• 1967-

  Simon NicolLead vocals, guitar, dulcimer, keyboards1967-

  Richard ThompsonGuitar, dulcimer, keyboards, mandolin1967-1971

  Ashley HutchingsBass1967-1969

  Martin LambleDrums1967-1969

  Judy Dyble vocals, autoharp, piano, recorder1967-1968

  Iain MatthewsVocals, percussion1967-1969

  Sandy DennyVocals, guitar, keyboards1968–1969, 1974–1975

  Dave SwarbrickFiddle, mandolin, guitar1969-1979

  Dave MattacksDrums, percussion. keyboards, bass1969-

  Dave PeggBass guitar, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, drums1969-

  Ric SandersFiddles, keyboards, ukulele1985-

  Chris LeslieMandolin, fiddle, bouzouki guitar, flute1996-
• The pioneering English folk-rock band Fairport Convention was formed by teenagers experimenting with American West Coast rock before pivoting to plug centuries-old English ballads into electric instruments. Over the decades that followed, the band built a legacy anchored by an annual festival that has become one of the most enduring traditions in British music.
• The band's name has nothing to do with cars, ports, or anything nautical; it comes from a house. Guitarist Simon Nicol lived in a large home in Muswell Hill called "Fairport," owned by his family, where the group's earliest members rehearsed above his father's medical practice. The name was simply an acknowledgment of where they "convened."
• The band's original drummer didn't even audition; he was an audience member who talked his way into the job. After the group's first gig at St. Michael's Church Hall in Golders Green in May 1967, 19-year-old Martin Lamble convinced them he could drum better than the guy they had. He was right, and he got the gig.
• In May 1969, Fairport Convention's tour van crashed on the M1 motorway, killing Lamble and Richard Thompson's then-girlfriend, Jeannie Franklyn. "Meet On The Ledge" was later adopted by fans as a song of mourning and remembrance, though Thompson had written it the year before the tragedy occurred.
• "Meet on the Ledge" became so deeply associated with loss that Thompson was asked to perform it at his own mother's funeral, per her written wishes. "It was in her will," he told Mojo magazine. "That's about the hardest thing I've ever done."
• Fairport's original female singer, Judy Dyble, was let go after just one album and replaced by Sandy Denny. Denny, so thoroughly outclassed the competition at her May 1968 audition that Simon Nicol said she stood out "like a clean glass in a sink full of dirty dishes."
  
  Tragedy struck the band again a decade later: Denny died in April 1978 at just 31 after a fall down a staircase led to a fatal brain hemorrhage.
• The band's 1969 album Liege & Lief is widely credited as the record that invented British folk-rock, and its reputation has only grown with time. In a public vote at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2006, listeners crowned it the "Most Influential Folk Album of All Time."
• Fiddler Dave Swarbrick, who joined the band for Liege & Lief, once got to read his own obituary while very much alive. In 1999, during a hospital stay, the Daily Telegraph mistakenly reported his death and ran a full obituary. When Swarbrick made his next public appearance, he cheerfully signed copies of the paper for fans, joking, "It's not the first time I've died in Coventry."
• Fairport officially broke up in 1979 with a farewell concert in the Oxfordshire village of Cropredy, on the exact same day they opened for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth. A year later, they reconvened at Cropredy for what was supposed to be a one-off reunion. More people showed up for the reunion than the farewell gig, sparking an annual festival that now draws crowds of up to 20,000 every August.
• When no record label wanted to release live tapes from Fairport's farewell tour and final Cropredy concert, the band took matters into their own hands. Bassist Dave Pegg and his wife Christine launched their own independent label, Woodworm Records, specifically to put out the recordings. In 2004, band members formed Matty Grooves Records to carry on Woodworm's legacy and keep their catalog in print.

Comments

More Songfacts:

I Shot The SheriffEric Clapton

Eric Clapton's only Hot 100 #1, either solo or with one of his many bands, was his cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff."

Let Me Blow Ya MindEve

2001 was when collaborations between rappers and singers became commonplace, leading to a new Grammy category: Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The first winner was "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve and Gwen Stefani. This was before Stefani put out her first solo album.

Fallin'Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys got a huge break when Oprah had her perform her debut single "Fallin'" on her show.

CenterfieldJohn Fogerty

"Centerfield" was the first song enshrined in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ballroom BlitzSweet

Sweet's hit "Ballroom Blitz" was inspired by an incident in 1973 when the band were performing in Scotland and driven offstage by a barrage of bottles.

Watching The WheelsJohn Lennon

In the late '70s, John Lennon slowed his roll, becoming a househusband who baked bread and took care of his young son Sean. This inspired his song "Watching The Wheels," where he discovers the benefits of taking it easy.

Editor's Picks

Eric ClaptonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really write "Cocaine" while on cocaine? This question and more in the Clapton edition of Fact or Fiction.

John Kay of SteppenwolfSongwriter Interviews

Steppenwolf frontman John Kay talks about "Magic Carpet Ride," "Born To Be Wild," and what he values more than awards and accolades.

Michael SchenkerSongwriter Interviews

The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.

Is That Song Public Domain?Fact or Fiction

Are classic songs like "Over The Rainbow" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the public domain?

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.