that, I seem to remember they started leaning towards, as Jim says above, more of a re-hashed and extended Winter Tour set.

Intro.
Over The Next Hill
Wait For The Tide To Come In
Journeyman's Grace
Genesis Hall
Canny Capers
The Crowd (w. Anna Ryder)
Already There
Darling (w. Tiny Tin Lady)
Walk Awhile
The Fossil Hunter
The Flow (w. Vo Fletcher & The Tommy Connolly Dancers)
Hiring Fair
Jewel In The Crown (w. Maart)
Red & Gold (w. Maart and Edmund Whitcombe)
Wat Tyler (as above)
Some Special Place
Wassail Song
Now Be Thankful
Rosemary's Sister
Woodworm Swing
Widow Of Westmoreland's Daughter
Rosie (w. RT)
Bushes & Briars (w. RT, Beth Nielsen Chapman, PJ Wright and Maart)
Solo (as above)
Sir Patrick Spens (w. RT)
I'm Down (w. RT and Pete Zorn)
Let It Blow (w. RT)
Tear Stained Letter (w. RT, Pete Zorn, Maart and Christine Collister)
Come All Ye (w. Jacqui McShee, RT and Ashley Hutchings)
Si Du Tois Partir (as above)
Bowman's Retreat
Matty Groves
Dirty Linen
Meet On The Ledge

My, admittedly ropey, memory thinks it was a bit later than that round 2013/14/15 ish

Slightly off topic, but still to do with the main Fairport set, I seem to remember more "special guests" appearing with them during the set in my early years (started going at the beginning of the 90's). People like Joe Brown, Robert Plant, Roy Wood, Ian Anderson & Martin Barre, and the guy from Supertramp (Roger Hodgson was it ?), not just ex Fairport members or artists who'd been on earlier in the day/weekend.

Like last year, then, when Joe Brown guested.

They can't win really - when Percy did that fantastic set within a set in '93 (after his briefer appearance the year before) there was loads of criticism in some circles. It was always a high point for me.  Apart from Yusuf.  For whatever reason, I didn't enjoy that.

The '93 set also included a lengthy Roy Wood set, which was also fab, but that left little time for Fairport stuff. I didn't complain, mind.

He didn't have far to come. I think he lives in Cropredy nowadays.

True.  I loved it all.

Not quite...I'm thinking more about guests who did, effectively, a mini set within the Fairport set. If memory serves Joe Brown did one song. It's not a criticism, by the way, just an observation.I guess, going back to the original topic, shorter Fairport sets leave less time for longer guest slots.

He does.

Must be time for a Roy Wood return?

High time for Roy Wood.
I still have fab memories of his last proper set at Cropredy.

Ah yes, singing "I wish it could be Christmas every day" on a weekend night in August....magic !!

Yes, I would like to relive that.

Paul