TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I have just read that some stage in the late 80s when FC were supporting Tull Doane Perry took over drum duties from DM - I was unaware of that and it got me thinking how many musicians have depped for Fairport without ever being recognised fully as a band member?

Paul Warren I guess stood in again on the drums for a few gigs in the 70s, Vo Fletcher stood in for Peggy as I think Matt Pegg has, Chris L depped for Ric prior to joining the band but any others? Roger Hill, Bob Brady, Roger Burridge count as full band members of course.

Cheers,

DW

I've not heard of that...can you expand on where and when?

Small section from a post on Peggs facebook page where Doane remembers Maart:

Sharing the stage with you in Jethro Tull and on the US tour I did with Fairport in support of Tull, (subbing for DM), was initially a slightly scary prospect, as you and Peggy cunningly maneuvered me into believing that playing Fairport music was "a dawdle” … as you quaintly put it. I obviously didn't understand that colloquialism properly. I should have more correctly interpreted that as meaning extremely difficult and I’ll get no rehearsal whatsoever! This seemed to be causing no one in the Fairports any stress, except for me.

DW

https://www.facebook.com/peggyonthebass

Oh right, so that must have been when FC opened, then Simon and Ric went off/Ian and Martin came on and they morphed into Tull?  I don't know why, I always thought DM had done those shows....

I saw Maart stand in for Chris at an open air free gig in Chipping Norton one Bank Holiday Monday.

Vikki Clayton stood in for Simon (sort of) at a gig in Worthing. Simon had flu and had lost his voice. He sat throughout the gig playing guitar but Vikki handled all of the vocals, mostly of Sandy era material.

I have a vague memory of either PJ Wright or Ken Nicol standing in for Simon on one occasion too but I may be imagining it.

But why aren't Doane or Vo recognised as band members anywhere as they both played more than once?

I think there's a recording of that somewhere...

Um, because they were stand-ins and weren't band members?  Is that hard to understand - doesn't seem so to me...?

But Paul Warren is considered a member in many timelines

DW

I take your point...Personally, I think they're wrong - but I guess there is a grey area...you know David Rea never played live, but did record etc etc.  To my mind, Paul was always a stand in.

Hmm...that is a puzzler to me. It was on that supporting tour in 1987 that I saw both bands for the first time (and first time ever hearing of Fairport). My recollection is almost certainly of it being DM at the gig I saw in Worcester, Massachusetts. I still have the program from that show, and there are 23 North American dates shown, which with days off and travel days probably works out to about what-35 days on tour give or take? Perhaps DM had other commitments on the second half of the tour (more West Coast dates)? In that program the Nicol, Pegg, Mattacks, Sanders, Allcock lineup is shown as support act. The morphing off was not quite as you say however. First I do remember a break between acts, where Peggy changed from a rather 'folky' jumper into a more flashy outfit lol, and Tull was Ian, Peggy, Martin Barre, Doane, and Don Airey on keyboards for that tour. So this was before Maart joined. Fairport did re-emerge for the song Budapest, and I definitely remember Ric on violin, Simon and Maart on additional guitars, and I am almost certain that DM was on tambourine, noticeable because he is rather short (speaking as a short person myself!) in comparision with Doane who is rather tall I believe. Perhaps I have the DM part muddled up, but in my head for seeing them both for the first time, it was only Peggy who had played full sets with both bands

The difference is - were they asked to join the band? David was (at least, I think he was). Paul wasn't. He was asked to fill in.

Jules

Bless the internet, for here is a mostly inaudible, but full concert from 1987. At about the 1 hour 10 minute point, I can detect Peggy, Ric, Maart on accordion, Simon, Ian, Martin B, and DM sitting with a tambourine or some percussion instrument, while someone (Doane almost certainly) is on the kit

http:// https://youtu.be/5m2ocEC0evA

Yep, quite...

Rob's mention of Maart on accordion reminded me of seeing FC at an Arts Centre in Swindon... They were about to play "The Deserter", with Maart on accordeon, but for some reason, they repeatedly fluffed the intro.

They decided they should move on to the next song/tune, at which point Maart started putting the accordeon back into its case, while performing a ventriloquist routine: "get in the box" - "I don't want to" etc etc which I think was based on a then current routine by a British TV "vent" act - possibly Ray Allen?

I'd love to see/hear it again...

I remember that gig, Worthing 2002. Simon soldiered on through a flu bug, playing guitar seated but unable to sing. Chris & Peggy shared the vocals for the main set - mostly the songs from XXXV which didn't feature Simon as the main vocalist. Vikki was the support on that tour, so on this occasion she extended her duties for the encore which included a wonderful "straight 1969 Liege & Lief style" version of Matty Groves as opposed to the cod-reggae style they favoured at the time. They played Royal Seleccion #13 to fill out the set, and Ric remarked that it was the fastest he'd ever played that set of tunes. The evening finished with Vikki singing WKWTTG, and this was one of the two (I think) occasions I've seen the band not finish with MOTL.
An interesting gig. Simon proceeded to return to full strength, then onwards the following week to Southsea, followed by Basingstoke, which were memorable in their own ways...

That's really intriguing as I know I've seen Fairport not play MotL as well...once I think at the Marlowe '93-95ish (there was a slightly weird atmosphere and someone or more than one wanted to get off stage pronto) and another time I can't quite put my finger on, but might be one of the Big Band shows?  I've had a stand up row with someone that have told me Fairport never do a gig without MotL but we know it ain't so...  ;) :)

rather

Vo has depped  on more than one occasion, and Matt took on a whole tour following Peggy's argument with a diswasher.....

And another love affair bit the dust!   ;D

Jules

 ;D I can argue about other things too  ;) :)

Was there actually a period when Peggy was considered to have left the band?

DW

He left Fairport Acoustic Convention for a few tours didn't he, but not the mothership I don't think...

You mean like Steeleye and the Albions, and RT's solo career?

Jules

I think there was a point where they tried finishing concerts with Steve Ashley's Best Wishes instead of MOTL, but it didn't last long.

Brilliant, then average and then poor, then got a bit better again; interesting then brilliant then deteriorated rapidly; Jaw droppingly amazing then slowly got into a bit of a rut despite still being jaw droppingly amazing.  Tell me I'm not right... [actually, don't]  ;) ;D

Yes. I vaguely recall that Peggy was sacked and sent home from their last US tour, due to some alcohol-related issues. He obviously returned, probably for Cropredy. It's late and my memory isn't what it was, so correct me if I'm wrong, folks.

That was 2006. We saw them in the Parr Hall in the March of that year and you could feel the tension in the band. I've read about it somewhere, maybe an interview with Simon? can't find it anyway

Think there was a passing reference in Peggy's "autobiography" .

Did Swarb ever dep (rather than guest) after 1985?

I'm fairly certain the answer to that is no, isn't it?

I know CL stood in at Cropredy when Ric was injured in 1992, but I thought I'd read somewhere that Swarb also helped out at some point.

It does seem unlikely, I'll grant you. I'll blame it on post-covid brain fog.

Now you mention it again I've got a very vague memory of something and I'm not as certain it's a no as I thought earlier...but sadly my memory banks are failing!

I remember seeing Simon standing in for Graeme Taylor in Home Service during a Mysteries run at the National Theatre in 1985!

Ooh, would have loved to see that.

Don’t ask me when but there was a Cropredy warm up gig at the Mill in Banbury when CL was not there and Swarb played. I went to both nights and if my memory serves me correctly Swarb only depped for one of them. I cannot remember however why CL wasn’t there. I am however happy to be proved wrong!

I’ve remembered the exact details now so apologies for the above inaccuracy. It was the Cropredy when Ric had fallen through a plate glass window and had badly injured his wrist only days before the festival. CL depped at the festival as we all know, but was not available for one of the warm up gigs so Swarb stepped in.

I'd like to hear that...anyone know if it was recorded?

CL was depping for Ric before that as I saw that line up at Gosport Festival a few weeks before Cropredy. Possibly the best non Cropredy Fairport performance I ever saw.

It's one of the great mysteries of the universe how the man that God put on earth to replace Swarb as Fairport fiddler has ended up spending so much time in Fairport performing another very different role indeed.  We've probably got to blame Swarb himself for that by signing Chris up to Whippersnapper.  The old goat knew what he was doing...

Goat as in Greatest of all time?!! 🤣🤣

Aye, that too.

I don't half miss Swarb.

Jules

Here is one of the gigs with Doane at the drum kit. Not my recording BTW

https://youtu.be/qWXnrW3BZF0

It's hard to tell from an unmixed recording but I'm inclined to think that Doane admirably illustrates the difficulty of playing drums for Fairport...it's a bit rock drumming in a folk-rock context-y or am I just overthinking that?

It’s not totally Fairport, but Chris Leslie also depped for Swarb at Joe Boyd’s History of Fairport gig at the Barbican in 2010(?) after Swarb dropped out during rehearsals. Did a great job too.

Dropped out?  Stropped out...

That's almost the opposite of a stand-in then as Chris was actually in the band and Swarb wasn't... ;) ;D

It was also one of the very best concerts of my life (Dead centre, front row of the circle), and after about 50 odd shows the penultimate time I saw them.  I'd been going off the last lineup for quite a while and after one truly appalling show in Chester the following year knocked it on the head.  If the band featuring DM came anywhere at all near me I might consider it again though...

I’d say that the current tour is the best I’ve seen from Fairport in the last 25 years or so. DM definitely gives them more omph

Totally agree, one of my top gigs too. We were also front row of the balcony, near the centre.  ;D

I seem to remember an outdoor Fairport gig, in Ludlow, where P J Wright depped for Ric, or maybe Chris, I'm not clear due to being  rather  over-refreshed at the time.

 I dropped out of seeing Fairport on the winter tour once Maart and DM had left , but I really enjoyed the show at Lincoln this year , totally agree DM just gives them some real power , and the emphasis on Full House material sure helped , although Walk Awhile didn't work , not sure why , just seems hesitant , like a new song not bedded in
Well chosen support act too
I'll be back as long as DM returns

After I posted last night I went back and read the old thread about it again where I’d previously posted (under my old username ThomA which I can’t access any more), and a lot of it came flooding back. I’d forgotten a lot of details so it was nice to be reminded of just how amazing it was.

There are recordings out there...

Having seen them last night at Stratford ( Sat 4th Mar) , I couldn’t agree more. They were on top of their game….