The First Time

[GubGub (Al)]

I was listening to Tom Petty over the weekend and was transported back to the first time I ever heard him, hitched to an old Max Fleischer cartoon on the Old Grey Whistle Test in the late 70s. It occurred to me that I can remember the first time I heard almost all of my favourite artists but for some reason not Fairport. I was a latecomer and definitely had Si Tu Dois Partir on an Island compilation in the 80s. I was aware of Cropredy in the early 80s and had a friend with a copy of History, though I don't recall ever hearing it. My conversion was a live show in '89 I believe but I have no idea how or when they first got on my radar.

How about you?

[macademis]

What We Did On Our Holidays  - sometime in Spring 1969, Jill Hanson's record shop Coventry city centre - can recall the impact of Sandy's voice and Meat and Two Veg for the first time.

[Andy]

I first heard Fairport on a 1970(?) compilation called "Bumpers", featuring Walk AWhile.

[macademis]

Bumpers was a landmark album, introducing many artists to me. First time I'd ever heard Jimmy Cliff, Bronco, If, Quintessence... It was a prized posession and much played. I was in a taxi in Glasgow last year and the driver had it playing and we both sang along with it all the way from the airport to downtown!

[Andy]

I have a CD /mp3 version if you ever want it.

[RobertD]

Written about before on here, but abbreviated version is I was dragged to a Jethro Tull concert at the Worcester Centrum in Massachusetts in 1987, and Fairport was the opening act. It so happened for an arena show with tickets bought the day of the gig we had amazing seats, center stage, about 10 rows back...so seeing the sheer enjoyment they brought to their set, and a feeling in my young mind that this was like my dad's Clancy Brothers records 'rocked up', I was immediately hooked.

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

Ahh... Bunpers!!

Ahh Quintessence!!

 

[macademis]

I have a CD /mp3 version if you ever want it.

Thanks for the offer Andy, but being an acquirer, I've managed to buy all nearly all of the source albums over the years. Some in Vinyl, Cassette and CD..........The lifestyles of others that I've funded!

[Ollie]

Primary school assembly, year 6 (2004), I was 10. Portmeirion, from XXXV, was played all week as music for us to walk in an out of assembly. For some reason, and I've no idea why, the track really caught me. I found the teacher who organised the music, and asked to borrow the CD at the end of the week. After checking with my parents to see if it was OK (the album has a picture of a pint on the back), I borrowed the CD and things snowballed massively from there.

Before that, I was a massive Beatles fan, as well as having a liking for Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys. I'd never been to a proper live gig (save a couple of Beatles tribute bands) Classic FM was always on in the house at home, and I played recorder and trombone.

Now, my musical tastes have expanded considerably, I'm as folkie as they come, have been to countless gigs and festivals, and play a number of folk instruments. Dad's got back into music he listened to 40 years ago, as well as becoming a huge folk-rock fan. I've become a serial Morris dancer, which I'm fairly sure has shaped me as a person a bit, and I've met some really amazing people.

Without a doubt, a life-changing moment.

[Jules Gray]

I'd got a cheapo radio/cassette machine for my birthday that allowed me, for the first time, to record direct from the radio.  Exciting!  I must have been about 13 or 14 years old, so it must have been 1979 or 1980, and not long after Sandy's passing.  I was at my Grandma's house and listening to, I think, Whispering Bob Harris.  He played Who Knows Where The Time Goes and I was an instant convert.  The song made me feel very emotional.  It was an instant favourite.  I played the recording back a few times, but I must have lost the tape.  I always vowed to buy some Fairport in the following years, but it wasn't until some 25 years later that my brother bought me the remastered Unhalfbricking and I finally started picking up the other albums.  God knows what took me so long.

Jules

[Staffan]

I have written about it earlier but here's a short version:
I was new as a student in Gothenburgh and one day in December 1969 I walked into a record store who had a sale price on some new albums. I looked them over, on one with a grey cover I read on the backside about the group's members and their roles. A female front singer and a guy who played the violin - an instrument I'd played for several years when I was young - was to my liking but the band obviosly played electric with bass guitar and drums. My curiosity made me buy it and from the first plays I was hooked!

[Dan O.]

Got into Fairport Convention in the early 90's thanks to a live interview and acoustic performance with some beret-toting bloke called Richard Thompson on VH1, think he was promoting Rumor & Sigh. Checked out what this fantastic guitarist/singer had done previously, found out he used to be in a band, acquired albums by this bloke's former band, really liked them, wondered what that band did next after this bloke had left, found I liked that a lot too, wondered what they were currently doing...became hooked for life  . First saw RT live in 1994, FC in 2001.

I'm sure there are many others out there who discovered FC through RT, and also plenty who came to FC via rock instead of folk, and then discovered a whole wealth of new music and a huge family tree of related artists !

[David W]

Not fc but I was at my primary teachers house when her husband played Morris on: I was seven and immediately hooked

Dw

[Sir Martin]

Newcastle University had a superb record library, and whilst a student I used it to explore just about every musical genre going. On one of these forays ('81 or '82) in borrowing random records I picked up 'A History of Fairport Convention' - and a very expensive addiction was born.

I was so taken that instead of taping it I actually went down to Windows and bought my own copy.

[tullist/raymond]

Hearing Tam Lin on the local FM "underground" in 1970. To my young ears it sounded like someone had managed to get a quality recording of some event in a forest circa 1654 or something, with next to nothing to compare it too at the time, entirely new ground.

[fat Billy(Bill)]

My big bro had 'olidays.
saw them live on the farewell tour (cliffs pavillion southend)
rest is history

[PaulT]

Had seen the first couple of LPs in the shops, but hadn't picked up on them; then I saw the band playing MOTL on the "Granada Reports" regional news magazine programme (1830-1900 Mon-Fri).  To be honest, I thought it was OK, nothing more; then a friend suggested we go & see them (& Steeleye) at the free gig in Ainsdale sand dunes. Hooked, lined & sinkered.    

[Peter Taylor]

1967 one Sunday afternoon John Peel played 'If I Had a Ribbon Bow' and I fell in love with that voice

[jude]

1967 one Sunday afternoon John Peel played 'If I Had a Ribbon Bow' and I fell in love with that voice

 

[Bob Barrows]

Hearing Tam Lin on the local FM "underground" in 1970. To my young ears it sounded like someone had managed to get a quality recording of some event in a forest circa 1654 or something, with next to nothing to compare it too at the time, entirely new ground.

That was very similar to my introduction: hearing Tam Lin on WBCN in the early 70s - it was a Halloween show featuring "spooky" music. I was blown away by the song, but never heard the name of the group! Several years later I encountered it again and started exploring.