There wasn't a dry eye in Peel Towers during Fairport's performance of Matty Groves and Meet on the Ledge, at the Radio 2 Folk Awards.
I feel short-changed, though, about the decision NOT to televise this important milestone in the long history of Folk-Rock's supremos.
It was fitting that the award should be presented by Stuart Maconie -'the best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton' according to Peter Kay. I've just finished reading Maconie's auto-biography 'Cider with Roadies' and it was a page-turner of immense insight, humour and downright good sense. I thought he did a good job of explaining the reasons why Fairport touched us and still endure in our affections.
My lower lip started to wobble, though, when Georgia Lucas received the Award. Breathless and emotional, she had just a few minutes to express her gratitude to the ordinary members of the public who keep her parent's memory alive. It was very affecting and apt. It followed, seamlessly, from an acceptance speech of Ashley Hutchings - a reflective, wise and poignant observation on the vagaries of fame, celebrity and popular music taste.
A lump appeared in my throat when the line-up was announced. I imagined that my dear Talkawhile friend, Carey Hancock, would be whooping it up in Another Place as the names were announced - Nicol, Swarbrick, Mattacks, Thompson and Hutchings. He'd have thought it a master-stroke of genuius that Sandy's baton would be passed to the wonderful Chris While. The rendition of 'Matty Groves' was head-and-shoulders above anything that had gone before on the Show and yet, it was totally different to the version on Liege and Lief. That's what you get with Fairport old and new - they never stand still and they constantly reinvent the songs and improve them.
I'll admit that the tears welled as the grand finale was prefaced by young Simon and when the cast of dozens was introduced by Mike Harding. My life flashed before me. My adolescence, my adult-hood, my working life, my family, the tragedies, the joys and the connections with other Fairport fans. There were gigs in London, gigs in Burnley, gigs in Manchester and Banbury and there was Cropredy.
And there would be many more.
I switched off the radio and felt uplifted. The story goes on. We go on. There's plenty more where that came from and even more to discover. I raise a glass of sherry to you all.
Sir Robert Peel
Excellent post! Quite had the strepsils out to deal with aforesaid lump in gullet... The very mention of the words "Mattacks, Hutchings, Swarbrick, Thompson, Nicol" is enough to set me blubbing with barely controlled nostalgia. How great were they at Cropredy 2002? How great were they in 1969? I think I'll head off to the Salle de la Musique and crank up dee volume on Tam Lin... NB Yoiu are so right aout the lack of BBC imagination in not screening this on TV. A seriously missed opportunity, particularly at a time when we have the really very good "Folk Britannica" on TV. Typical Beeb.
