Tonight Nicol, Pegg, Mattacks, Sanders and Leslie began with a Copper family song and ended with that great Sandy Denny anthem Who Knows Where The Times Goes. Burnt weenied inbetween these two songs the Fairports pitched about the folk spectrum. All the way from real ale jigs and reels to Alan Franks Tennessee Waltz. From the Denny/Swarbrick classic Crazy Man Michael to a storming rock and thunderclap version of Matty Groves. An amazing juggling act between beautiful songs and their own send up ironies. At one point Dave Pegg strained to hear a call from the audience. "Sorry I need Swarb to lend me his hearing aid again," he chirped.
What stops Fairport Convention transcending into a folk cabaret version of the Baron Knights is that whether the music is decorated with slapstick or not it is all deftly done. Ric Sanders is one virtuoso of a violin player. Cock on, cocksure, lightening his verve by Chaplanesque sidesteps and bewildered boy in the Famous Five impressions. Dave Mattacks is one hell of a drummer. Tinker rich in little flurries of undercurrents beneath the arrangements or slam, bang, crackshot supreme at whamming up the beat. He doubles up on electric piano with the same regard for embellishing the song rather than upstaging it.
On the far wing stands the newest member of the lineup, Chris Leslie. All rounder, electric guitar, mandolin and violin. The twin winged fly and flair of Leslie and Sanders caught the fire. Flew the sound up off Mattacks drum work and went for broke. the pair also opened the second half together with Leslie's The Flow. A little too classical austere for me, but there you go, it was brim full of impeccable playing.
Mid stage the affable Simon Nicol, kind of bloke you meet over a beer in an Oxfordshire pub. Handles the onstage banter with ease. Lead vocalist, acoustic and electric rhythm guitar. He stretches from the misty Englishness of Ralph McTell's The Hiring Fair to the corking full on belt of a song called The Spanish Main. Dave Pegg gives the best impression of a dazed Victor Meldrew I've seen. Joker he may be, slapping his plectrum to his forehead at one point, but his bass lines were assured, smooth as a baby's bum. Spot on. The set included tonight Ian Anderson's Life Is Long. Simon Nicol noting Dave Pegg's role as bassman for the latter day Jethro Tull.
Fairport Convention also included a smattering of songs by various folk artists. A great song by the marvellous Julie Matthews (Daphne's Flight played the Gantry last year), another more traditional song from Ann Ryder called Sailing Boat and a Christine Olsen song that ended the first set. Simon Nicol explained how the band ran into Olsen in Capitol City, Canberra which he described as "Making Milton Keynes look like Shakespeare's Stratford . . ." The Olsen song Nicol described as 'Dangerous.' It certainly was.
The Gantry is a superb setting for music. Not only do they provide excellent food and a bar that copes with the 25 minute interval rush with ease but the ambience between audience and performers is intimate. Just over the back alley is the Mayflower for the stadium rock, girl with the ice cream tray stuff.
The Gantry, however, has one flaw. Like all council run or controlled venues it has the sound tempered by the 'orange' light. Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg made great play of pointing it out to the audience. "If we get too loud and that light stays on for five seconds we will cut out the sound," laughed Nicol. "Yeah and we will finish the set accapella," interjected Pegg. There was a glint in the eyes as the band did their damndest to jam the light on. The song was Spanish Main.
Nicol noted that this would be the Martin Allcock arrangement. That Allcock would be playing here on Saturday with the Simon Mayor Quintet. The Spanish Main was a tear your heart out rocker. For all the front lines spot on choreography I sat entranced by Mattacks booting drum work. An instrumental followed before the band wound the night up with a murderous version of Matty Groves. It just shone. Wow oh wow.
Fairport Convention were warmly received back by the packed Gantry audience for the encore Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Simon Nicol announced that they would be back this way on March 1st when they have a gig 'abroad' on the Isle of Wight. The last night of the winter tour. Fairport Convention have not visited the Island for nigh on thirty years. It's going to be quite a gig. Don't miss them.
Mike Plumbley
Far from being a closet Fairport Convention fan I might not accurately give you a run down of all the songs. My formative years were spent listening to West Coast country and acid rock. The only English band I touched on in that period was Fairport Convention, the Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson stuff. There's still a couple of Fairport vinyls Unhalfbricking and John 'Babbacombe' Lee up in the lp rack. I used to listen to Islander John Newman do a chilling version of Matty Groves every week at the Chequers folk club. Jeeze that was a quarter of a century ago. Like Dave Pegg, fifty on Sunday, who knows where the time goes . . .I've never been to Cropedy either. Always broke. Cropedy is the wrong side of the Cambridge Folk Festival. This was the first time I have ever seen the Fairports. Not that I have not come close. Back in 1968 I turned up at the Godshill Festival at 9am on the Sunday morning with me Dad as the fans were leaving the site. In those days I was more into football than falling in love with rock'n'roll bands.