Fairport Convention/ Cropredy 2007

Tickets for Fairport Convention's annual festival at Cropredy in August are now on sale; this is their 40th anniversary, so demand is expected to be high:

Fairport's website

For those of you with folk and prog sensibilities, acts confirmed include Wishbone Ash, Viva Santana (evidently the best Santana tribute around) and the full 'Hero & Heroine' lineup of The Strawbs

It'll be mine & Vicky's 17th consecutive year, so we'll see you all at the bar!

Simon Nicol - guitar, vocals
Dave Pegg - bass guitar, mandolin, vocals
Ric Sanders - violin
Chris Leslie - guitar, mandolin, violin, vocals
Gerry Conway - drums, percussion

In addition to their full set on Saturday, they're doing a shorter set on the Friday night, playing the whole of 1969's 'Leige & Leif' album; for this, the lineup will be the same as it was on that album (with one obvious exception...):

??? / vocals
Richard Thompson / electric & acoustic guitars
Simon Nicol / electric & acoustic guitars
Ashley Hutchings / bass guitar
Dave Mattacks / drums
Dave Swarbrick* / violin, viola

*as far as Swarb is concerned, this will be health permitting, although, since his heart/lung transplant, hit playing has regained some (if not all) of its previous fire.

It used to be tragic until a couple of years ago - They'd wheel him out on stage & he'd sit there, oxygen mask on, playing the occasional slow phrase... Last year though, OK, he wasn't exactly jumping around the stage like Ric Sanders, but he was looking (and playing) a damned sight better.

Speaking personally, though...

Come back Maartin Allcock, all is forgiven



I finally admit it - Chris Leslie's material is just a little dreary, to my taste - sorry. He'd be a great member of Fairport, but I do miss Maart's guitar playing...

Edited by Jim Garten - March 08 2007 at 09:47

Oh my precious precious Strawbs how I need thee.