What was the First Fairport Album that you Brought/Heard?

[Staffan]

mine was jewel in the crown borrowed from the library in about 2000, quickly followed by a live gig and my first cropredy

Slightly off-topic, but being a librarian I cannot help but notice how many posts mention their first encounter with Fairport´s music through a (local) library record/CD collection. Having heard about the same experience over here, I´m happy that a lot of people might not have found Fairport´s music had they not bumped into their records in the library´s collection.
Back to topic  
Staffan

[fstix (Michael)]

First for me was Bonny Bunch Of Roses, original LP in 1977.  The band was touring Australia and Simon, Peggy and Swarb were on a national radio show playing and discussing the tracks from the album.

Then came History Of, then came everything else!


mh

[Andy]

I first heard Fairport's "Walkawhile" on the 1970 compilation album "Bumpers". First actual album I bought was XXXV and then I have slowly acquired (most of) the rest.

[davidmjs]

I first heard Fairport's "Walkawhile" on the 1970 compilation album "Bumpers". First actual album I bought was XXXV and then I have slowly acquired (most of) the rest.

There's 32 'wasted' years in there Andy just awaiting a decent excuse, um, explanation  

[Andy]

Nowt really. I saw them in the early 1970's but never bought a recording until I saw them on the XXXV tour. Just one of those things.

[PhilB]

The first LP I ever acquired was in 1970 at the age of 14 and was 'Nice Enough To Eat', a superbly eclectic Island Records sampler which featured Cajun Woman from Unhalfbricking. I was intrigued enough to buy a copy of Unhalfbricking a short while later and I still think it is one of the greatest albums ever made.

The first two Fairport albums and Liege & Lief followed within the next few months. From Angel Delight onwards I lost track of Fairport activities for quite a few years (distracted by the delights of The Grateful Dead and many others) but came back on board after seeing Fairport at The Hawth in Crawley sometime in the late 80's.First Cropredy was in 89 and I have been a regular ever since.

[Woodpecker]

This thread has exposed my failing memory (another year older today actually).

I've really tried hard to remember what must have been the first track I heard; I just seemed to be aware from late 60s.

Logically it probably would have been whatever track John Peel (or his early partners - remember them anyone?: 'Top Gear' with Peel and ...?) played first.  As an obsessive teenager I never missed a show.  So that's a clue for a new challenge - should I start a new thread?  What was the first track played on Radio 1?

Oh heavens I've just realised it might have been Radio Caroline or Radio London.

I do know the first album I could afford was Unhalfbricking.

That got me to my first ever concert (of any sort):  Liege and Lief at Fairfield Halls.  I can still remember the shock of the first amplified guitar chord!  Then leaving with my ears ringing and the thought that I wanted everyone to listen to this band.  Having to wait a couple of months before L&L came out, think it was just in time for Christmas - the first LP I ever had on pre-order!  

Oh such exciting times!

[Harry (Jules)]

First heard - L&L ( a girlfriend's elder sister had good taste in music)
First album bought - "History" (was a guiding light to listening to many other musicians)
First saw on TV - Top Of The Pops (STDP) - great  sense of humour
First saw live - The Farewell Tour - can they be done under the Trades Description Act??

Cheers,

Jules  

[folkfreak (Alexander)]

The first time I heard of Fairport was when I saw them in Heidelberg 1987 opening for Jethro Tull and I was blown away from the first minute. I can't exactly say what the first albums were I bought, but within four or five weeks after this show I had Full House, expletive delighted!, Moat on the Ledge, History of and cocktail cowboy on Vinyl from a second hand shop and In real time on CD. Until 1990 I had the complete back catalogue and hat do wait for their new releases to get a new Fairport album......
But it was an exiting time, because much of the stuff was deleted on lp and not out on cd yet, there was no ebay/internet so it was very hard to find all these lps, (two of them I found in the basement of an italian lp shop in Asti.....) That was a great time, and such a joy, when I tracked down another item. Its a little bit sad, but nowadays I can't get such feelings anymore, with gemm, ebay and so on there are not so great troubles to find what you search.....


Alex

[Anne T]

It was a compilation called Now and Then. I bought it because I had randomly purchased some tickets to see Fairport, and thought it might be a good idea to hear something first. I was so shocked by how many CDs were available I went for a compilation. I don't need to listen to it anymore now, as three years later I have a shelf full of Fairport and Fairport related CDs (and more on the way!)

[Will S]

I think it must have been the 'History of...' album, which my brother had.  But I don't think I bought any for myself till after I first saw them in Sheffield in 1996.  Started with Gladys Leap, which is what they promoting then, and carried on buying the new ones as they came out and the old ones as I discovered them.

[koho (Koen)]

My first was the Sandy Denny 4LP box set from the mid-80s (with obviously many FC tracks), which I bought late November 1988. A strange first thing to buy but I was confident enough after I read an article about her. I was 20 years old then.

(Actually, two years before I had bought Liege & Lief (the LP) at a flea market for next to nothing. I played a bit of the first track and it was all scatched so I didn't go further at that point, although I did make up for that following 1988)

Following the Sandy box which blew me away beyond description I got Bright Lights and Shoot Out by R&L Thompson which did exactly the same. The first FC albums proper, not counting that scratchy L&L 2 years earlier, were Gladys' Leap and a scratchfree Liege & Lief (the single sleeve Island reissue. I obviously liked the folkdout cover better so put the reissue LP in the old LP cover!). So then I got thinking, WHY are these 2 albums miles apart stylistically, but both intrigueing? Why are only the rhythm guitarist and the drummer still there on Gladys compared with Liege & Lief; why is the guitarist on GL singing whereas you don't hear him vocally on L&L? What happened inbetween? Don't I know that new bass player from a Jethro Tull album? I want to find out more! And this was less easy in the pre-internet days. Gradually, I learned and never stopped.
A few months later I was at Cropredy 1989 and was there every year up to 2002. Missed 2003-2005-2006. Kids. Family. Phah ;-)

[koho (Koen)]

That was a great time, and such a joy, when I tracked down another item. Its a little bit sad, but nowadays I can't get such feelings anymore, with gemm, ebay and so on there are not so great troubles to find what you search.....

Exactly! I remember I had this list of albums still-to-buy, which was huge, and I went to many record fairs. For years I never found albums like Prospect Before Us, Smiddyburn or even Angel Delight but in the end I was successful and when I did there always was such a YESSSSS moment.
I remember gaping remaining holes in my LP collection were the first FC album and the first Matthews Southern Comfort album which (OK: sad!) irritated me no end.
Then gradually lots of things came out on CD; and when the internet became commonplace you never really had to search hard anymore save a few exceptions. Indeed, I never had that YESSSSS moment anymore which I had when I found an LP I had been after for a long time. Well - finding is not so much the problem; dosh is!

[Ollie]

I think it must have been the 'History of...' album, which my brother had.  But I don't think I bought any for myself till after I first saw them in Sheffield in 1996.  Started with Gladys Leap, which is what they promoting then, and carried on buying the new ones as they came out and the old ones as I discovered them.

They were promoting Gladys' Leap in 96???

[Nic O]

First heard loads of  bits and pieces in the late 1960s
First album I listened to in its entirity was Unhalfbricking.
First one I bought was Liege and Lief and then History of...

Was much more into Bob Dylan in those days and sort of weaned onto Fairport through the 1970s and backtracking through RT and Sandy.

Think for someone coming into FC now you can't go far wrong with History of.. plus Then and Now ... at least that is what I have given a friend who is coming to Cropredy for the first time this year.

[david stevenson]

John Peel played Chelsea Morning from the first album on his Saturday afternoon show in the 60s.  The following weekend I took two weeks of my paper round earnings and the bus into Glasgow and bought it.  Hooked then and there and ever since.

A certain Dame Jude of this parish has a lot to answer for.  

[Alastair Thomson]

First album bought = the 'History" double, on vinyl complete with ribbon! (I'd already got R<'s "Bright Lights" and decided against "Henry" because of the apparent absence of fab female vocals and thought I'd check out his old band!)

First contemporaneous line up heard = a TV session by the "Rising for the Moon" incarnation.

First live line-up heard = the "Gottle o'Geer" lot playing the much missed Friars Aylesbury club. Pleasant enough but I was more into R< and the Albions - but a few years later, I caught the "Farewell" tour at Sunderland Poly where they played MOTL after a long gap....and I was hooked!

[Will S]

I think it must have been the 'History of...' album, which my brother had.  But I don't think I bought any for myself till after I first saw them in Sheffield in 1996.  Started with Gladys Leap, which is what they promoting then, and carried on buying the new ones as they came out and the old ones as I discovered them.

They were promoting Gladys' Leap in 96???

Oops!  Slip of the finger there.  I think I meant '86  

[GS (Graham)]

Aaah Memories.

The first FC album I heard in its entirety was 'Angel Delight' - my mate Pete the Fiddler brought it round one evening saying you have to listen to this.  At the time (to my shame) I had thought Fairport was a novelty band, only having heard Si Tu Dois Partir when it was in the Hit Parade (& seeing them on TOTP).  Listening to Angel Delight that evening was a real road to Damascus moment - instant convert.  The next day I went into our local music shop (Muir's in Dunfermline - sadly long, long gone) intending to purchase Angel Delight only to discover they didn't have it in stock - but the chap behind the counter said they had a new album only just come in that day & handed me History of ... which I duly purchased & what a revelation that was as well.  

Shortly after that I was talking to another friend enthusing about this "new" band I'd discovered only to discover that he had all of the albums up to & including JBL, with the puzzling exception of Unhalfbricking.  He loaned me Henry the Human Fly & L&L.

I started buying all of the albums - Fairport, RT, Sandy etc - & then when CDs took over bought them all again (up to & including the At the BBC set).  What a wonderful trip it has been & long may it continue.

[Dr Clive]

As I've noted in my first ever contribution (see: "So how did you get into..."), a friend lent me Holidays and then FC, in the late sixties, but I didn't actually buy anything (cheapskate!) until I saw "History of..." in WH Smith's in Brighton, where I lived from Sep '71 to Sep '73. The next one was "Rosie", which had been trailed on "History...", followed by "Full House".

After that it get's a bit blurred, but I kind-of got more or less each new one as it came out, whilst also heading backwards to fill in the gaps of what I hadn't got at the time they came out.

I was heavily in to Pentangle long before I was fully-converted to FC, and also Steeleye, too.

I had listened to some of Richard & Linda (specifically IWTCTBLT), which a friend had, and also it got a lot of radio play, but didn't realise quite what a genius he was until I stumbled across Hand of Kindness (can't remember where), but didn't see him or start collecting properly until about five years ago.

DC