TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Fairport Convention Fans FB page reporting that DM will be back in the seat for the Winter Tour!!

DW

So, what's the announcement and who's announcing it?

Oh, and do I win a prize?  ;)

Wasn't that already mentioned by Fairport when GC retired? I recall hearing he would be in the seat for some, but not all, gigs on that tour.

I asked much the same and was told it had come "from the horse's mouth"

DW

Nope - the original statement said "This last week has been a time of sizeable change, and Fairport Convention are no exception to this.
After 24 years in the Drum saddle Gerry Conway will no longer be performing with Fairport.
As Gerry said, ‘I never expected to still be playing at 75, my Mum was always asking me when I’d retire!
Well, I’m not retiring but looking forward to some new adventures. Thanks Fairport, we had some great times.’
We certainly did Gerry. FC x

The coming October tour will see us performing as a 4 piece.
The November 2nd concert at Dudley Town Hall will feature the Fairport Four piece being joined by guests in the first half of the show. Simon, Peggy, Ric, and Chris will be joined by Dave Mattacks for the second half."

As far as I can ascertain from said horse, the only currently announced involvement of DM is for Peggy's 75th 'do' in Dudley on Nov 2.

My guess is that any further announcement would come from Fairport Towers.

Just seen this on FC Touring's fb page:

"We had a wonderful run up to Scotland and back, with some really delightful shows. We hope to be back up there later in 2023. We've now a quick visit to Twickenham for a SOLD OUT show tonight and then head to the South West for 3 more SOLD OUT shows. Thanks for all your support. Our final show of 2022 will be on Weds 2nd Nov in Dudley. This will be Peggy's 75th Birthday Party too and we have a number of special guests coming to join us celebrate. We also get to welcome Dave Mattacks back to the drum stool as he joins us for the performance. With Birmingham not being on the Winter Tour this is your best opportunity to catch us with DM".

That last sentence reads to me as a very strong hint that DM will be with the band for the Wintour...

I read the last sentence as completely opposite to you Paul, as in It you want to see DM with the band Brum is your chance.

I wish we knew the dates, been too long waiting now 😥

Me too

Birmingham not on Wintour => best chance to catch us with DM
therefore, if Birmingham was on Wintour => not best chance to catch us with DM

Conclusion : DM on Wintour.

....is how I read it.

I hope so anyway. I'd like to hear DM backing some of the recent material, and the usual L&L / Full House material.

Several folks on FB pages stating Peggy has privately said DM will be on the Wintour

Changed my mind on that...I think you're right, Darren (and others).  And, yes, it does look like it'll happen from what is being said elsewhere.

Fingers crossed! Hopefully Union Chapel on a Friday or Saturday, so I can make a proper night of it with old friends rather than rushing to catch a train back home

Darren - that was the logic I followed.  :)

Great minds :)  (hopefully)

Some sources name Cozy Powell as a possible replacement. That one would leave Spinal tap at the starting blocks.

24 years dead.  Now that would be quite some replacement.

I'm afraid that argument (implicitly) commits the formal fallacy of denying the antecedent, and is thus an invalid inference. (NB: invalid inferences can nonetheless have true conclusions.)

DM now confirmed on Fairport website.

Might actually be tempted to go along this year...

I've booked for Exeter. Looking forward to it already.

I wonder if anyone else is currently being lined up or approached regarding occupying the drum stool on a more permanent basis. It would be nice if DM was to stick around, but I would have thought an announcement would have been made by now if that were the case.

This recent interview posted by Skirky reflects that DM is quite happy living in Marblehead, and also sheds light on why he left in the first (and second, and maybe third) instance: https://www.innerviews.org/inner/dave-mattacks

Given his feelings on the subject, I can't imagine he'd be inclined to return full time.

But what does full-time actually mean?  

My previously stated guess is that DM will do the Wintour and Cropredy and the rest of the year they'll be a 4-piece?  I do wonder however if further changes are in the air, given already stated things like Chris going back to his violin making etc...  Time will tell, I imagine.

I'm with you David. I may be proved wrong but I don't think full time will be a thing with regards to Fairport after 2023, possibly after Cropredy. I think Jerry's departure may have been the catalyst for some reflection by other members of the band.

I tend to agree with Al. Maybe go back to Cropredy being a reunion? DM and RT as regular 'reunion' guest/members.

They toured every year they "didn't exist" so how would we notice the difference? ;) ;D

I think they’ll ask DM to do the winter tour and Cropredy every year for the foreseeable future. Any other gigs tend to be at smaller venues i.e folk clubs and without being disrespectful to Gerry Conway a drummer/percussionist isn’t really necessary. Before him they were billed as Fairport (Acoustic) Convention which allowed DM to do his session work. I think they’ll just go back to that.  

I was thinking that, myself. The whole age thing looms quite large, I suppose. Maybe, in reality, they are already a part time outfit, with other outside interests and with Cropredy being the glue that keeps them together.

Booked for RNCM, Sunday 26th Feb.

According to Simon on the interview with East Devon radio posted on the Fairporters FB site recently, there are no plans to recruit a permanent replacement drummer.

Will be interesting (or not) to see how future recordings go then, DM sending his drum parts in for the US maybe, or after this tour will they go full acoustic apart from Cropredy (my guess).

DW

I see requests to share posters have gone out.  I suspect sales, like for so many artists, are sticky?  I can't help but wonder whether a shorter, geographically more sensible and structured, slightly larger venue tour might have been more sensible/financially rewarding?  But that's guesswork.  It's a tricky old world out there in livemusicville...

I think it’s likely that having a few hundred supporters voluntarily repost their local gig to three hundred of their friends saves shelling out for the algorithmically-driven paid promotions that Facebook are so fond of. We were a few pints in the other night, so I don’t have the actual numbers to hand, but a promoter/manager friend of mine laid down exactly what you have to spend to get the unfaithful in to a venue these days. Folk generally are more prepared to shell out more money for one big ticket event and make it an occasion than to go to several cheaper shows.

Thanks to our kids we'll be at Tewkesbury on 1st Feb for the opening gig of the tour.

Looking forward to this.

I am the complete opposite of that!

If there were more of your ilk about, times would probably not be as challenging as they are!

Same here!

See you there!  Anyone else?

'Fraid not. But I will be at Exeter the next night, if anyone else will be there?

Fraud not, but… anyone for Lincoln?

Wyvern Theatre Swindon on the 3rd of Feb...Really looking forward to this & my first Fairport show since Cropredy 2018...There looks to be a lot of seats still available on the Wyvern website, so for anyone in the Swindon area, now's your opportunity! :)

Yep. With one of my Ukrainian guests; a Fairport virgin.  ;D

Have they seen the Sproatly's yet?

I'm breaking them in gently.  ;D

Blimey. There are.

I do worry about this tour...

Oysterband made a very good point recently that they expected there to be a raised demand ,or at least a demand for tickets after lockdowns. This has not proved to be the case.
There could be many reasons and it is easy to generalise but….
There is an age demographic, the demographic that goes toFairports gigs/ Great British Folk Festival etc,
that is not attending gigs as in pre Covid figures. That could be continuing ‘fear ‘ of Covid , a change in behaviours during lock downs or economic factors.
The interesting point is that summer festivals ,incl folk fests, are maintaining and increasing their numbers , particularly with a younger audience.
So ,in the words of Martin Carthy recently, folk clubs have gone underground again and I suspect we will be back to pop up gigs in houses, village halls etc . I have attended 3 recently with very good line ups, 2 house concerts , one pop up in a village hall. One was ‘money in the hat’ but the duo walked away with £600 from an audience of 60 who were asked to donate what they felt was fair. It was in a fairly wealthy village.!

Interesting because the Fairport gig at the Stables at Wavendon, Milton Keynes has sold out. Admittedly it’s not a massive venue and probably holds 450 top whack but even so that seems to be bucking the trend.

Swindon is only 43 miles from Tewkesbury and the catchment area in between is very rural.

There's a real scattergun approach to the geography of the dates...loads seem to be in the same general area.

Selling pretty well locally , seats left are either restricted view of behind the band. Capacity must be about 450, but then it usually sells out. Still plenty of time yet.

Exeter has about 100 seats left, out of 524, so I guess that's not too bad.  Don't know what the break-even point would be.

Just bought my ticket for Stratford.
About half sold at pres …….

Real old f**t comment here….but they seem to be doing theatres of about 400 people.
I remember , not very long ago, when they could fill the 2000 seat De Montfort Hall in Leics.
So could Oysterband, Levellers , Waterboys , RT all of whom I saw there more than once.
Have those days gone?

There's a demographic that follow these bands and yes, we're dying out.

That's a sobering thought. I'm too young to die out!

I'd have thought all of those bands (except Fairport) are still capable of playing 2k seaters aren't they?  Whether they sold them out is I suppose another question...

Farnham Maltings is 480 capacity and they have been playing there for a number of years.  

Amazed that the Oysters struggle to sell 300 tickets.

I do wonder whether bands should be touring more geographically/strategically these days? Which is awful news for those wonderful small venues of course...

Maybe the problem is that the older fans want better facilities also so seeing the Oysters say in a standing hall wouldn't suit ...

DW

There are just around 30 seats left at the Maltings gig in Farnham (all at the back) and still around 50 seats left at Exeter for Thursday which I am considering .

I notice the Exeter website is showing a picture of the new lineup , Farnham have the photograph they used for the autumn tour with Gerry and (for some reason) Ric cropped out.

Steve Hillage band is playing the Phoenix in Exeter in April. It is an all standing gig, which made me realise maybe my old bones are finally catching up with me because the thought of standing for a couple of hours has put me off a bit!

That's encouraging. When I looked at the Exeter website a few days ago there were about 100 seats left.  Must have been a rush over the weekend!

My delay in booking anything has been a lot to do with the weather - there fairly good choice left - certainly a number have gone over the weekend.

So good to have DM back. Fab first night in Tewkesbury yesterday.  :)

Any chance of a deeper review, Ian (or anybody)?  I'm intrigued as to whether DM has simply slipped into the Gerry seat (unlikely, I'd have thought) or whether he's bringing something else to the party?  Setlists and other comments would be appreciated (but them behind a spoiler if needs be, but do put them somewhere)...

DM's return has definitely given the band a rockier sound for not only the tracks he originally played on, but also those that have entered the canon during Gerry's tenure.  IMHO, this is neither better nor worse, but it does freshen up some of the later material that I know some long-term fans feel to be a bit "too" folky.

I'd say FC, on this tour at least, is/are a folk-rock band (again!) - a fair bit of lecky guitar from Mr Nicol.

Not going to post specific titles here, but a few pleasant surprises in the set list - and Ric's got some new jokes - which gave DM opportunities to do the old "boom-tish".

Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage were rather good, as well.

Well worth grabbing a ticket...

Thanks Paul. Looking forward to tonight even more now!

I've posted a small review elsewhere on TAW. Including a setlist behind a spoiler tag.

DM adds a lot, IMHO.

I have listened to and watched DMs drumming for yrs, since discovering Sailors Life in 69.He should be up there alongside the great drummers. Without him adapting his drum style British folk rock may not have happened.
Gerry is also a very very good drummer in a different style. His skill was always ,supporting the song , really underestimated. You didn’t notice him……and that’s a compliment.
So I have stood, studied, both of them but it will be great to see DM play a full set……Looking forward to it……

Exeter tonight was interesting. Definately  DM gave the band a rockier sound,. Personally I did not like the keyboard addition to the band, I felt it contaminated a couple of the classics2 Mrs Jim G agreed thought it sounded a bit Bontempi!
Looked to us that Chris had a cold lot of blowing his hooter and secret losenger noshing going ob.

Remembering of course that when Maart was in the band it got very prog keyboard led at times……Wounded Whale  etc….

Yes, Chris has a cold.

That Kurzweil keyboard setting is very 80s - I'd prefer a classic Fender Rhodes electric piano sound myself.

Yes saw the band many times  with Maart playing keyboard but just would have preferred DM to have stayed on drums for the set list they chose to do, particularly  on one song where Gerry's contribution always added an atmospheric conclusion.  

My thoughts too

Ah is it a cold…..will the rest of the band get it……????
Don’t miss the next exciting episode ……( Saturday morning pictures music…..)