Folk rock legends Fairport Convention have been going since 1967. Their heyday may have been from the late 1960s to mid 70s, and guitarist Simon Nicol their only original member (next longest serving member, bassist Dave Pegg joined in 1970), but the band still pulled in the punters to a packed Loughborough Town Hall.
In 1971, the band released an ambitious 'folk opera' (which really means it's a concept album) called Babbacombe Lee, based on the life of John 'Babbacombe' Lee, about a murderer who was reprieved of the death sentence after the gallows failed three times, and it was this album which formed the first half of the set. Although it sold disappointingly on its release, it certainly went down a storm with the appreciative audience on Tuesday, with sterling work from Ric Sanders on violin and fabulous multi-part harmonies from the band.
The second half was mainly comprised of new tracks. Audiences are often less than generous with material with which they're unfamiliar, but that certainly wasn't the case in Loughborough, with enthusiastic applause for the numbers. For me, however, the newer stuff seemed more generic and less characterful than the 1970s work. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good.
The band's avuncular introductions were interesting too, adding colour to the often historically-inspired numbers, even if some of the gags fell flat. The band finished up with some classics; the classic Meet on the Ledge missed the vocals of the legendary Sandy Denny, but Matty Groves, the tale of an affair that ends in a bloody duel was superb, even minus the extended coda from the album version.
A great night out with the most important band of the English folk-rock revival.
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