So how did YOU get into Fairport?

[Jdavid]

I'm a bit curious how all of you folks (no pun intended) got into Fairport.  Over here in the US, people at the local record show (held monthly) have heard of the band, but I also get blank looks when I mention their name to other serious music listeners of my age (mid 30's).  To give you an idea how little they are known over here, in the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (1983 edition) they are only covered up to Live at the LA Troubadour (which came out in 1977). 

So anyway, here's my story.  It was in the summer of the mid-'80's, and an adventurous friend had been recommended that he listen to Liege & Lief.  Needless to say, he had heard nothing like it before, and I recall him saying that while "Jethro Tull is 10% folk and 90% rock, Fairport Convention is 90% folk and 10% rock."  (Obviously a bit of an overstatement, but it was high school.)  He insisted that I listen to it which I did.  And as it has been said, it blew me away.  I recall reading the writing credits and noted that a majority of the songs were not written by the band but were instead traditional songs.

A few years later, I was at college (Penn State) where I was a frequent visitor of the used record stores.  I noticed a copy of Tippler's Tales ($5 but w/o the insert).  I bought it and thought Ye Mariner's All was a GREAT song.  At the same store, I later bought a sealed copy of Gladys' Leap which I thought was a great record.   From then on, I would complete my Fairport Collection and buy as many spinoffs as I could.

What's your story?

David

[leafbyniggle]

It's all my dad's fault.
I just grew up hearing the band, and it was always a given that I was vaguley interested in them. That intrest became active around the time of Jewel in the Crown when I started going to concerts other than Cropredy.
But, to be honest I can't give a very good explanation of when I started liking them because I was to young to remember!

[Nick]

Mine was the convergence of several different threads.

I started out as a rocker / prog rocker schoolkid, following whatever I could hear on the radio or in the charts (so bands like Rush and Genesis). I started getting into Jethro Tull, to the extent where I could identify names of members of the band.

Then someone gave me a tape of Nick Drake which completely blew me away. I went out to get as much of Nick's stuff as possible - which turned out to be the Fruit Tree box set which had just been re-released as a 4lp package. I noticed Mr Pegg's name as one of the players and thought 'isn't he the one from Jethro Tull?'

One of my brother's friends was a big John Martyn fan. He played me Solid Air, which got me hooked on John Martyn. I also noticed Richard Thompson and Danny Thompsons' names there and remembered them from Nick Drake too.

So now I'm looking around for gigs to go to and see a poster "Fairport Convention" and in small type "featuring Dave Pegg from Jethro Tull" So I went. The circle was complete. Out went Rush and in came anything and everything by Fairport, RT, John Martyn and any album I could find with Danny Thompson's name on.

There are a few other peculiar circles in with this. Independently I got into the Cocteau Twins, which lead to This Mortal Coil which went on to Tim Buckley (Song to the Siren, Morning Glory). How pleased was I to discover that a double CD of Tim's only UK performance featured one Mr D Thompson on double bass?!!

Cheers

Nick

[Jim]

The things that got me into Fairport ,even though i"d known of them through  John Peel shows on radio 1,were chiefly the  island samplers "You can all join in","Nice enough to eat "and "bumpers2 which cotained" meet on the ledge","cajun woman" and "walk awhile" respectively and the top of the pops appearance for "si tu dois partir ".
      The first two lps cost 14/6 each (thats 72.5new pence for youngsters) and bumpers being a double lp cost 30 bob(£1.50) singles alone cost about 10/-(50p) so these lps were a great way of letting people know about groups  without having to fork out for full lps.and because you had paid for it you listened to it.
          chug a lug
                Jim

[jOhN]

My first experience of Fairport was at Cropredy in 1996!!

Some friends of mine had been pestering me for about 3 years prior to this to go to a wonderfull event called Cropredy Folk Festival.

My initial reaction was "bugger that I'm not spending 3 days in a field with you lot listening to some old f**t wearing an arran sweater, with his finger in his ear, singing hey nonny nonny".......how little I knew

I don't profess to have a great knowledge of the band or that I've listenened to everything they've ever done.......but I'm getting there slowly

[johnottocleese]

Simple. The surname's Denny, you do the maths.

[Pastieboy (Trev)]

Time will show the wiser,oooh thats not bad !. Have they done anything else worth listening to ?. Wow, Liege &Leif -. blown away . Then  Unhalfbricking oooooooooooooooh A Sailors Life what a stonking track . ----Hooked . Here today  still hooked  36 years on. Still crying over Sandys demise . Sure shes singing with the angels . Sorry I`ve filled up again. God I miss her.

[Chris]

I started out as a rocker / prog rocker schoolkid, following whatever I could hear on the radio or in the charts (so bands like Rush and Genesis).

Same here - but then our stories diverge.
Went to KNebworth in 1979 to see Led Zeppelin....and FC were support on the bill......blew me away, thought they were next best to LZ, and started investigating. By the time I caught up with the progress (they split that very day & I was only hearing about Cropedy as history, after the event) - finally making it there in 1982. And the rest is, as they say, history....

[Jack O Diamonds]

Missed Pink Floyd at Hyde Park in mid 1968 but went to another Hyde park show later that same year, hoping to see Floyd but seeing Fairport with Family, Eclection (I think) and various other bands... Fleetwood Mac were there... scariest sh*t of all is that Peter "Where Do You Go To My Lovely" Sarstedt played!!! Or maybe it was the grass... (it is a park, see?)... One of Sandy's first gigs for Fairport. The rot set in there and then...

[Edthefolkie]

Blame John Peel's Top Gear radio show, Bernie Andrews (his producer) and my mate Rod.
I'd heard Fairport's early stuff on Top Gear - but Rod had a copy of What We Did On Our Holidays, went on and on about this amazing guitarist, and had in fact nearly bought a guitar off RT (he couldn't afford it). I taped the album on my reel to reel £30 recorder, then bought Unhalfbricking, that was it . Fell in love with Sandy, fell at the feet of Tyger, Richard, Martin & Simon. Moved to London, saw Swarb! Blimey, 36 years ago.    Now my daughter has the disease too.   Cheers - Ed

[johanna/ulla]

It is the fault of my biology teacher ( in the early 80s). He knew that I was a die hard Tull fan and told me one day: "Here are some cassetts. Listen to it and you will see that Dave Pegg plays in a better band than Jethro Tull."

I saw them for the first time some years later when they supported Tull in 1987.

[Barry]

Dragged along to Greenwich Borough Hall to see them on the promise that they were "like Steeleye".  They weren't - they were very different and VERY loud. 

Sandy was terrific, and Swarb mesmeric and the journey started ...

[Dad Volt]

Well I listened to lots of stuff in my youth that were fairly typical for that era (Specials/ Jam/Madness)etc but I tended to 'hang out' with more rocky mates and my tastes changed to Proggy type stuff, some old but mainly revival (Marillion/ IQ/ Twelfth Night/ Haze) but my good buddy Andy had started listening to some really way out stuff ; Steleye Span, Fairport etc and recommmended them to me.
  So there we were Leeds Astoria Gladys' leap tour, absolutely blown away, never seen anything like it. So record buying ensued, Cropredy and lots of other stuff. But more importantly I reckon it really opened my eyes to a whole world of music that in the Mid 80s was so far of the radar that it might well have been invisible. I recall buying Folk Roots with a free flexidisc (remember them) with Oysterband, Michelle Shocked, Rory McLeod and The Mekons. WOW
From there I have listened to loads of great stuff been to great festivals and great gigs and am still discovering new sounds!!
Isn't music BRILLIANT

[Mark]

As a 14 or 15 year old at school in the Banbury area in the early eighties I was a fan of (amongst others) Tull.

Then a mate of mine introduced me to a devastatingly pretty girl called Steph, who lived in a nearby village. To cut a long story short I was incredibly excited to find out that her dad played bass for Tull and then to meet Dave, Christine and some of the visitors to the recording studio. I was wide-eyed to see people whose names I had seen on the back of albums!

Over the years (especially with the release of JITC) the obsession with first Fairport, then related groups and now folk music in general has just grown!

Mark

[Cocker Freeman]

Don't remember exactly but it would have been in the sixth form, 1969. One of the more esoteric among us had a copy of Leige and Leif. It was never off the turntable.

But I didn't see them live till a few years later when they were doing Fairport Nine! Yes, I danced in the aisles at a London theatre, can't remember which one, there were so many I saw them at.

Apart from the line up which was Mattacks, Pegg, Denny, Lucas, Donahue, Swarbrick, the thing that I do remember was Pegg's lace-up boots. I see they are now part of the garage sale!

[mutter]

from the early island samplers to start with

then listening such folk rock legends as geoff cripps (bbc wales) and the best ever folk rock presenter of all times
gary price of red dragon radio 

met maart at a plymouth folk club and relised we were as daft as each other  he introduced me to dave and chris  and from that to the rich and varried music i love now

ps just browsed the list of daves item for sell  its heartbreaking


mutt

[Jonathan]

I was a huge Tull fan growing up, and got into them during the couple years the band was inactive because of Ian's throat problems (mid 80's, after Underwraps came out).

When they finally start touring again in 1987, I saw them at the Worchester Centrum.  I didn't realize that there was an opening band (I'm not sure I fully understood the concept of an opening band, I was 14) and when the concert began, I was thinking to myself, "Hey, that's not Jethro Tull."  The person in front of me said something like, oh, that's Fairport Convention.  I don't remember much of what they played, except the "Big Three Medley," "Hiring Fair," and "Crazy Man Michael."  But I was hooked.  And gradually over the years, and started listening to them more and more.  Started with "In Reel Time," then "Encore, Encore" (though at the time, it was called "Farewell, Farewell").   

[johanna/ulla]

Funny to see how many of us started with Tull. 

[mutter]

Funny to see how many of us started with Tull. 
[/quote

simply the best  thats why

[Penguin (Dunc)]

I guess I follow the rock, prog-rock, Tull time-line through to Fairport.

However, I have to be honest and say that I hadn't even heard any Fairport material when I first attended Cropredy in 1993.  I went along on the recommendation of a friend who'd been the year before, and also because of the Tull connection.

I have regretted this foolhardy decision ever since.
Dunc