0:00:02 > 0:00:03A one, two, three...
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Folk-rock legends Fairport Convention
0:00:12 > 0:00:14are a national institution.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18In the late '60s they spearheaded a musical revolution,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21which turned the rock'n'roll generation onto folk music.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23# ..ocean wave
0:00:23 > 0:00:25# Each rise and fall... #
0:00:25 > 0:00:28The band's been on the road for 44 years.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Today they stop off at music lover, John Earl's shed in
0:00:31 > 0:00:36deepest Somerset, to record a couple of tunes for his website.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42The roll call of past and present members
0:00:42 > 0:00:46reads like a Who's Who of English folk aristocracy.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Sandy Denny, Dave Swarbrick,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Richard Thompson, Simon Nichol, Ashley Hutchings, the list goes on.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56Fairport have seen numerous line-up changes,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59but the current vintage has been together for the last 15 years.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07# And mountain waves, like avalanches crashed upon the deck
0:01:07 > 0:01:11# And a screaming wind split ropes and spars
0:01:11 > 0:01:13# And tried to have us wrecked
0:01:13 > 0:01:16# But she rose and fell through storm and the swell
0:01:16 > 0:01:19# Sails all ripped and torn
0:01:19 > 0:01:21# Eight thousand tons tossed like a cork
0:01:21 > 0:01:24# She made it all the way around Cape Horn
0:01:26 > 0:01:30# Well, she had us kind of hypnotised
0:01:30 > 0:01:33# No time to catch our breath
0:01:33 > 0:01:37# Now you want to love your life well, you have to flirt with death
0:01:37 > 0:01:42# Sail close to the harnessed wind treat all risks with scorn
0:01:42 > 0:01:44# A farm boy and un-yoked team,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49# Made it all around the wild Cape Horn
0:01:51 > 0:01:55# A farm boy and un-yoked team
0:01:55 > 0:02:00# Made its way around the wild Cape Horn. #
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Fairport Convention, a collection of brilliant musicians,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12who blurred the lines between folk and rock.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16The way that they made folk music sound, it just changed everything.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20The band who launched a whole new movement - British folk rock.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Nobody had ever heard anything like that before.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28A distinctive sound that changed the face of folk for ever.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31- Iconic. - Seminal, legendary band.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35You know, you can use all of those words to describe them.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39Wonderful songs and a legacy of music that means
0:02:39 > 0:02:41so much to so many people.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Hugely talented musicians.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47After leaving John's shed, the current line-up
0:02:47 > 0:02:51head for the next gig on their 27-date tour.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Next year's the 45th anniversary.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59You find that hard to believe, to understand it,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01that it's only 45 years!
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Founding member Simon Nichol and band veteran Dave Pegg
0:03:08 > 0:03:12are at the very heart of the Fairport story.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15This is actually the longest unbroken line-up that Fairport's ever had.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20Although we still obviously refer to the new boys!
0:03:20 > 0:03:23And the current line-up, keep them on their toes.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27But, you know, the history of the band isn't really what
0:03:27 > 0:03:30the band's about, it's there if people want to go and examine it,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33but it's all really about tonight's gig.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38These battle-scarred old warhorses still follow a gruelling schedule,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41regularly recording new material as well as touring twice a year.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45In the late '80s we actually did a tour with 42 nights,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48but they were consecutive nights, so we called it
0:03:48 > 0:03:52The 42 Nights In The Wilderness Tour, I think was what it was called.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54And that's quite going some, you know.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Now we're a few years older, we give ourselves a night off a week
0:03:57 > 0:04:00if we can, but we've still got the better part of two weeks
0:04:00 > 0:04:04without a break on this tour, so we like working.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08I think we like to think of the band as always ongoing,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11and we're not ever going to sit on our laurels.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Chris and Rick are always writing,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18so we have a songwriting source within the band,
0:04:18 > 0:04:19and that keeps us on our toes.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22We've always got something new to achieve.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27# We set a course for old Cape Horn
0:04:27 > 0:04:29# And out across the ocean Go down... #
0:04:29 > 0:04:31We're basically enjoying the process of making music,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35and I think that's probably part of the secret of Fairport's
0:04:35 > 0:04:39longevity, is the connection the band's always had with the audience.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42That's where it connects its music out to the world, I think,
0:04:42 > 0:04:43it's on the road, live.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47Whether we're playing for the camera crew,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49and a few onlookers from the shed,
0:04:49 > 0:04:54or in the much larger arena of Cropredy Festival.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59CHEERING
0:04:59 > 0:05:04Showtime. Welcome your wonderful hosts,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Fairport Convention!
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Not many bands can boast their very own festival,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14but the annual Cropredy get-together
0:05:14 > 0:05:17has been at the heart of Fairport's life for the past three decades.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Here we go, and welcome.
0:05:22 > 0:05:2520,000 Fairport faithful turn up
0:05:25 > 0:05:28every year for a celebration of the band and their music.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31It provides a tremendous amount of energy.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34It recharges everybody's batteries, and reinforces your faith
0:05:34 > 0:05:36in what you're doing.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Cropredy is the engine that propels us for the rest of the year.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45# A holiday, a holiday, and the first one of the year
0:05:45 > 0:05:48# Lord Donald's wife came into the church
0:05:48 > 0:05:50# And the gospel she did hear
0:05:50 > 0:05:55# And when the meeting it was done she cast her eyes about
0:05:55 > 0:06:00# And there she spied little Matty Groves
0:06:00 > 0:06:02# Walking through the crowd
0:06:02 > 0:06:07# Come home with me, little Matty Groves, come home with me tonight
0:06:07 > 0:06:09# Come home with me little Matty Groves
0:06:09 > 0:06:11# And sleep with me till light... #
0:06:11 > 0:06:13With a vast back catalogue to choose from,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16the band is constantly revisiting and breathing new life
0:06:16 > 0:06:20into old favourites, like the classic, Matty Groves.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25We've kind of developed musically since Chris has joined the band.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29It became a different sound, and it's one that we're kind of happy with.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34What I like about the band is that it has that incredible,
0:06:34 > 0:06:35almost undefinable thing.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38When people join they bring their strengths,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40and that changes the direction a bit.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Fairport's never tried to replace like with like, it's always
0:06:43 > 0:06:47gone for a different musician that will fit in the line-up.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50And so, Fairport's never remained static as a sound.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52You can't really pigeonhole Fairport.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17This line-up is definitely less rocky than some of the previous ones.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21We're just playing to our natural strengths.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Very proud of the line-ups that have gone before,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25and the music they've left behind.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27Proud of that history, but not prisoner to it.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31It is about the next album.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Same time, paying heed and respect to the music that's gone before.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44Fairport was formed during the summer of '67,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47by a close-knit group of friends from north London.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51# My mind keeps on telling me that this is no good... #
0:07:51 > 0:07:55All in their late teens and early 20s,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58the band was brought together by bass player Ashley Hutchings.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03I was known as a bandleader in my little area of north London.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Initially I'd been bandleader of a couple of jazz bands
0:08:07 > 0:08:11and a blues band, and Simon Nichol, for example,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14was a young teenager when I first met him.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16He was a fantastic guitarist.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Ashley Hutchings had the little black book,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20with everybody's phone numbers in.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22I was one of those people in his book,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25and I had next to my name - "12-string guitar."
0:08:25 > 0:08:28It's just a certain edge, because I was one of the few people
0:08:28 > 0:08:31who had one of those in our part of the world.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Vocals were provided by Iain Matthews,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37and on lead guitar, an 18-year-old Richard Thompson.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41When the band started out, we were a pale, spotty,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44north London, suburban intellectuals, really.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48We really thought about the music, and we really rejected
0:08:48 > 0:08:53what was around, and we really wanted to not be like other bands.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56Completing Fairport's first settled line-up was
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Martin Lamble on drums, and singer, Judy Dyble.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04When they wanted to form a band, before they'd even thought up
0:09:04 > 0:09:07the name, they said to me, would I like to sing with them?
0:09:07 > 0:09:10I was there at the beginning It was just an amazing time.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14The band's early rehearsals took place at Simon Nichol's
0:09:14 > 0:09:17family home in Muswell Hill - Fairport.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24It was very important to have Fairport house in Muswell Hill,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28because you could set the drums up, and the amps, and leave them there,
0:09:28 > 0:09:33practise in a big room, make a bit of noise, but also be together.
0:09:33 > 0:09:40In those days, people tended to very often live together in houses
0:09:40 > 0:09:44or communes, or whatever, and make music together in that way.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49And I think that helped to speed the process up of melding
0:09:49 > 0:09:51the band together, the Fairport group.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57The experimental musical landscape in the London of '67 exposed
0:09:57 > 0:10:00the young pretenders to an eclectic mix of sounds.
0:10:01 > 0:10:08'Soho, vividly cosmopolitan, a place of the most unlikely contrasts.'
0:10:08 > 0:10:11If you think about being in central London
0:10:11 > 0:10:17on any given night between 1967 and '69, you could go to the UFO Club,
0:10:17 > 0:10:21see Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, these kind of bands.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26# Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne... #
0:10:26 > 0:10:28You could walk a few hundred metres up the road,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31and you could be in a folk club like Bungees or Les Cousins,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34things were quite mixed up then.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39Richard, Judy, Simon and Ashley would have all gone to folk clubs.
0:10:39 > 0:10:45There was just a rich tapestry of influences already at work in 1967.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Although we'd all been exposed to it as children growing up,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54and going to clubs, as well as blues clubs and jazz clubs,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58the early days of Fairport, we were very much influenced by singer-songwriters,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02and most of those were coming out of America's West Coast.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06People like Dylan and Phil Oakes, Richard Farina,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08we had all their records.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13# Hey, Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me... #
0:11:13 > 0:11:17The Byrds took Dylan's songs particularly,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20and turned them into three-minute pop wonders.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25The irony of Fairport is that they started out wanting to play
0:11:25 > 0:11:27American roots music,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30with a little touch of the West Coast thrown in.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33I think at the heart of it all was a love for the rural,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35jug band music of America,
0:11:35 > 0:11:40which found its electric voice with The Lovin' Spoonful, I suppose.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45# Blues in the bottle blues in the bottle
0:11:45 > 0:11:49# Where do you think you are at pretty mama... #
0:11:49 > 0:11:51Fairport's early repertoire was dominated by
0:11:51 > 0:11:54cover versions of American songs.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56# Jack of diamonds one-eyed knave... #
0:11:56 > 0:12:00And after just playing a handful of local gigs,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04they were catapulted into London's thriving psychedelic scene.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08Fairport played a lot of clubs in London during the first year -
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Blazes, Happening 44, Speakeasy.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18# And it's guaranteed to brighten up your day... #
0:12:18 > 0:12:21We joined groups like The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25The Blossom Toads, weird groups, psychedelic groups.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30It was very diverse, and people would listen to everything.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35There was no, "Oh, you can't do that, because you're not folk.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38"You can't do that because you're not R&B."
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Anybody could do anything, it was a really free and easy time.
0:12:41 > 0:12:48# If I were rich enough to make you need me as much as I need you... #
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Everything was OK at that point, you know, in 1967,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53you could have any style, and be broadly
0:12:53 > 0:12:55accepted by the audience, for some reason,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58maybe it was just that people were stoned
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and just accepted everything, I don't really know.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05It was a devil may care, hedonistic period.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10You could really let your hair down, musically, as well as physically.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18We did do some strange things, I have to say!
0:13:20 > 0:13:23We were part of that scene, very strangely, but we loved it.
0:13:24 > 0:13:30# Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning And the first thing that I saw
0:13:30 > 0:13:33# Was the sun through yellow curtains
0:13:33 > 0:13:35# And a rainbow on my wall... #
0:13:35 > 0:13:38What marked them out at that point was not just the material,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40but the way they were playing the material,
0:13:40 > 0:13:44with intelligence, with light touches.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46There was something about them, they were fresh,
0:13:46 > 0:13:52and their naivete, in a way, was part of the appeal,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56the fact that these were these very young kids, playing stuff that
0:13:56 > 0:14:00I knew very well, and I was fascinated to hear it refracted...
0:14:01 > 0:14:03..via Muswell Hill.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05And so I just figured, "what the hell, let's put them on,"
0:14:05 > 0:14:09so I invited them to open for Pink Floyd, actually, at UFO.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14# It's a long, long way down to Reno, Nevada
0:14:14 > 0:14:17# It's a long, long way to your home
0:14:17 > 0:14:21# And the change in your pocket is beginning to grumble
0:14:21 > 0:14:25# And you reap just about what you sow... #
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Having gambled by giving the young bucks a gig at his influential
0:14:28 > 0:14:31UFO Club, record producer Joe Boyd,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34was now even more convinced of their potential.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36# You can work day and night take a chance on promotion
0:14:36 > 0:14:39# You can fall through A hole in the ground... #
0:14:41 > 0:14:42What happened that made me think,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45"Oh, I've got to make a record with these guys,"
0:14:45 > 0:14:46was hearing Richard play.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Listening closely to what was going on with the lead guitar,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53I thought, "This is a talent."
0:15:05 > 0:15:07Richard was hugely gifted.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10All this music he'd been listening to for years,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13it had all somehow or another seeped into his body
0:15:13 > 0:15:16and was coming out through his fingers.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Ashley was the core, in a way. He was older than the rest.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39He was the guy that you talked to on the phone about things.
0:15:39 > 0:15:45But when a real musical issue came up, "What does Richard think?" You know.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50Richard was quiet, but everybody had huge respect for him.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55The band released their self-titled debut album in 1968,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58but with so many styles to explore,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Fairport's game of musical chairs was about to begin.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07The singing was kind of slightly less important to us in the early days.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10It was more the choice of songs and how we arranged them.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12After a short while,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15it became obvious that we needed really good singers.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20# Missed the morning too didn't rise before noon
0:16:21 > 0:16:27# She's a lazy lady today. #
0:16:27 > 0:16:31As the band searched for a new lead vocalist, one voice stood out.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33Playing the English folk circuit
0:16:33 > 0:16:37was a singer well known to the band's producer, Sandy Denny.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42# You're a crazy lady, I'd say. #
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Somebody with a guitar and that big a voice singing her own songs,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51singing Jackson C Frank songs, was jarring to me.
0:16:51 > 0:16:57But then I met her. And she was hilarious. She was a real character.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01Kind of outrageous and sort of very big personality
0:17:01 > 0:17:05and effing and blinding and drinking a lot
0:17:05 > 0:17:07and smoking a lot and at the time,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10the Fairport guys were wee timorous beasties,
0:17:10 > 0:17:15who I felt wouldn't really know what to do with Sandy.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20But then got a phone call saying Judy's out, Sandy Denny's in.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Wow!
0:17:23 > 0:17:29# And she went away from me
0:17:29 > 0:17:33# And moved too fast. #
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Sandy was a very rare beast.
0:17:37 > 0:17:43She was someone who was equally at home with folk music and rock music.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45She could just move from one voice to another.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47From a whisper, gentle whisper,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51right through to belting out something. She was a great singer.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56# And then she went onward. #
0:17:56 > 0:18:01I think Sandy Denny's voice sounds like heartbreak, I genuinely do.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04She had this incredible mix of absolute clarity in her voice
0:18:04 > 0:18:07but real kind of grit and pathos.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10I defy anybody not to fall in love with her.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14She was genuinely timeless, continues to be genuinely timeless.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19Sandy joining the band changed everything.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23Not only did you have this powerful singer, but she was writing songs.
0:18:23 > 0:18:29# How often she has gazed from castle windows
0:18:29 > 0:18:34# And watched the daylight passing within her captive wall... #
0:18:34 > 0:18:37She did shake things up, she changed the dynamic
0:18:37 > 0:18:42and brought so much music with her to the feast that we were having.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46Everybody's tastes and palates changed a little bit
0:18:46 > 0:18:48because of that mixture.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52# The evening hour is fading within the dwindling sun... #
0:18:52 > 0:18:56It really focused us much more and we really felt,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00"Gosh, now we are a real band. Now we can take this seriously."
0:19:02 > 0:19:07# We used to say that come the day
0:19:07 > 0:19:14# We'd all be making songs... #
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Richard may have written a couple and dabbled in a few things,
0:19:17 > 0:19:23but I think in a way Sandy's arrival triggered his start
0:19:23 > 0:19:26of being a serious songwriter and placed the bar quite high.
0:19:26 > 0:19:32And you can hear that Richard is raising his game to keep pace with Sandy.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35# The air is growing thin... #
0:19:35 > 0:19:39Released in early 1969, Fairport's second album,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41What We Did On Our Holidays,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44featured some of the band's most memorable songs,
0:19:44 > 0:19:46penned by Sandy and Richard.
0:19:48 > 0:19:55# Meet on the ledge we're gonna meet on the ledge
0:19:55 > 0:20:00# When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
0:20:00 > 0:20:03# Meet on the ledge... #
0:20:03 > 0:20:07Joining Fairport was also a liberating experience for Sandy.
0:20:07 > 0:20:13She could go up to the microphone and she could just relax and sing.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18And it was just like being born again for her.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22She was sort of just like a pig in shit.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25And then we were in business, we had a great singer,
0:20:25 > 0:20:27singing these wonderful songs.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31And that's when Fairport really became Fairport.
0:20:31 > 0:20:42# Who knows where the time goes?
0:20:42 > 0:20:49# Who knows where the time
0:20:49 > 0:20:54# Goes? #
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Sandy's Who Knows Where The Time Goes
0:20:58 > 0:21:03is and will for ever be an absolutely perfect song, I think.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08And the version they did on Unhalfbricking was just so eloquent.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12# And I'm not alone
0:21:14 > 0:21:20# While my love is near me... #
0:21:20 > 0:21:23So eloquent in fact that it was voted favourite folk track
0:21:23 > 0:21:29of all time by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in 2007.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34But as well as expanding Fairport's original repertoire,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Sandy was a key figure in the band's decision
0:21:36 > 0:21:38to look closer to home for inspiration.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42She also forced them to listen to ballads.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47She could sing tons of them. And she did. In the bus. Going to gigs.
0:21:47 > 0:21:54And I think it slowly began to alter their, you know, thinking about it.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56And then she sang them A Sailor's Life.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59# A sailor's life
0:21:59 > 0:22:04# It is a merry life... #
0:22:04 > 0:22:06We were in the dressing room in Southampton
0:22:06 > 0:22:09and we started to just play along with her.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12It was just something that we really improvised.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15I'm not sure we had a clear plan of what we were doing.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18We kind of slid in around her arrangement.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22# Leaving them behind... #
0:22:22 > 0:22:27At the end of it, we said, "That sounded good, let's go and do it."
0:22:27 > 0:22:32And if you have to put your finger on the beginning of British folk rock, that was the beginning.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37A Sailor's Life is a really crucial moment.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41You can hear there the gears shifting in some ways,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45in terms of thinking about what to do with English folk.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50It's the first time a full rock drum kit played with sticks
0:22:50 > 0:22:54was ever actually used on a traditional English folk song.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03Although this was a radical departure for English folk,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Fairport's American contemporaries
0:23:05 > 0:23:09had already been blazing the folk-rock trail.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12There were two key albums, The Byrds, Sweetheart Of The Rodeo,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16and The Band's first album.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20Both of them were reinventing American roots music.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25So the hop towards thinking, we could do that with British music,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28wasn't that big a one.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33We thought that we shouldn't be so derivative in our music, that we shouldn't be looking to America,
0:23:33 > 0:23:39we should be putting more of our own culture into the music. That's where the balance changed.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43If there hadn't been such a powerful influence from overseas
0:23:43 > 0:23:46on British popular music, perhaps we would have been playing
0:23:46 > 0:23:49something closer to our tradition all along.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53The recording of their third album, Unhalfbricking,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57in early 1969, was a key moment in the band's development.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02Unhappy with this new musical direction, Iain Matthews parted company with Fairport,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06going on to form his own band, Matthews' Southern Comfort,
0:24:06 > 0:24:11the first of many new outfits formed by departing Fairport members.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14In their search for a more authentic British folk sound,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17the band invited the acclaimed traditional fiddle player
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Dave Swarbrick to join them in the studio.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24I'd never heard of them. I vaguely knew Sandy, but that was it.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26# Come all you colliers far and near... #
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Swarbrick played with the Ian Campbell Folk Group,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30the leading folk group of their day.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34But he was now one half of an exciting duo
0:24:34 > 0:24:39with another rising star of the folk revival, guitarist Martin Carthy.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42I remember his reaction was, "I don't want to play with these blokes.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46"You know me, I don't know anything about rock'n'roll. What do I want to do that for?
0:24:46 > 0:24:49"Oh, Christ! I suppose I've got to go and do it." Grumble, grumble.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51And he went off and did it.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55We did Sailor's Life and a couple of other things.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57I was intrigued by them.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07He came back the next day and he said, "Don't misunderstand me,
0:25:07 > 0:25:12"but I think I just met the guitar player I've wanted to play with all my life.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17"Don't misunderstand it." I said, "Who is this person?"
0:25:17 > 0:25:21"He's called Richard Thompson. He is fantastic."
0:25:21 > 0:25:24He was absolutely blown away by Richard's playing
0:25:24 > 0:25:27and the whole attitude of the band.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29Just as much as a child today
0:25:29 > 0:25:34has absolutely no fear of doing anything with a piece of modern technology,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38we had that same musical attitude to the instruments
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and to the musical doors
0:25:41 > 0:25:45that we were sort of easing past, kicking open, in some cases.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47# Mais si tu dois partir... #
0:25:47 > 0:25:51One of the songs Swarbs recorded with the band,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54a French translation of the Bob Dylan song, If You Gotta Go, Go Now,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58was released as a single and reached number 21 in the charts,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02earning the band their only appearance on Top Of The Pops.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06To me, this Fairport that had made Unhalfbricking
0:26:06 > 0:26:10was the same as the original group that I'd found, but they'd blossomed
0:26:10 > 0:26:14and become this huge thing that had such potential and such power.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19And it was partly the power was the mixture.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23They'd do British traditional folk, they'd do mock Cajun,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27they'd do Richard's songs, Sandy's songs, Dylan's songs.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29It was unique.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33We were a happy-go-lucky bunch of friends
0:26:33 > 0:26:37and we were doing very, very well and then we had the crash, of course.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41During the early hours of May 12th 1969, on the way home
0:26:41 > 0:26:46from a gig in Birmingham, the van carrying the band crashed on the M1.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Richard's girlfriend, Jeanie Franklin, and drummer Martin Lamble
0:26:49 > 0:26:51were killed.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53We all went into our own private shells.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57Very few of us survived without some physical scarring,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01but the worst thing, I suppose, because the body will heal,
0:27:01 > 0:27:07the worst thing is the psychological and mental scars of being
0:27:07 > 0:27:13smitten so hard by this terrible...
0:27:13 > 0:27:14tragedy, you know.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19Two young lives just lost for no good reason.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22Because we were all pursuing something
0:27:22 > 0:27:24that was our raison d'etre.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30# Farewell, farewell to you who would hear
0:27:30 > 0:27:34# You lonely travellers all... #
0:27:34 > 0:27:37It was a really difficult time.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40I think it was almost a full-stop for the band.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43I'm not sure we knew what we were going to do after that.
0:27:44 > 0:27:50Do we owe it to Martin and Jeanie to rebuild the band?
0:27:50 > 0:27:54To come out bloodied but unbowed?
0:27:54 > 0:27:56The rebuilding process began
0:27:56 > 0:27:59with Dave Swarbrick becoming a full-time member of the band,
0:27:59 > 0:28:06swiftly followed by an unknown drummer from the world of ballroom dancing, Dave Mattacks.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11They took a chance on an extremely green, somewhat precocious young drummer.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16They were all obviously great players, but they were so friendly. All of them.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20And Ashley is bringing these songs and Richard's writing with Swarbrick,
0:28:20 > 0:28:26and we've got this tune and there's this fantastic singer. We're going to go in and make a record.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30Just a few months after the crash,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34the new line-up retreated to the country to record their next album.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39We moved into a house in Farley Chamberlayne, in the countryside,
0:28:39 > 0:28:40in Hampshire.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44And we had a real rebirth.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48We had a project to work on, to get our teeth into.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Liege & Lief was not just a significant musical record,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55it was a watershed for us to rebuild the band.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Fairport's experiments with folk music gathered momentum
0:28:59 > 0:29:02as Ashley Hutchings went in search of new material.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06I love coming here to the library in Cecil Sharp House
0:29:06 > 0:29:11and beavering away in the books, trying to find folk songs.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16Comb the shelves, the fantastic shelves full of treasures.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20And from being a rocker in the psychedelic scene,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23to embracing all this, it was great fun to do.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28What we have here are the massive collection of ballads
0:29:28 > 0:29:31of Francis James Child.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34Fantastic songs that go back centuries and centuries.
0:29:34 > 0:29:40And each one tells a story, very often a powerful story.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42And I think the stories grabbed us.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45The fact is we had to intellectually step back
0:29:45 > 0:29:48and say here's the tradition, here's popular music now.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53Let's reconnect the two and it should sound something like this.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57# Lord Donald he jumped up and loudly he did bawl
0:29:57 > 0:30:00# He struck his wife right through the heart
0:30:00 > 0:30:02# And pinned her against the wall... #
0:30:02 > 0:30:05They were dark songs.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08Songs of death and betrayal and loss.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12It was just the music that came naturally to us.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14It just made perfect sense.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18Making the ballads and the powerful tunes...
0:30:18 > 0:30:21MORE powerful with the instruments we had.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26It was an experiment, but we must've been doing something right
0:30:26 > 0:30:29for people still to be discussing it this far down the track.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34And certain songs from that record just refuse to lie down and die.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37GUITAR INTRO TO TAM LIN
0:30:40 > 0:30:43# I forbid you, maidens all
0:30:43 > 0:30:46# That wear gold in your hair
0:30:46 > 0:30:49# To travel to Carterhaugh
0:30:49 > 0:30:52# For young Tam Lin is there...#
0:30:52 > 0:30:56Tam Lin, I think, is one of the most successful tracks on Liege & Lief,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59just because it pushes the envelope furthest.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03The song they're singing describes magical transformations,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06and the music somehow seems to do that, as well.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10It feels like the group's performing on full capacity at that point.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14# Janet tied her kirtle green...#
0:31:14 > 0:31:15On the back of the '60s folk revival,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19many musicians were interested in breaking down the barriers
0:31:19 > 0:31:20between folk and rock.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24But with the release of Liege & Lief in December, 1969,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26Fairport raised the bar again.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Their radical approach divided opinion even within
0:31:29 > 0:31:32bands on a similar quest.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35As Steeleye Span's Martin Carthy recalls.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37We were rehearsing with Steeleye
0:31:37 > 0:31:41and Tim Hart had Liege & Lief when it first came out.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43And he didn't like Tam Lin.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46Said, "It's very weird. Far too weird." And he played me Tam Lin.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50And I said "You're crazy. This is fabulous!
0:31:50 > 0:31:54"It's absolutely just... mind-boggling!"
0:31:55 > 0:31:59Liege & Lief took traditional songs and turned them all inside out
0:31:59 > 0:32:01and shook up the folk scene.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08The old finger-in-the-ear style
0:32:08 > 0:32:11was still prevalent, and might have gone on
0:32:11 > 0:32:16for several more years after that, had not Fairport done what they did.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20# As I was a-walking... #
0:32:20 > 0:32:24Some of course threw their hands up in horror and veered away,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27and went back muttering in their tankards
0:32:27 > 0:32:29in small pubs all over the country.
0:32:29 > 0:32:36We had opposition and a few frowns from the folk establishment,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39but, also, Bert Lloyd, Britain's greatest folklorist,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41was someone who was open-minded,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44and was very happy to see us doing those experiments
0:32:44 > 0:32:49because he saw the importance of that reconnection.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53Liege & Lief was a REAL statement.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58The third of three albums released by Fairport in 1969,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Liege & Lief reached number 20 in the UK album charts.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03But its influence has far out-stripped
0:33:03 > 0:33:06its limited commercial success.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08In 2006, the album was voted
0:33:08 > 0:33:13the most influential folk album of all time by Radio 2 listeners,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17and a year later the original Liege & Lief line-up, minus Sandy Denny,
0:33:17 > 0:33:22accepted a gold disc from Island Records at the Cropredy festival.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24With a ground-breaking album under their belts,
0:33:24 > 0:33:26the dawn of a new decade should have seen Fairport
0:33:26 > 0:33:30take their unique brand of English folk rock to a mainstream audience.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35But the very success of the band had become an issue for Sandy.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37She felt so proud of the record,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40and then all these offers were coming in.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42People wanted them to go out on the road
0:33:42 > 0:33:45and play Tam Lin and Matty Groves every night.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47How do you fit Who Knows Where the Time Goes into that?
0:33:47 > 0:33:50Or the new songs she's starting to write?
0:33:50 > 0:33:52So she just said, "I'm outta here."
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Sandy left to form her own band, Fotheringay.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00She released one album with them before resuming her solo career.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05And then almost immediately afterwards Ashley...
0:34:05 > 0:34:09found he hadn't really adjusted, and threw the towel in, too.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11Emotionally, it was a very difficult time,
0:34:11 > 0:34:13because we were getting over the crash,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15getting over the loss of two people,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18and I kind of cracked up.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20Just after I left the band.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24And had possibly a delayed reaction.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29Ashley went on to play a key part in the English folk scene,
0:34:29 > 0:34:31both as a musician and a producer.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Most memorably, as a member of the newly formed Steeleye Span.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36And later forming The Albion Band.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39With the loss of two key members,
0:34:39 > 0:34:45it once again felt as if the heart of the band had been ripped out.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47It was challenging, yeah, deeply challenging,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50For those of us that remained.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54But, no, I didn't think for a minute we should give up hope.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59Swarbrick's fellow Brummy, the charismatic and hairy Dave Pegg,
0:34:59 > 0:35:01came in on bass.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04But one major decision remained - how to replace Sandy.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08We had to reconsider ourselves as an all-boy band suddenly.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12# She's a runaway, she's a runaway...#
0:35:12 > 0:35:15We were all reluctant vocalists.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18It's hard to step out from behind someone like Sandy
0:35:18 > 0:35:21and reveal yourself, you know, as a mediocre singer.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24So I sang a bit, Simon sang a bit, Swarb sang a bit,
0:35:24 > 0:35:25and we just about got away with it.
0:35:28 > 0:35:34# Just a roll on your drum...#.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36In 1970, in an effort to regroup,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39the new line-up moved with their families
0:35:39 > 0:35:43into The Angel, an old pub in the village of Little Hadham.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47The local paper a couple of weeks after we moved in -
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Hippies Invade Little Hadham was the headline,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54and a picture of The Angel. And us lot.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00It was cold. It wasn't particularly clean.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02But we rubbed along very well.
0:36:04 > 0:36:05Yeah, we had very good times.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08Youngbloods together, you know. Good fun.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11It was a good job it wasn't a pub any more - it used to be -
0:36:11 > 0:36:13or God knows the state we'd have been in.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15It was very boyish.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20A far more irresponsible personnel came into the band at that point.
0:36:20 > 0:36:26We kind of all bonded. And we got to know each other incredibly well,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30because there were 16 of us living in The Angel.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32And only one toilet.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34And the hot water didn't last very long.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37There was a lot of hair that needed washing.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41And it was always a fight to get into the toilet.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44You'd have to get up really early in the morning.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46It was such pleasure to see that band play.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Richard and Swarb soloing.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51Competing.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59You can hear us kind of exploring each others' music.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Very interesting. Swapping phrases and seeing what would happen.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Rub off each other and spark.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Hear what's being thrown to you and throw something back.
0:37:13 > 0:37:21Swarb is obviously an established virtuoso on the traditional music
0:37:21 > 0:37:23and Richard was playing catch-up,
0:37:23 > 0:37:29developing guitar techniques, which nobody else had ever done.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31Playing unison lines with a fiddle on an electric guitar
0:37:31 > 0:37:33was pretty strange back then.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41For me it was an instrumental challenge. It still is!
0:37:41 > 0:37:45To play fairly fast dance music on the guitar -
0:37:45 > 0:37:49an instrument that is tuned all wrong to do it, really.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51The Swarb-Thompson partnership
0:37:51 > 0:37:53was at the heart of Fairport's Full House.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57The 1970 album also featured the first outing
0:37:57 > 0:38:00of the celebrated rhythm section of Pegg and Mattacks.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05The Full House line-up...
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Extraordinary collection of talents. You know? Simon...
0:38:11 > 0:38:14..he's absolutely at the heart of what makes those things work.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18So that even the people who aren't who you think of
0:38:18 > 0:38:22when you think of the big personalities, you know...
0:38:22 > 0:38:24are monsters!
0:38:24 > 0:38:28With a dynamic new line-up, the band's future looked bright.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31The Angel Inn was a hot-bed of ideas and inspiration.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34But Fairport's world was turned upside down again,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37when a lorry drove through Dave Swarbrick's bedroom,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40killing the driver and shaking the maverick fiddler.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45Richard had the room above me, but he was away for the weekend.
0:38:45 > 0:38:52And all of his room - the contents, the floor, the ceiling, everything -
0:38:52 > 0:38:54just came down into my room.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56And the lorry went up it.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00So the bottom of the front wheel of the lorry was level with my head.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04Actually, a few days before I'd bought a beautiful brass bed.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08But the bed didn't fit where I normally I slept - by the window.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12And the lorry came in through the window.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16So if I had not gone out and spent my money on antiques,
0:39:16 > 0:39:18I wouldn't be here.
0:39:18 > 0:39:19Richard's absence from The Angel that night
0:39:19 > 0:39:22was due to his growing commitments outside the band.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26And in January, 1971, he announced he was leaving.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30I just felt I needed time to do something else, you know.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34I wanted to write, and I was writing this sort of eccentric stuff,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37and I thought, "Well, what am I gonna do with these songs?
0:39:37 > 0:39:40"Erm... Who's ever gonna sing these?"
0:39:40 > 0:39:42And I thought, somehow I'm gonna have to sing these songs.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47And it'll have to be on a different kind of record than a Fairport one.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51So, I was very sad to leave.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04That was a big blow for the band. Certainly for me.
0:40:04 > 0:40:10I'd only been there for one album, and I thought, ""Oh, Rich has left.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12And Richard was always considered by the rest of us,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15although we wouldn't admit it at the time...
0:40:15 > 0:40:17Richard was our leader.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19Richard was not a pushy kind of person,
0:40:19 > 0:40:25but whatever he wanted to do, we'd go along with.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28And when he left, the band without him
0:40:28 > 0:40:31had to then find a method of carrying on.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34You can't replace a Richard Thompson.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Still only 21, Richard left the band he'd help found four years earlier,
0:40:38 > 0:40:41to launch a solo career that would see him hailed
0:40:41 > 0:40:44as one of the world's great guitarists.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48Not only had Fairport lost their lead guitarist,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51but also one of their main songwriters.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Rather than trying to replace Richard,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57the band looked within its line-up for ideas on how to drive their music forward.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Swarb was definitely the driving force after Richard left.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Swarb had incredible energy.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Especially around the time of Babbacombe Lee.
0:41:07 > 0:41:08# Little did I think
0:41:08 > 0:41:11# When the judge first spoke
0:41:11 > 0:41:14# Those awful words to me...#
0:41:14 > 0:41:18Fairport's 1971 concept album,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Babbacombe Lee, is based on the true story of John Lee.
0:41:21 > 0:41:26In 1885, Lee was found guilty of the brutal killing of his employer,
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Emma Keyes, and sentenced to life by hanging.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31Three times Lee stared death in the face,
0:41:31 > 0:41:35but each time the trapdoor failed to open.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Almost 100 years later,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41antique enthusiast Dave Swarbrick stumbled across the story.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46I was walking down this village in Hertfordshire.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48I came across a junk shop.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53Went in. And they had this series of newspapers, Lloyds Weekly News 1907.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56I was fascinated by this John Lee of Babbacombe -
0:41:56 > 0:41:58"the man they could not hang."
0:41:58 > 0:42:00So I took it home and read it.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Decided to write a song about the man who was hanged three times.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06But then I found that it was impossible to speak
0:42:06 > 0:42:08the agony of John Lee in one song.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10The man went through too much.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13So it turned out there was about ten songs.
0:42:13 > 0:42:14# John Lee, your chances are good,
0:42:14 > 0:42:18# You better touch wood, We think things must get better...#.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20It became something that we could all get involved with
0:42:20 > 0:42:24and attempt to write an album.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27And it was the first time that certainly Simon and myself
0:42:27 > 0:42:29had ever had a crack at songwriting.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33Luckily all the material was there.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41We were putting the music together in a very equal-handed way.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44You know, the piano parts...
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Mattacks would suddenly just come up with them and there they'd be.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49And we'd incorporate them.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51It wasn't a matter of Swarb saying,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53"Right, I've written this song and it goes like this.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56"I want you to play this, I want you to play that."
0:42:56 > 0:42:59It was very much a cooperative thing.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album,
0:43:01 > 0:43:06the current line-up gave the first-ever complete live performance
0:43:06 > 0:43:08of Babbacombe Lee in 2011.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12# My life was spared that morning but it wasn't theirs to take
0:43:12 > 0:43:16# Three's the most the law requires A man should feel the stake...#
0:43:17 > 0:43:20As Fairport's always done it's looked to the back catalogue
0:43:20 > 0:43:23to think what it can bring forward again into the current line-up.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25And Peggy said, "What do you think?
0:43:25 > 0:43:29Should we have a go at doing the whole album?"
0:43:29 > 0:43:32I was a bit worried that you could fall between two stools -
0:43:32 > 0:43:36either make them too similar to the originals - not be creative -
0:43:36 > 0:43:38or you could make them too different
0:43:38 > 0:43:40in which case people wouldn't like 'em.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44I hope we found a route down the middle.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52CHEERING
0:43:52 > 0:43:57Babbacombe Lee's release in 1971 marked the end of an era.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Just four years after Fairport had formed, Simon Nicol,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04the last of the original line-up, decided to call it a day.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07I was still only 20 at the time.
0:44:07 > 0:44:08I just thought,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12I'm not sure I wouldn't rather do something different.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14I got a truck driving licence,
0:44:14 > 0:44:18and I did a lot of record production and engineering.
0:44:18 > 0:44:23After that the band went through various stages of disarray
0:44:23 > 0:44:25with various people coming and going.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27There was only Dave Swarbrick
0:44:27 > 0:44:30and myself that were trying to keep it together.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33The next few years were dubbed "Fairport Confusion",
0:44:33 > 0:44:36as a bewildering number of members came and went.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40Fairport's revolving door saw Dave Mattacks leave
0:44:40 > 0:44:43to join The Albion Band, only to later returned.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48Sandy Denny herself rejoined the band for a brief period in 1974
0:44:48 > 0:44:51before her tragic death in April 1978.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55By the time Simon Nicol rejoined the group in 1976,
0:44:55 > 0:44:57Fairport were struggling to find their niche
0:44:57 > 0:44:59in a changing musical landscape.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02# I am an antichrist
0:45:02 > 0:45:06# I am an anarchist... #
0:45:06 > 0:45:09There was a period during the '70s
0:45:09 > 0:45:11where folk music was really kind of looked down upon.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14The punk thing was happening.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17You wouldn't have a girlfriend if you were walking along
0:45:17 > 0:45:19the street carrying an accordion or a violin.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23# Anarchy... #
0:45:23 > 0:45:26The band had signed a new album deal with Vertigo Records,
0:45:26 > 0:45:31but by 1978, it seemed there was little appetite for fork.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34We delivered two albums to them.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Tipplers Tales and The Bonny Bunch Of Roses.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41They put them out and then we got a phone call from them
0:45:41 > 0:45:44saying, "We don't want any more albums."
0:45:44 > 0:45:48"Thanks, but you're not going to be on our label any more."
0:45:48 > 0:45:50And we said, or rather I said,
0:45:50 > 0:45:53"But we've signed a deal for six albums.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57"We're going to deliver the next four in a couple of weeks' time.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01"You'll have to pay us off." And they did pay us off.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04They paid us half of what we would have got
0:46:04 > 0:46:06for the subsequent four albums
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and it was the first time we ever made money
0:46:09 > 0:46:12out of the music business. It really was.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14When his share of the money, Pegg moved to the same small
0:46:14 > 0:46:18Oxfordshire village in which Dave Swarbrick had settled,
0:46:18 > 0:46:20a community that was to play a huge part
0:46:20 > 0:46:25in the Fairport story - Cropredy.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29# Through Cropredy in Oxfordshire the Cherwell takes its course
0:46:29 > 0:46:33# And the willows weep into its waters clear... #
0:46:33 > 0:46:35Fairport's Cropredy Festival,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38that now draws thousands of people every year,
0:46:38 > 0:46:40grew from much humbler beginnings.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43We went to a little farm out on the Daventry Road
0:46:43 > 0:46:46and we had a one-off concert there.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48That was a great success.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Then the village asked us to play at the village fete,
0:46:51 > 0:46:53which was held at Prescott Manor.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57By the third year, there were 1,800 people there.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01The success of these annual shows couldn't hide the fact
0:47:01 > 0:47:04that Fairport was without a record deal and this,
0:47:04 > 0:47:08together with Dave Swarbrick's worsening hearing problems,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11led to the band announcing that they would play
0:47:11 > 0:47:14their last ever concert at Cropredy in 1979.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18That was it, that was the end of the band as far as we were concerned.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22I went on to join Jethro Tull and was suddenly earning money.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26I was able to move house and set up the record label, Woodworm Records.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28# 40 miles off Aberdeen
0:47:28 > 0:47:31# The water's 50 fathoms deep... #
0:47:31 > 0:47:34The first album released on Pegg's Woodworm Records
0:47:34 > 0:47:38was a live recording of Fairport's Farewell, Farewell tour.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42Ironically, the success of that tour and the Cropredy farewell gig
0:47:42 > 0:47:45persuaded the band to hold a reunion the following year.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Another followed a year later and with that,
0:47:48 > 0:47:52the Cropredy Festival was born.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55There was something that clicked into gear based around Cropredy,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58that gave them a focal point for the whole year.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01There was a need to reconvene,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04to keep something of the spirit.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:48:09 > 0:48:14These days, Fairport fans young and old make the annual pilgrimage
0:48:14 > 0:48:17to Cropredy for a three-day extravaganza of real ale and music.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24Featuring the band itself, former members
0:48:24 > 0:48:28and musical collaborators, the festival also provides
0:48:28 > 0:48:30a showcase for the rising stars of the folk scene.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33A combination of people who are known
0:48:33 > 0:48:36and would have their own following
0:48:36 > 0:48:38and some brand new stuff.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Bands who are breaking through.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44With the likes of Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling
0:48:44 > 0:48:46enjoying huge critical and commercial success,
0:48:46 > 0:48:50folk music is on a high. Cropredy has always given a stage
0:48:50 > 0:48:51to the younger generation
0:48:51 > 0:48:54and the 2011 Festival starred the winners
0:48:54 > 0:48:58of the BBC Radio Two Young Folk Award, Moore, Moss and Rutter.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03It was really nice to be given the opportunity
0:49:03 > 0:49:04as Young Folk winners to come and play.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09It's nice to have lots of different young bands coming up.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12They book other people who they have seen at different festivals
0:49:12 > 0:49:16and they take a chance on people, which really works.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19It's surprising how much of a following these bands have.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21You look at how many young people are here
0:49:21 > 0:49:23and what's happening in England today
0:49:23 > 0:49:26is that it's not unfashionable now
0:49:26 > 0:49:29to be a folkie or play the accordion or the violin.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31It's great.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33For this new generation of folk acts,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35sharing the stage with Fairport is a huge boost.
0:49:37 > 0:49:43# I work till late each night I wake up with the light
0:49:43 > 0:49:48# My eyes too tired to fight no rest for the wicked... #
0:49:48 > 0:49:49Very beneficial for us, definitely.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54It has really raised our profile The fact that they have the power
0:49:54 > 0:49:57to give that opportunity to a band or a duo
0:49:57 > 0:49:59is just fantastic.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02All the musicians receive a warm welcome from the Cropredy crowd.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05But the most anticipated appearance of the weekend
0:50:05 > 0:50:09is the closing set by Fairport themselves,
0:50:09 > 0:50:11usually joined by a special guest.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14Would you please make him very welcome, the author and giver
0:50:14 > 0:50:16of this next good thing, Mr Ralph McTell.
0:50:16 > 0:50:17CHEERING
0:50:17 > 0:50:19The boys have recorded one of my songs,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22called Around The Wild Cape Horn.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24They said would I like to come and do it with them.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27Well, of course I would. The trouble is I have to unlearn my version.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30So it's going to be a seat of the pants job, but I'm sure we'll
0:50:30 > 0:50:33be forgiven, we'll all get through it and it will be a bit of fun.
0:50:33 > 0:50:40# For 17 days we were becalmed then Friday 13th
0:50:40 > 0:50:45# 68 great ships were lost in the storm of the century
0:50:45 > 0:50:51# But we blew into the Atlantic on a sun-lit sparkling morn
0:50:51 > 0:50:54# But the turkey got sick so we ate him quick
0:50:54 > 0:50:57# On the way around the wild Cape Horn... #
0:50:57 > 0:51:01Ralph McTell's links with Fairport stretch back over 40 years,
0:51:01 > 0:51:04just one of the many musicians who have contributed
0:51:04 > 0:51:08to the band's remarkable legacy.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12The Fairport family embraces all of these people
0:51:12 > 0:51:16who at some time in the past have been touched by Fairport,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19and who now show that by coming here
0:51:19 > 0:51:23from wherever it is that they spend the rest of the year,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26all sharing something.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29A lot of people have been to every one and then they bring
0:51:29 > 0:51:32their kids, and then the kids have grown up
0:51:32 > 0:51:35and brought their kids.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37Cropredy isn't one thing.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40It's a mixture of new and old people discovering it
0:51:40 > 0:51:42and telling other people who will listen,
0:51:42 > 0:51:44"You should come here." You know, it's nice.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52Because so many lives are wrapped up in this music,
0:51:52 > 0:51:54it's quite spiritual. I mean, it really is.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56I don't want to sound too hippie about it,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59but this particular field and this particular band
0:51:59 > 0:52:02and this occasion means so much to so many people.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06We acknowledge that when we come here, that we are all part of it
0:52:06 > 0:52:07and we're lucky to be here
0:52:07 > 0:52:11and having a great weekend's worth of music.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26For the first five years after the festival was established,
0:52:26 > 0:52:30this annual event was the only time the band came together.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33It was bassist Dave Pegg who persuaded Fairport
0:52:33 > 0:52:34to go back into the studio.
0:52:34 > 0:52:39Recorded in 1985 at his newly opened Woodworm Studios,
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Gladys' Leap featured Simon Nicol, Dave Mattacks and Pegg himself.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46But no Swarb, who had finally left the band
0:52:46 > 0:52:48after 15 years and 11 albums.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52We invited Swarb, but he declined
0:52:52 > 0:52:54because he had his group Whippersnapper.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57So then we asked Ric Sanders to join
0:52:57 > 0:53:00and subsequently Martin Allcock.
0:53:00 > 0:53:05From that moment on, Fairport really kind of got together again.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09I wasn't replacing Swarb, because I couldn't have done.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13You know, I don't sing and I can't play the fiddle like Swarb. I can't.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16So I have to do my own thing, which is a bit more jazzy.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19Sometimes I might have gone a bit over the top
0:53:19 > 0:53:22in the freaking out department, you know.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27One of Fairport's strengths
0:53:27 > 0:53:31though its line-up changes throughout its history
0:53:31 > 0:53:34is it has never tried to hang onto a sound
0:53:34 > 0:53:36for hanging onto a sound's sake.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39When people join, they bring their strengths.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Fairport has never tried to replace like with like.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46# Tomorrow, it's off up to Banbury A lodging time for me... #
0:53:46 > 0:53:48Simon is a big continuity. I know he has been
0:53:48 > 0:53:50out of the band for a few years,
0:53:50 > 0:53:52for good behaviour you would say.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54But that thing, his sound
0:53:54 > 0:53:57has been there a long time.
0:53:57 > 0:54:02However you play, it does filter out to the people around you.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05After the rollercoaster of the Fairport confusion years,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08things had finally started to settle.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Since I joined in 1985, it has been pretty stable.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16We had the line up with Martin Allcock and of course Dave Mattacks.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18That lasted for 11 years.
0:54:18 > 0:54:20Then Chris Leslie joined and Gerry Conway
0:54:20 > 0:54:23and we have been together longer than that now.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28Drummer Gerry Conway was a natural choice to replace Dave Mattacks,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31who finally parted ways with Fairport in 1998
0:54:31 > 0:54:33and moved to the USA.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36Gerry was well-known to the other band members,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39having played with Sandy Denny's Fotheringay, as well as Jethro Tull
0:54:39 > 0:54:41and Steeleye Span.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45I started my first professional band when I was about 17
0:54:45 > 0:54:47and people would say,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50"It's not a long-lasting job, you know."
0:54:50 > 0:54:55"You'll be finished by the time you're 25."
0:54:55 > 0:54:58So I'm amazed to be here doing it.
0:54:59 > 0:55:0415 years on, Gerry is part of Fairport longest continuous line-up
0:55:04 > 0:55:06as they celebrate the band's 45th anniversary
0:55:06 > 0:55:08at the Union Chapel in north London,
0:55:08 > 0:55:11just a few miles from Simon's childhood home,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15Fairport House, where it all began way back in 1967.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20We'd like to show you how much our finger's on the pulse
0:55:20 > 0:55:23of the nation's thoughts.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26The talk of every Islington dinner table at the moment
0:55:26 > 0:55:29is surely Scottish independence.
0:55:29 > 0:55:30So here's a song about it.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34It's a multiple marriage really, when you're in harness
0:55:34 > 0:55:38with people musically and you spend so much time together socially.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41This feels very musically comfortable.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46I never feel as if I have to compromise a new idea that comes in.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49If I do, if any of us push the music in a certain direction,
0:55:49 > 0:55:53it seems to be a very flexible and elastic performing relationship.
0:55:53 > 0:55:58# The King sits in Dunfermline town drinking of the blood red wine
0:55:58 > 0:56:01# Where can I get a steely skipper
0:56:01 > 0:56:05# To sail this mighty boat of mine... #
0:56:05 > 0:56:09We have kind of developed musically
0:56:09 > 0:56:12since the two violin line-up with Chris and Ric.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17It became a different sound and it's one we're happy with.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28Chris is actually a brilliant folk musician. He's the real deal.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32I can play Morris dance tunes. He can play them better than me
0:56:32 > 0:56:33and do the dances.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37We have a great exchange, Chris and I.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40I have brought a more acoustic element to the current line-up.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44It's what my sensibilities are and it's what I love.
0:56:44 > 0:56:49Fairport has always had that pushing and pulling
0:56:49 > 0:56:52between acoustic music and the rock element.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56But I think there's always that beautiful coming together
0:56:56 > 0:56:57in the current line-up.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01In addition to his knowledge of traditional music,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Chris Leslie has provided Fairport with a source of original songs,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08which has given the band a new lease of life.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13He's developed a new and rich vein of songwriting.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17His biographical adventures.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21I think that's a brilliant thing, that he's able to tap into now.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26# We set a course for old Cape Horn and out across the ocean
0:57:26 > 0:57:28# Go down... #
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Simon sent me this e-mail and said,
0:57:31 > 0:57:35"Have you seen they've found this ship in the Mercy Bay?"
0:57:35 > 0:57:38It was one of the ships that went out to look for Lord Franklin
0:57:38 > 0:57:41and his expedition to try and find the north-west passage,
0:57:41 > 0:57:43when they fell off the face of the earth.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46That feeling came. I thought, "Oh, there's a song there, definitely."
0:57:46 > 0:57:49And Mercy Bay, what a great gift to a songwriter.
0:57:49 > 0:57:55# In April 1853, the Resolute sailed
0:57:55 > 0:58:00# Go down, go down
0:58:00 > 0:58:02# At Melvin Isle they found a note
0:58:02 > 0:58:06# That told of our pleas and our plight
0:58:06 > 0:58:10# We left that ship in the frozen cold
0:58:10 > 0:58:16# We buried the poor men who died... #
0:58:16 > 0:58:20Still writing new material and still exploring the folk tradition,
0:58:20 > 0:58:23after 45 years on the road, Fairport Convention aren't quite ready
0:58:23 > 0:58:27to take their final bows just yet.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29I think we're all continuing to improve as musicians.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32I don't feel my powers are dropping off yet.
0:58:32 > 0:58:34And as long as that continues,
0:58:34 > 0:58:38I'm happy to continue moving forward with the band.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44Somehow they've managed to retain the spirit of Fairport.
0:58:44 > 0:58:49It's a certain camaraderie and certain way of working.
0:58:49 > 0:58:54And still, you know, creating, not just doing all the old songs.
0:58:54 > 0:58:57I suppose part of me is surprised they're still doing it.
0:58:57 > 0:59:01On the other hand, there is a Fairport vibe that perpetuates.
0:59:01 > 0:59:04Why not keep the band going? They're great musicians.
0:59:09 > 0:59:14# Go down. #
0:59:21 > 0:59:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd