Unusual Fairport shows

[Sandra]

The wrong day wasn't it??

 

Wrong place wasn't it Goaty ?

I thought it was right place, wrong day and no one about to help. Sorry Goaty.

[davidmjs]

Another fairly unusual gig was the Fairport Ceilidh Band in the Heineken tent in Portsmouth....I really can't remember when this was, but suspect early 90's.  I can remember the usual lineup plus Swarb and Roger and Beryl but there may have been others as well.  So packed it was impossible to dance which is a bit challenging for a Ceilidh band but it was still great fun.  It was also a week or so before I was due to see Swarb and Carthy at a gig in Wingham in Kent, and so I ran up to Swarb at one point and said excitedly 'I'm going to see you in Wingham next week' with a big grin on my face.  He looked at me and said 'That's nice' and walked off    And quite right he was too...oh the innocence of (relative) youth...

[Chris]

Anyone go to the New Years Eve ceileidh in Gloucester one year...now that *was* odd! Very few people & the prtomoter lost shedloads!

[Magic Fingers]

Anyone here remember a show at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon back in the (early?) '90s when the evening ended with a slanging match between that guy who used to manage FC (was he just the tour manager?  Anyway, I am sure you know who I mean) and a member of the audience.  I can remember him shouting from the stage something along the lines of "we're never going to play this effing place again".  I think quite a few people had already left the venue, but those of us still there couldn't believe what we were seeing and hearing!  Anyway, not an unusual show, but certainly an unusual ending!!

[davidmjs]

Anyone here remember a show at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon back in the (early?) '90s when the evening ended with a slanging match between that guy who used to manage FC (was he just the tour manager?  Anyway, I am sure you know who I mean) and a member of the audience.  I can remember him shouting from the stage something along the lines of "we're never going to play this effing place again".  I think quite a few people had already left the venue, but those of us still there couldn't believe what we were seeing and hearing!  Anyway, not an unusual show, but certainly an unusual ending!!

The late, great Jonah presumably?

[Cocker Freeman]

The number of places Jonah threatened the band would never play again would be a long list.  

[Adam]

I think I've posted this before, but the most unusual gig I went to was a late 90's acoustic show in Kings Lyn. On came the band, minus Simon. A sheepish-looking Peggy told us that Simon was still in his hotel room and they couldn't wake him! They played a few morris tunes before asking if anyone in the audience wanted to come on stage and have a go! A good 30 minutes later a visibly 'refreshed' Simon appeared, and played a rather emotional (if truncated) set......v odd!

Adam

[Nick the Stick]

I was at Gloucester. Fred Wedlock support, brilliant (Cropredy, Fred?) We had a great time, didn't notice anything amiss, but I was reasonably lubricated. I reserved our tickets at the door by telephoning Johnny Jones, his mum answered the phone and said she'd pass the message on, very odd.
Also of course the new year's one at Cambridge a couple of years before, that was BRILLIANT, dance, break, short 'normal' set, more dancing.
And the one at the tent in Portsmouth. It was billed as a celidh but it seemed most of the audience were unaware, I remember some slow handclapping at one point from those seated at the sides of the tent. And yes, it was much too packed to dance properly.

[Magic Fingers]

The late, great Jonah presumably?

I suspect you might be right.....

[Keith]

Wasn't there a show the year Simon injured his leg when instead of him leaving the stage for the interval, the crew threw a black sheet over him?  I'm sure I've seen a pic somewhere... one of Chris Bates' perhaps?

Canterbury Marlowe if I remember correctly....

[/quote]

I was at that one. The sheet only stayed on for a few seconds, but Simon kept falling asleep as he was on strong painkillers. All in all not a great gig and Vikki would have been very welcome in that case (I'm sure Simon would agree).

During the Wintour 2005 (Southend on Sea gig) , Peggy was looking rather down and Mrs Keith had bad vibes, going so far as to say "I think something very bad is going to happen to the band soon." Not long afterwards Peggy walked off the USA tour, and we all thought Cropredy would be cancelled  

It got better.

[johanna/ulla]

An unusual gig was the one without an audience at Wiesbaden, somewhen in the late 90s.

I organised the tour and we had this new venue in Wiesbaden. While organising it and working out the contracts, I always talked to a "Peter". I knew he had a financial partner, I forgot his name. One week before the gig I called the venue to ask how the ticket sales are and if everything is fine.
This partner answered the phone and seemed to be a little confused and told me that Peter quit his job and that he is now in charge. But he said: "Everything´s fine." (in German, of course)

The day of the gig came.
Rob called me at 2ish to tell me that
a) there was no PA
b) this guy does not speak or understand English
c) he saw a Fairport poster at the door, announcing the gig A MONTH LATER

Shock, Horror

He handed the phone over to this guy and I told him that we have a contract, that clearly names a) a technical rider with all the equipment we need (the guy´s answer: "But I don´t understand that. It´s English") and b) the date was shown in the first line of this contract (no answer).

I think my voice was a bit loud.

When I arrived at the gig 1/2 hour later, the PA was there. But we had just 10 or 12 paying people in the audience. Fairport played a complete set.

A month later the guy called me saying (in German): "There are more then 60 people at the door and they are not amused to hear that they are a month late."  

[Nigel no longer of Lysander]

A couple of years ago I saw Fairport at an outdoor gig during Ludlow Festival. The Strawbs, Little Johnny England and Julie Felix also appeared. Chris was incapacitated due to having recently had something surgically removed from inside of one of his internal organs and PJ Wright deputised superbly. They also dedicated a song to my daughter after she had drawn a picture of the band and presented it to Peggy during the afternoon.

Happy memories

Cheers Nigel

[Chris]

That was a seriously good gig, that was!

[Sir Martin]

Not so much unusual, but definately magical.....

Masham town hall mid 80's (86? It was the year of the 'fox hat' joke), drove to the venue in a howling snow storm, and then in to a storming gig (standing only venue, and we jigged like a very jiggy thing).
Stumble out, sweaty and exhausted to find the sky clear, a fabulous snow covered landscape. And then to cap it all - the local Cafe had opened, so we stood at midnight eating bacon butties and drinking scalding coffee.


A year later I stood next to Dave Pegg in the pissoir - but thats aanother story.

[Shane (Skirky)]

A year later I stood next to Dave Pegg in the pissoir - but thats aanother story.

I stood next to Simon Nicol in a toilet in the Ipswich Caribbean centre during the interval at a Nicol/Sanders gig (which was magical and brilliant). Although concerned about the distance they must have travelled to play I suppose I could have chosen a better line to introduce myself in the gents than "So, do you chaps have anywhere to stay tonight...?"  

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

In a similar vein ...  I was trying to get the band to autograph a copy of OTNH for Ancient Muse in the 100 Club, Oxford Street. I had everyone's except Peggy's. The next minute my husband (5ft 3") marched Peggy (6ft plus) out of the loos and said, triumphantly "there you are I've got him!". I've never seen an autograph signed so quickly! I have to say that Mr B was very, very drunk ....

 

Sorry for being slightly off topic. not an unusual show but a memorable one with an even more memorable hangover ....

 

[gower flower (Shirl)]

I stood next to Simon Nicol in a toilet .......Although concerned about the distance they must have travelled to play I suppose I could have chosen a better line to introduce myself in the gents than "So, do you chaps have anywhere to stay tonight...?"  

Skirky. You deserve a medal, simply for posting that. Deep respect.

The only unusual FC gig I attended was the one that didn't happen in Newport (circa 2003). Tickets had been purchased, but we arrived to discover that the venue was still under construction

[GS (Graham)]

The 'unusual' gig that sticks in my mind was Fairport's appearance at the Chorley Wakes Festival in July 1977.

For reasons that are lost in the mists of time Simon's T-Shirt & Swarbs's trousers   were removed during the course of the set & hurled into the audience.  I recall Swarb standing front stage centre leading the band in a rousing set of tunes to finish the set (probably Sir B McKenzie) clad only in a T-shirt & Y-Fronts & Mr Nicol strutting around the stage topless.

Mr Pegg spent most of the set studiously avoiding being drawn into the strip-tease activities of his colleagues.

The music was brilliant, though, & Fairport were by miles the best thing on at that festival.  It was just around the time of 'The Bonny Bunch of Roses' first coming out so there was loads from that in the set.

Happy days.

[Dr Monk]

The 'unusual' gig that sticks in my mind was Fairport's appearance at the Chorley Wakes Festival in July 1977.

For reasons that are lost in the mists of time Simon's T-Shirt & Swarbs's trousers   were removed during the course of the set & hurled into the audience.  I

GS, I think there's a picture of a shirtless simon and trouserless Swarb and a story about that gig on the back of one of the Swarbrick Nicol reissue CDs. Something along the lines of Swarb had offered Simon's shirt as reward to the audience for doing something-or-other and Simon retaliated by giving them Swarb's trousers.Sorry that's no less vague is it, but the picture is amusing.

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

Yes it's on 'Close to the White Bear'.. a double compilation issued in1998 by Woodworm...

I'm trying to scan and post the pic.. but with no success I'm afraid!