Fairport diaspora post Liege and Lief

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So, over the last couple of months I've bought and fallen and love with What We Did On Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking and Liege and Lief. Where should I go next? There's such a huge pile of post L+L stuff involving the various members of that line up that I'm a bit scared just to dive in and get something at random.

― RickyT (RickyT), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 15:06 (10 years ago) Permalink

oh no! What's *happened* to you Ricky?

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 15:10 (10 years ago) Permalink

If you're as freakily into them as I am, just go for the big _Unconventional_ box that Free Reed put out. If you'd rather start a bit more conservatively, _Full House_ and _Heyday_ are both excellent too, & from basically the same time period (there are multiple versions of _Full House_ out there--get one that has "Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman" on it).

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 15:21 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'm going through a similar phase myself Ricky so I don't know where you should go next – if you find out, tell me. Definitely check out the first four Pentangle albums though, and some of the Richard and Linda Thompson stuff (I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight). Liege and Lief though - how fucking good? That sly old Reynardine...

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 15:22 (10 years ago) Permalink

Sandy Denny. 'Listen Listen' is a great compilation and you can usually get it cheap, but you can probably get her individual albums cheap as well.

― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 15:38 (10 years ago) Permalink

Hmm, I don't know about Pentangle. They are ostensibly the same genre as Fairport, but the approach is much different. I've never been able to get into them much, but oddly I like both a number of Bert Jansch solo records.

I'd second the recommendation for Richard and Linda (esp. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and Pour Down Like Silver) but also Richard Thompson's unfairly maligned Henry the Human Fly. John and Beverley Martyn's Stormbringer might be another place to turn.

Does anyone like the very first Fairport album (w/o Sandy Denny)? It's listenable, but I can't say it's made me very enthusiastic.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 17:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

Oh by recommending all those other things I was implying that you proceed into mid-'70s Fairport with extreme caution.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 17:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

I just got that first Fairport album, w/o Sandy Denny, and it's spotty and weird, but absolutely listenable. I'll add more thoughts when I've digested it all, but the first half is pretty madcap.

I love the Ashley Hutchings liner notes for these new reissues. I just need to track down Unhalfbricking now(i have an old copy), and I'
ll have all 4 essential albums.

― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

I second the recommendation of Full House; there's no Sandy Denny, but the Swarbrick/Thompson combination makes up for it big time. (And if you like that, look for live stuff and bootlegs.) I'd also recommend the Denny/Strawbs recordings from around the same time as Fairport Convention.

The only mid-70's Fairport I've heard is part of Fairport Nine — a dud, to my ears, so I wonder if "extreme caution" means I should avoid the stuff that has no Denny or Thompson at all.

― mark 0 (mark 0), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:31 (6 years ago) Permalink

Babbacombe Lee has some fierce playing on it - the pegg/mattacks rhythm section at that point was godlike

also, search Plainsong, Iain Matthews' post-fairport group, esp. In Search Of Amelia Earhart
also Shirley Collins & The Albion Band, and The Albion Country Band's first record, Battle Of The Field

nine is about half-dud, half-decent but if you really dislike it, you probably are not gonna be into anything from that same era by fairport

― timmy tannin (pompous), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:50 (6 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

new batch of Full House era clips up on youtube......AWESOME!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmTm-Wxm8R4&mode=related&search=

― gershy, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 07:05 (5 years ago) Permalink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFS2pjDYL-8&mode=related&search=

― gershy, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 07:06 (5 years ago) Permalink

Check out the Trader Horne album. It's cute lil' thing with Judy Dyble and one of the dudes form early Them.

― gnarly sceptre, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 12:13 (5 years ago) Permalink

fotheringay, people.

― ian, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 14:57 (5 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

I just got that first Fairport album, w/o Sandy Denny, and it's spotty and weird, but absolutely listenable. I'll add more thoughts when I've digested it all, but the first half is pretty madcap.

Please feed back your thoughts.

I've had this album for nearly two years and never really got into till I listened to it again almost at random on itunes last night and it blew me away.

― Bob Six, Thursday, 12 August 2010 07:45 (2 years ago) Permalink

― buzza, Thursday, 12 August 2010 08:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

The best post L&L Fairport I've heard is Rising for the Moon.

― margana (anagram), Thursday, 12 August 2010 08:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

In other words, the one with the most Sandy Denny on it!

― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 August 2010 08:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

that is a very schizo album, they had no real clue how to integrate sandy's songs into the sound they had going, plus the production is way too slick for them.
"one more chance" is incredible though

― buzza, Thursday, 12 August 2010 08:45 (2 years ago) Permalink

Yes, doesn't really work as a Fairport album, interesting for Sandy fans tho

― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 August 2010 08:55 (2 years ago) Permalink

well I like it

― margana (anagram), Thursday, 12 August 2010 09:06 (2 years ago) Permalink

absolutely love the first Fairport. played it endlessly, obsessively in exactly the same fashion that I did when I first bought Liege and Lief and What we Did...

― gnarly sceptre, Thursday, 12 August 2010 10:48 (2 years ago) Permalink

Aside from Richard & Linda, I think Ian (Iain) Matthews has the richest solo output, after his departure from Fairport.

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:25 (2 years ago) Permalink

Before The Moon (live 74) is prob the best representation of the Rising For The Moon-era Fairport.

― tylerw, Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

The official live album is not very good

― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:31 (2 years ago) Permalink

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/fairport/images/largerec/beforethemoon.jpg
this one? i dig it.

― tylerw, Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

No, this one:

― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:46 (2 years ago) Permalink

hmm, haven't even heard that ...

― tylerw, Thursday, 12 August 2010 17:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

jerry donahue certainly doesn't seem to approve of it

― buzza, Thursday, 12 August 2010 17:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

I think my favorite Fairport song of all is the studio version of 'Sloth' from Full House

& searching for that, found them playing an almost shockingly mellow version live on french television in 1970. in part 2, the section where they really just floor it in the studio version, they almost seem to want to go for it but then instead they just float back down like a feather that keeps sinking down even after it hits the floor

― Milton Parker, Thursday, 12 August 2010 18:06 (2 years ago) Permalink

when those clips first showed up a couple years back they were in color

― buzza, Thursday, 12 August 2010 18:16 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

― buzza, Friday, 23 September 2011 16:07 (1 year ago) Permalink

Awesome, thanks for posting! I really love the Full House era of the band.
Just came across this random recording, haven't listened, but I'm curious.

FAIRPORT CONVENTION - WLIR Radio 1972 (FM)
WLIR Radio 1972

WLIR Radio Studio, Hempstead, New York
January 1, 1972
Remastered excellent stereo FM broadcast of the shortest-lived Fairport lineup
No Artwork

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=83VVPQL8

Track List:
1. Walk Awhile
2. Dirty Linen
3. Sloth
4. Flatback Caper / O'Callaghan
5. John Lee
6. Time Is Near
7. The Hanging Song
8. My Girl
9. Maybe It's You
10. Matty Groves
11. Get On Up
12. Sir B. McKenzie's Daughter
13. Country Pie

Dave Swarbrick - violin, vocals; Roger Hill - guitar, vocals;
Dave Pegg - bass, vocals; Tom Farnall - drums

― tylerw, Friday, 23 September 2011 16:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

weird transitional lineup before fairport/fotheringay merger

― buzza, Friday, 23 September 2011 16:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah! i guess roger hill and tom farnall don't actually appear on any albums?

― tylerw, Friday, 23 September 2011 16:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

I have a big soft spot for the goofy-ass song "Angel Delight". Definitely post-Denny and post-Thompson.

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Friday, 23 September 2011 17:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

― buzza, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 07:53 (9 months ago) Permalink

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