TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

There doesn't seem to be a topic for this, so I thought I'd start one for those of us fortunate enough to see the chaps live on the Wintout to share our thoughts.

I got to see them last night at Exeter Corn Exchange - a nice venue apart from the uncomfortable folding chairs!  I was lucky enough to snag a front row seat when booking, right in front of Chris, so got an excellent view.

This was the second date on the tour (apparently the Dublin concert didn't count?), and there was a little understandable rustiness initially, culminating in Cider Rain (the second song - third if you count them playing along with Luke Jackson's final song) grinding to a halt partway through when they got themselves into a muddle - cue much hilarity and discussion about where to start again from.  But apart from that, they were obviously loving being back on stage in front of people again - much as we were loving seeing them up there - and we got a good dose of Fairport material from across the years (if you have the Off the Desk 2020 CD, it was a similar - but not identical - setlist).  One thing that particularly struck me was that Ric's playing was further along the cosmic scale than I have seen for quite some years. But his stories haven't improved at all!

Support was by Luke Jackson. I've heard of him, and a few tracks by him, over the years but this was the first time I'd seen him, and he was obvioulsy enjoying himself up there, and I'm sure he won himself more fans last night.

The Dublin gig was brilliant.  I went for a folding type but sturdy chair midway up because although the setting was magical i knew my old back wouldn't  cope with antique cathedral pews.
Totally concur with both points about Ric 😉
Re the setlist, it was, understandably, heavily drawn from Full House, and no complaints there. All in all, a joyous occasion and I feel privileged to have seen them on their first gig of the "new era" May there be many many more.

Interesting - I was playing Ric's solo album Whenever yesterday, and some of his playing on that was PDC ;-)  I'm also a big fan of the album he made with John Etheridge ("2nd Vision") - which reminds me - I must get round to finding the Soft Machine albums he played on....

He was wearing a t-shirt that read Pretty Damn Cosmic last night - bit of a giveaway as to how he was going to play!

I was wearing that shirt yesterday!

Winchester this evening

There's a strange story behind this as far as I am concerned. When I saw FC at the 50th anniversary Cropredy, I thought that that was so good, they weren't going to top it, I'd seen them 33 times (yes, I know, that's just getting started compared to some of you...), I would quit whilst I was ahead and instead concentrate on seeing the new generation of folk-rock bands (all of whom without exception I have since much enjoyed). However, some friends did not know of my resolve and, extremely kindly, bought tickets for all four of us to see them at St Albans. Thanks to your various comments, above, I am now really looking forward to this ...

Phil, the Alban Arena is currently closed for asbestos removal. This event has been moved to The Eric Morecambe Centre, Harpenden. Have a good time.

Wow ... the power of "Talk Awhile" ... thanks very much for that info, Keith .... it will be interesting to see if the Arena have troubled to inform our friends and other ticket-holders .....

Apparently Peggy has contracted COVID-19 so Fairport were a 4-piece tonight in Solihull. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery.

Fingers also crossed that none of the others come down with it - the tour would potentially grind to a halt.

My friend was at that gig and said the (remaining) chaps did a fantastic job. They had to alter the set list, but she said they were excellent.

When was it the became the Fairport Three on a US tour?

DW

I saw the "Pegg-less" FC Acoustic lineup 3 times around 2005, so four of the guys can certainly pull off a gig and pull it off fairly well, but his presence is missed - not just the mighty bass, but the middle vocal harmony...

And let's all hope he has a speedy, uneventful and permanent  recovery.

Hope so...  due to be in Lincoln tonight...  will check first.

More from the chaps:

We're sure many of you are now aware that Peggy wasn't with us last night for our Sold Out show at The Core Theatre in Solihull. This wasn't a case of alien abduction (so no need for 'The Year of '22' Chris!) it was because sadly Peggy tested positive for Covid yesterday morning. We had a great night pulling a new set together and thank you for all your kind words. Sadly this morning we have had more positive tests and therefore can’t continue with the tour. You’ll all know how upsetting this is for us and we thank you for your understanding and support. All going well we’ll be back together for Canterbury. We’ll keep you posted. We have let all venues know and they will be contacting you shortly. Some good news is that we have rescheduled tonight’s show at New Theatre Royal Lincoln for Sunday 6th March. This will be the last night of the tour. Take care. FCx

Not quite true.  Part of it has been called off...

"We're sure many of you are now aware that Peggy wasn't with us last night for our Sold Out show at The Core Theatre in Solihull. This wasn't a case of alien abduction (so no need for 'The Year of '22' Chris!) it was because sadly Peggy tested positive for Covid yesterday morning. We had a great night pulling a new set together and thank you for all your kind words. Sadly this morning we have had more positive tests and therefore can’t continue with the tour. You’ll all know how upsetting this is for us and we thank you for your understanding and support. All going well we’ll be back together for Canterbury. We’ll keep you posted. We have let all venues know and they will be contacting you shortly. Some good news is that we have rescheduled tonight’s show at New Theatre Royal Lincoln for Sunday 6th March. This will be the last night of the tour. Take care. FCx"

Yes, I corrected my post.

POSTPONED – Fairport Convention

Dear Ticket Holder,

We are emailing you today to notify you of the postponement of the Fairport Convention show this evening, 9th February. This show will now be performed on Sunday 6th March 2022.

Please see below, a statement from the show’s manager:

“It is with real sadness and frustration that due to a number of positive covid tests within the band we are unable to perform at the New Theatre Royal Lincoln tonight. We are so sorry and thank you for your support and understanding. Take care. FC x”

We are as disappointed as everyone else to hear of this show’s delay, especially at short notice, but we do understand that these things are beyond anybody’s control. The box office team are now working hard to contact everybody via telephone to ensure that notification has been received. Please do not contact the box office until you here from us as this may delay us in alerting all ticket holders. Thank you.

All tickets will be automatically transferred over to the 6th March date, with seat numbers remaining exactly the same.

Thank you for your support of New Theatre Royal.

Kind Regards,

NTR Box Office.

The venue has just phoned us too.

Lets hope anyone who has booked accommodation / transport / baby sitters etc will be equally refunded but I doubt it.

DW

Er, that's not how the world works.  There's insurance for that.

It was a kind thought though!

Hoping they make a speedy recovery.

Cancellations beginning to mount up. Two of the band have the virus. Canterbury has been rescheduled.

I was thinking of doing Worthing on Thursday but had not got around to booking because of a combination of the chaos that my life has been lately and and a residual aversion to being in large rooms full of strangers just yet. I have just discovered that it is sold out, which surprises me but my expectation is that it will be cancelled anyway.

Such a shame…. Does anyone know which band members have the virus…
(I understand that Peggy has tested negative now)?

I do so hope they will soon all be up and running again ❤️

People saying on FB it has been.  Postponed though, not cancelled (I think).

Just heard from the theatre, Worthing has been rescheduled for 8th March

City Varieties, Leeds concert has been rescheduled for May 24th.

Union Chapel also rescheduled to the 12th March…

Hope everyone is better soon? What a bummer all round! We are later on in Southport, so fingers crossed !! Love and hugs to all xx

First and foremost, I hope the whole FC tour party are well or at least on the improve. Like others I am sure, we have plans over the next few days which depend on whether a particular concert goes ahead, so if anyone has reliable information, I'm sure we'd all appreciate it if it could be posted here.

COVID seems to be working its way around the bubble. Only time will tell if everyone gets healthy quickly and when touring will resume.

NB I have no *inside* knowledge.

It'll get posted on social media and then copied here I imagine...

Any news from this weeks shows? We are off to Farnham tomorrow.Thanks.

I've had an email from Farnham Maltings (received around 5pm) confirming that the show's going ahead tomorrow. Luke Jackson's posted a photo from this evening's soundcheck in Wimborne.
So...all is well right now. Really looking forward to seeing the guys in the flesh for the first time in 2 years.

Thanks.Just checked and i've had the same email!

Farnham last night...the lads were delighted to be back touring after the Covid-imposed layoff, and even played a few of my favourites including Lalla Rookh, Honour & Praise, Bankruptured, and a sublime rendition of The Hiring Fair before bringing it home as usual with Matty Groves and Meet On The Ledge. Songs from Shuffle & Go also got a plentiful airing. Lovely to see a few familiar faces in the crowd too.

Great night! Luke Jackson was very good as well.I'm trying to remember all the songs-was it 7 from the new album?

From memory they played 6 songs from Shuffle & Go (could be wrong). And I've just remembered they played wonderful versions of Sloth and Doctor Of Physick...

I've got 7 ! Sloth and Doctor Of Physick were my 2 favs last night.I've remembered 17 which i think is all of them.

The setlist from Swansea:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/fairport-convention/2022/taliesin-arts-centre-swansea-wales-63883e73.html

Thanks,that's virtually the same as Farnham.I haven't posted in here for a few years,did i come back to the right place?Everyone seems to have disappeared!

Yes, the corridors of TAW are a much quieter place than they once were, many of their inhabitants having moved elsewhere. It is now a playground for a small and sporadically enthusiastic band of regulars.

The next person who calls me sporadically enthusiastic will pay a heavy price....  ;) ;D

Invariably indifferent?  ;D ;)

Got me ;D

I replied to your post from 23/3/2009 yesterday on the Bob Dylan UK dates 2009 thread.Sorry for the delay!

A fine evening's music from the chaps last night in Morecambe with the set list being the same as the Swansea one posted on setlist.fm.

Luke Jackson has a good pair of lungs on him, hasn't he? He didn't really need to go through the PA when he was in full flow. I recognised a couple of the songs he did, Honeycomb being a favourite.

As for the headliners, I enjoyed hearing the numbers from Shuffle and Go - Cider Rain and Moon Dust and Solitude sounding particularly good. Nice intro from Chris about his love of all things space-related. As for the older songs Sloth was excellent. Simon's playing is as good as ever and MrsB was impressed with his electric 12 string.

And I seemed to have something in my eye at the start of MOTL. But it was great to see them in concert again having missed out on the last couple of tours.

Tickets booked for the Union Chapel and another step back to something resembling normality.

If anyone else is going just to mention that there are no Great Northern trains between Finsbury Park and Moorgate so it will have to be the tube to High

Also the start time appears to be 18.45 - I know we are all getting on and need our sleep, but that does seem a bit early!

Not sure whether we can still call it a Wintour show but the re-scheduled Leeds gig took place last night.

A different sort of evening. No support act, Gerry playing electronic drums and the band sat down, Fairport Acoustic-style. Still brilliant though. Similar set list to Swansea, minus The Journeyman's Grace, with a few extra songs & tunes thrown in. Portmeirion got a welcome airing as did Festival Bell and Over The Lancashire Hills, from Simon's Before Your Time. Great that so many Shuffle & Go songs have survived the enforced break. It's a terrific record and the band seem relish the having the opportunity to play the newer material.

A fab night. Here's to next time!

Glad Simon still dusts down "Over The Lancashire Hills" , a highlight from his solo career and hugely preferable to " From A Distance " which is best left to Cliff or Bette

When I saw them last week it was a much longer set than we usually get on the wintour, which will account for the extra songs. Although there were two long sessions of Ric jokes!!

 He must almost out of ancient Christmas crackers by now.  :)

Have to admit, I did guffaw at the Ctrl P joke, though.  :D

Final night of the tour at the Fleur de Lys, East Hagbourne. Similar set list to shows listed above though lovely to get Portmeirion as it has always been my favourite Ric tune. Realised that I hadn’t previously heard the Shuffle and Go songs played live before; some of them stand up very well. Lovely to feel that things are getting back to normal again - Matty and MOTL, all must be right in the world. (We even had a Cropredy downpour!)

Having been disappointed when I saw Fairport at Wickham last year, I was blown away by them at Emsworth last week. Excellent mix of old and new, and they were all on form. Ric's jokes do appear to have got worse though!  ;D

On the performance of a few songs, I bought a very reasonably priced Shuffle and Go.

Paul

I'm still thoroughly enjoying Shuffle & Go. A real highlight of the Fairport catalogue, regardless of era, I reckon.