History Music / FairportConvention

As band members left to pursue their own directions Fairport Convention went through many lineup changes. The band that made the 1973 album ''Rosie'' had no members in common with those that made 1969's ''Music/{{Unhalfbricking}}''. By the late 1970s Britain had lost its appetite for folk-rock; few were buying their records and they were reduced to a small cult following only around the folk club scene. Poor sales led to the end of their recording contract and the band formally broke up, agreeing to meet for a reunion once a year in Cropredy, the home of bass player Dave Pegg who by then was the FaceOfTheBand. In 1985, with the growing success of the Cropredy Festival and the return of Simon Nicol, they reformed and have enjoyed modest success and a devoted following with a stable lineup to the present day.

-->"Meet on the Ledge"

Fairport Convention is a British band formed in 1967. They are generally regarded as progenitors of the English Folk-Rock scene of the 1970s. They enjoyed popular success in the late 1960s and early 1970s with DJ John Peel championing them on radio. They were considered as important to British folk-rock as Music/TheByrds were to American folk-rock. After many line-up changes they continue to attract a modest but devoted following, especially to the annual Fairport's Cropredy Festival near Banbury in Oxfordshire.

* LongTitle:
** "Sir B. [=McKenzie=]'s Daughter's Lament for the 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat from the Straits of Loch Knombe, in the Year of Our Lord 1727, on the Occasion of the Announcement of Her Marriage to the Laird of Kinleakie" was evidently the band's attempt to get into the ''Guinness Book of World Records'' for the longest song title.
** Also of note is the vinyl edition of ''"Babbacombe" Lee'', where every song title is dozens of words long (these were split up into multiple tracks and given shorter titles on the CD version). The longest of these is "This was the happiest period in his life. All locked set fair for a career until he was stricken with sickness and invalided out of his chosen niche in life. Reluctantly and unhappily he turned to a number of menial occupations and finally returned to the services of Miss Keyes." The others are of similar nature.
** Some of the medleys provide less extreme examples. For instance, ''Liege & Lief'' has "Medley: The Lark in the Morning/Rakish Paddy/Foxhunter's Jig/Toss the Feathers".
** A further example is "The Hens March Through the Midden & the Four Poster Bed".
* {{Medley}}: They have several. The one listed under LongTitle from ''Liege & Lief'' is one example; from ''Full House'', "Dirty Linen" & "Flatback Caper" were also medleys of traditional folk songs. "Jack O'Rion" (from ''Tipplers Tales''), at 11:04, might be their longest.

* DeathBySex: A common fate in the folk songs the band covered, including "Matty Groves".

* AmbiguousSituation: A number of the folk ballads Fairport covered don't spell everything out. "Reynardine" is a warning to young women about the title character, but it's not clear whether the implication is DeathBySex, RapeAsDrama, abduction, or something else. Similarly, it's not entirely clear why gold-haired maidens are warned not to go to Carterhaugh in "Literature/TamLin", or who's giving the warning (the song does explicitly state that "their maidenhead" - i.e., virginity - is at risk, but it's not clear whether the implication is RapeAsDrama or DeathBySex; some versions of the original text have Tam Lin giving the warning himself, while others have Janet's father giving the warning, but Fairport's leaves the speaker ambiguous), and it's never explicitly stated in Fairport's version whether Janet's encounter with Tam Lin (which leaves her pregnant and isn't actually described) is consensual, though their behaviour afterwards suggests that it was (and for that matter, Janet's decision to go to Carterhaugh after the aforementioned warning suggests that either she wanted sex or else she's a serious case of GenreBlindness and/or WhatAnIdiot - the latter of which would ''also'' contradict her characterisation later in the song).

* DownerEnding: Another common thread in the band's cover material, often extending to KillEmAll levels ("Sir Patrick Spens" is an example here).

As band members left to pursue their own directions Fairport Convention went through many lineup changes. The band that made the 1973 album ''Rosie'' had no members in common with those that made 1969's ''Music/{{Unhalfbricking}}''. By the late 1970s HuBritain had lost its appetite for folk-rock; few were buying their records and they were reduced to a small cult following only around the folk club scene. Poor sales led to the end of their recording contract and the band formally broke up, agreeing to meet for a reunion once a year in Cropredy, the home of bass player Dave Pegg who by then was the FaceOfTheBand. In 1985, with the growing success of the Cropredy Festival and the return of Simon Nicol, they reformed and have enjoyed modest success and a devoted following with a stable lineup to the present day.

As band members left to pursue their own directions Fairport Convention went through many lineup changes. The band that made the 1973 album ''Rosie'' had no members in common with those that made 1969's ''Music/{{Unhalfbricking}}''. By the late 1970s Britain had lost its appetite for folk-rock; few were buying their records and they were reduced to a small cult following only around the folk club scene. Poor sales led to the end of their recording contract and the band formally broke up, agreeing to meet for a reunion once a year in Cropredy, the home of bass player Dave Pegg who by then was the FaceOfTheBand. In 1985, with the growing success of the Cropredy Festival and the return of Simon Nicol, they reformed and have enjoyed modest success and a devoted following with a stable lineup to the present day.

* RevolvingDoorBand: No member of the group has been with the band for its entire existence. Its only consistent original member, guitarist Simon Nicol, was out of the band between 1971 and 1979. Although Dave Pegg has never left the group since he joined it in 1969, he is not an original member like Nicol.

As band members left to pursue thir own directions Fairport Convention went through many lineup changes. The band that made the 1973 album ''Rosie'' had no members in common with those that made 1969's ''Music/{{Unhalfbricking}}''. By the late 1970s Britain had lost its appetite for folk-rock; few were buying their records and they were reduced to a small cult following only around the folk club scene. Poor sales led to the end of their recording contract and the band formally broke up, agreeing to meet for a reunion once a year in Cropredy, the home of bass player Dave Pegg who by then was the FaceOfTheBand. In 1985, with the growing success of the Cropredy Festival and the return of Simon Nicol, they reformed and have enjoyed modest success and a devoted following with a stable lineup to the present day.

* JohnBarleycornAndFriends: Covered the TropeNamer for ''Tipplers Tales'', and the whole album is themed around intoxicants.

* YourCheatingHeart: In "Matty Groves", Lord Darnell's wife's tryst with the titular character leads to both of their deaths at the hands of Lord Darnell.

* YourCheatingHeart: In "Matty Groves", Lord Darnell's wife's tryst with the titular character leads to both of their deaths at the hands of Lord Darnell.

** 1976's ''Gottle O'Geer'' was the album after Denny left the group for a second time. Her husband Trevor Lucas, who had acted as the band's main male lead singer for the previous few albums, also left with her. This album was initially created as a solo album for Dave Swarbick, but Fairport still owed Island one more album and it was credited to the band as a result. Their next album ''The Bonny Bunch of Roses'' featured the permanent return of Nicol, and the band hasn't had another one of these records since as a result.

** 1976's ''Gottle O'Geer'' was the album after Denny left the group for a second time, and was initially created as a solo album for Dave Swarbick, but Fairport still owed Island one more album and it was credited to the band as a result. Their next album ''The Bonny Bunch of Roses'' featured the permanent return of Nicol, and the band hasn't had another one of these records since as a result.