Last Tuesday we visited Celtic Connections festival to present the legendary Fairport Convention with a Landmark Award to celebrate their 50 years in the business. David Francis made the presentation while at the same time got to me some of his heroes! Read about the band below!
Dave Pegg has likened Fairport Convention’s personnel changes over the years to the staff turnover at a small company. Twenty-five musicians have participated in the Fairport adventure since the band played its first gig in St Michael’s Church in Golders Green, London NW11 on May 27, 1967, and any small company would be delighted indeed to have employed such a wealth of talents.
Aside from bassist Pegg himself, who joined in 1969 and has given the longest continuous service, Fairport has featured two of Britain’s greatest singer-songwriters, Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, the singer of a number one single, Iain Matthews, the highly individual instrumental abilities of Thompson, fiddler Dave Swarbrick and guitarist Jerry Donahue, and a founder of another hugely successful folk-rock band, Ashley Hutchings, who went off to form Steeleye Span.
Read more here
https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/landmark/fairport-convention-1967-2017-50-years-old/