Click on picture to hear a clip of "Matty Groves"

This may take up to 1 minute with "dial up"

Fairport Convention - Cropredy 1980/1987

I first saw Fairport Convention in the far from intimate surroundings of Knebworth Park on 4th August 1979, supporting Led Zepellin! (A full report of that day is on another page). I had heard of Fairport before that, but apart from the odd track on Alan Freeman's "Saturday Rock Show", never actually heard anything by them. They sounded so fresh, interesting & fun, an opinion definitely not shared by most of the hippies & headbangers around us - who, no doubt would have been lobbing beer cans at them, if we were not at least 100 yards away. To add significance to the gig, it was also supposed to be their penultimate gig (as well as Led Zepellin's), their last to be played later that day at Cropredy in Oxfordshire.

Later that summer, I bought "History Of Fairport Convention" -I loved that record, and songs like "Matty Groves", "Sloth", "A Sailors Life" & "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" still sound as good today as ever. The cover also introduced me to Pete Frames "Rock Family Trees",an incredibly detailed chart of everyone who ever played with the band (up to 1975), where they came from & where they went to. Maybe this helped to fuel my hunger for rock trivia.

Early next summer, probabaly in "Sounds", I read that they would be reforming to play a one-off gig, again at Cropredy. Tickets for this historic occasion went for the princely sum of £4. I of course sent off for 2 tickets, one for me & one for my trusty companion Darren (who has already appeared on this site several times & no doubt will many times again).

That August, I have no idea what date, we set off by train. This was to be our second outdoor festival of the summer, and we were starting to feel like veterans. (The other one was the inaugeral "Monsters Of Rock" headlined by "Rainbow" - I would write about this as well, but apart from the line-up, I can remember virtually nothing of the day). We left home early on the Saturday morning, train to London, underground & then a train to Banbury, the nearest train station. Anybody else, 4 miles away from where you need to be, with a very heavy rucksack would probably catch a bus, or taxi, hitch or anything but walk, but walk we did - probably to try to save money. 2 hours slogging along a main road in the August heat was not the best way to prepare yourself for a nice relaxing weekend of music & beer. When we eventually made it, what were they playing over the P.A - Blondie! - Our moods sunk with our expectations. Like every other red blooded male teenager in the late seventies, I fancied Debbie Harry like mad, but unlike most it would seem, thought very little about her (their?) music. The sky had clouded over by now, and the music was not improving. Oh my God, what were we doing here!

After a couple of hours of this, our moods were mellowed (lubricated), and the first act appeared, Bob Davenport, I think. Not my cup of tea - very traditional, so I largley ignored him. Next was Steve Ashley & Chris Lesley. I had always liked this pair, ever since seeing them at a small folk club in Rochester about three years earlier. Steve also came from Maidstone, my home town, although he is about 10 years older than me I think. I knew most of the songs, they were on his only 2 albums up to that point - "Stroll On" (recently the subject of a "Mojo" "Buried Treasure") & "Speedy Return". It still wasn't raining and things were Settling down very nicely.

The apearance of Chris Lesley was made so much more significant a few years later