Fairport Convention

Biography

Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig). They started out influenced by American folk rock, with a set list dominated by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs and a sound that earned them the nickname "the British Jefferson Airplane". Vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews joined them before the recording of their self-titled debut in 1968; afterwards, Dyble was replaced by Sandy Denny. Matthews left later, during the recording of their third album.
Denny began steering the group towards traditional British music for their next two albums, What We Did on Our Holidays×What We Did on Our HolidaysJanuary 1969 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Fotheringay3:07A2Mr. Lacey2:56A3Book Song3:13A4The Lord Is in This Place2:02A5No Man’s Land2:33A6I’ll Keep It With Mine5:55B1Eastern Rain3:36B2Nottamun Town3:12B3Tale in Hard Time3:28B4She Moves Through the Fair4:15B5Meet on the Ledge2:50B6End of a Holiday1:05 (1968) and Unhalfbricking×UnhalfbrickingJuly 1969 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracksA1Genesis Hall3:42A2Si tu dois partir2:26A3Autopsy4:27A4A Sailor's Life11:21B1Cajun Woman2:45B2Who Knows Where the Time Goes5:14B3Percy's Song6:56B4Million Dollar Bash2:56 (1969); the latter featured fiddler Dave "Swarb" Swarbrick, most notably on the song "A Sailor's Life", which laid the groundwork for British folk rock by being the first time a traditional British song was combined with a rock beat. Shortly before the album's release, a crash on the M1 motorway killed Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn, Thompson's girlfriend; this resulted in the group retiring most of their prior material and turning entirely towards British folk music for their seminal album Liege & Lief×Liege & LiefDecember 1969 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracksA1Come All Ye4:55A2Reynardine4:33A3Matty Groves8:08A4Farewell, Farewell2:38B1The Deserter4:10B2Medley: The Lark in the Morning / Rakish Paddy / Foxhunter’s Jig / Toss the Feathers4:00B3Tam Lin7:20B4Crazy Man Michael4:35, released the same year. This style has been the band's focus ever since. For that album Swarbrick joined full-time, alongside drummer Dave Mattacks. Both Denny and Hutchings left before the end of 1969; the latter was replaced by Dave Pegg, who has remained the group's sole consistent member to this day. Thompson left after the recording of 1970's Full House.
The 1970s saw numerous lineup changes around the core of Swarbrick and Pegg – Nicol being absent for the middle of the decade – and declining fortunes as folk music fell out of mainstream favour. Denny, whose partner Trevor Lucas had been a guitarist in the group since 1972, returned for the pop-oriented Rising for the Moon album in 1975 in a final bid to crack America; this effort failed, and after three more albums minus Denny and Lucas, the group disbanded in 1979. They played a farewell concert in the village of Cropredy, Oxfordshire, where they had held small concerts since 1976, and this marked the beginning of the Cropredy Festival (since 2005 known as Fairport's Cropredy Convention) which has become the largest folk festival in Britain, with annual attendances of 20,000.
The band was reformed by Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks in 1985, joined by Maartin Allcock (guitar, mandolin, keys, vocals) and Ric Sanders (fiddle, keyboards), and they have remained active since that time. Allcock was replaced by Chris Leslie (mandolin, violin, vocals) in 1996, and Gerry Conway replaced Mattacks in 1998. Conway departed in 2022, and Mattacks returned on a part-time basis. The group currently alternate between tours in which Mattacks features, and acoustic tours with just Nicol, Pegg, Sanders and Leslie. Their 29th studio album, Shuffle and Go×Shuffle and Go28 February 2020 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Don’t Reveal My Name4:002Cider Rain3:433Good Time for a Fiddle and Bow / The Christmas Eve Reel4:214A Thousand Bars5:295Shuffle and Go3:156Moses Waits4:217Steampunkery3:008Linseed Memories3:309The Year of Fifty Nine3:2510The Byfield Steeplechase3:5111Moondust and Solitude5:3112Jolly Springtime2:0013Precious Time5:30, was released in 2020, and they continue to headline Cropredy each year.
Despite little mainstream success – their only top 40 single being "Si Tu Dois Partir", a French-language cover of the Dylan song "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" from Unhalfbricking – Fairport Convention remain highly influential in British folk rock and British folk in general. Liege & Lief was named the "Most Influential Folk Album of All Time" at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2006, and Pegg's playing style, which incorporates jigs and reels into his basslines, has been imitated by many in the folk rock and folk punk genres. Additionally, many former members went on to form or join other notable groups in the genre (including Fotheringay, Steeleye Span, and the Albion Band), along with having solo careers – most notably those of Thompson and Denny. Sandy Denny, now regarded as being amongst Britain's finest female singer-songwriters, died in 1978; her song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?×Who Knows Where the Time Goes?June 1997 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1John Gaudie5:082Sailing Boat5:273Here's to Tom Paine5:164The Bowman's Retreat3:045Spanish Main4:316The Golden Glove6:057Slipology3:038Wishfulness Waltz5:449Life's a Long Song2:3810Dangerous4:3911I Heard It Through the Grapevine3:5312Who Knows Where the Time Goes?6:32" – recorded by Fairport on Unhalfbricking – became a signature song for herself and the band.

Origins

Bassist Ashley Hutchings met guitarist Simon Nicol in north London in 1966 when they both played in the Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra. They rehearsed on the floor above Nicol's father's medical practice in a house called "Fairport" in Muswell Hill – on the same street where Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks grew up. The house lent its name to the group they formed together as Fairport Convention in 1967 with Richard Thompson on guitar and Shaun Frater on drums. After their initial performance at St Michael's Church Hall in Golders Green on 27 May 1967, they had their first of many line-up changes as one member of the audience, drummer Martin Lamble, convinced the band that he could do a better job than Frater, and replaced him. They soon added a female singer, Judy Dyble, which gave them a distinctive sound among the many London bands of the period.

1967–1969: The first three albums

Fairport Convention were soon playing regularly at underground venues such as UFO and The Electric Garden, which later became the Middle Earth club. After only a few months they caught the attention of manager Joe Boyd, who secured them a contract with Polydor Records. Boyd suggested they augment the line-up with another male vocalist. Singer Iain Matthews (at that time known as Ian MacDonald) joined the band; their first album, Fairport Convention, was recorded in late 1967 and released in June 1968. At this early stage Fairport looked to North American folk and folk rock acts such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and The Byrds for material and inspiration. The name "Fairport Convention" and the use of two lead vocalists led many new listeners to believe that they were an American act, earning them the nickname 'the British Jefferson Airplane' during this period. Fairport Convention played at the first Isle of Wight Festival, in August 1968, when Jefferson Airplane headlined.
After disappointing album sales, they signed a new contract with Island Records. Before their next recording, Judy Dyble left – she described it as being "unceremoniously dumped" – and was replaced by the band with Sandy Denny, a folk singer who had previously recorded as a soloist and with Strawbs. Denny's arrival encouraged the band to consider integrating British folk music into what had previously been an American-influenced sound, and her distinctive voice (described by Clive James as "open space, low-volume, high-intensity") characterised the December 1968 album What We Did on Our Holidays×What We Did on Our HolidaysJanuary 1969 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Fotheringay3:07A2Mr. Lacey2:56A3Book Song3:13A4The Lord Is in This Place2:02A5No Man’s Land2:33A6I’ll Keep It With Mine5:55B1Eastern Rain3:36B2Nottamun Town3:12B3Tale in Hard Time3:28B4She Moves Through the Fair4:15B5Meet on the Ledge2:50B6End of a Holiday1:05, and 1969's Unhalfbricking×UnhalfbrickingJuly 1969 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracksA1Genesis Hall3:42A2Si tu dois partir2:26A3Autopsy4:27A4A Sailor's Life11:21B1Cajun Woman2:45B2Who Knows Where the Time Goes5:14B3Percy's Song6:56B4Million Dollar Bash2:56. These recordings marked the growth of much greater musicality and songwriting ability among the band. The first of these featured the Thompson-penned "Meet on the Ledge×Meet on the Ledge1968 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAMeet on the LedgeBThrowaway Street Puzzle", which became their second single and eventually the band's unofficial anthem.
During the recording of Unhalfbricking, Matthews left after having sung on only one song, eventually to form Matthews Southern Comfort. He was not replaced; the other male members covered his vocal parts. The album featured a guest appearance by Birmingham folk fiddler Dave Swarbrick on a recording of "A Sailor's Life", a traditional song brought to the band by Denny from her folk club days. The recording of this track marked an important turning point for the band; it sparked in Ashley Hutchings an interest in traditional music that led him to detailed research in the English Folk Dance and Song Society Library at Cecil Sharp House. This theme would become the basis for their next, much more ambitious, recording project.
These two albums began to gain the band wider recognition. Radio DJ John Peel championed their music, playing their albums on his influential BBC shows. Peel also recorded a number of sessions which were later released as the album Heyday (1987). They enjoyed some mainstream success when they entered the singles charts with "Si Tu Dois Partir", a French-language version of Bob Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now". The record just missed the top twenty, but secured the band a slot on Top of the Pops, Britain's most popular television pop music programme at the time. In 1969 four members of the band, one uncredited and three under pseudonyms, featured as backing musicians on the album Love Chronicles×Chronicles4 April 2005 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 34 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11Time Will Show the Wiser3:082If Stomp2:503Chelsea Morning3:074Reno Nevada7:495She Moves Through the Fair4:156Fotheringay3:077Tale in Hard Time3:298Meet on the Ledge2:549Cajun Woman2:4710A Sailors Life11:1211Si tu dois partir2:2312Who Knows Where the Time Goes5:1013The Ballad of Easy Rider4:5814Come All Ye5:0315Matty Groves8:1216Quiet Joys of Brotherhood7:50Disc 21Tam Lin7:162Farewell Farewell2:423The Flowers of the Forest4:054Poor Will and Jolly Hangman5:335Sloth9:156Walk Awhile4:027Now Be Thankful2:268Sir Patrick Spens3:349The Bonny Black Hare3:0810John Lee3:0511Rosie3:4112Tokyo2:5413Bring Em Down6:0014Down in the Flood (live)3:2815Dirty Linen (live)3:5716Rising for the Moon4:1117White Dress3:4818Stranger to Himself2:52 by Scottish folk artist Al Stewart.

Developing British folk rock

On 12 May 1969, on the way home from a gig at Birmingham venue Mothers, Fairport's van crashed on the M1 motorway. Martin Lamble, aged only nineteen, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson's girlfriend, were killed. The rest of the band suffered injuries of differing severity. They nearly decided to disband.
However, they reconvened with Dave Mattacks taking over drumming duties and Dave Swarbrick, having made contribution to Unhalfbricking, now joining as a full member. Boyd set the band up in a rented house in Farley Chamberlayne near Winchester in Hampshire, where they recuperated and worked on this integration, which would result in a new sound and style – made manifest on their fourth album Liege & Lief×Liege & LiefDecember 1969 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracksA1Come All Ye4:55A2Reynardine4:33A3Matty Groves8:08A4Farewell, Farewell2:38B1The Deserter4:10B2Medley: The Lark in the Morning / Rakish Paddy / Foxhunter’s Jig / Toss the Feathers4:00B3Tam Lin7:20B4Crazy Man Michael4:35.
Usually considered the highpoint of the band's long career, Liege & Lief was a huge leap forward in concept and musicality. The album consisted of six traditional tracks and three original compositions in a similar style. The traditional tracks included two sustained epics: "Tam Lin", which was over seven minutes in length, and "Matty Groves", at over eight. There was a medley of four traditional tunes, arranged, and, like many of the tracks, enlivened, by Swarbrick's energetic fiddle playing. The first side was bracketed by original compositions "Come all ye" and "Farewell, Farewell×Farewell, Farewell1979 · Album · LiveSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Matty Groves4:482Orange Blossom Special4:183John Lee3:194Bridge Over the River Ash3:195Sir Patrick Spens3:566Mr. Lacey3:377Walk Awhile4:198Bonny Black Hare2:429The Journeyman's Grace4:4310Meet on the Ledge6:2011Rubber Band3:05", which, in addition to information on the inside of the gatefold cover on Hutchings' research, explaining English folk traditions, helped give the record the feel of a concept album. "Farewell, Farewell" and the final track "Crazy Man Michael", also saw the full emergence of the distinctive song writing talent of Thompson that was to characterize his contributions to the band and later solo career. The distinctive sound of the album came from the use of electric instruments and Mattacks' disciplined drumming with Swarbrick's fiddle accompaniment in a surprising and powerful combination of rock with the traditional. The entire band had reached new levels of musicality, with the fluid guitar playing of Thompson and the "ethereal" vocal of Denny particularly characteristic of the sound of the album. As the reviewer from AllMusic put it, the album was characterised by the "fusing [of] time-worn folk with electric instruments while honoring both".
A few British bands had earlier experimented with playing traditional English songs on electric instruments, (including Strawbs and Pentangle), but Fairport Convention was the first English band to do this in a concerted and focused way. Fairport Convention's achievement was not to invent folk rock, but to create a distinctly English branch of the genre, which would develop alongside, and interact with, American inspired music, but which can also be seen as a distinctively national reaction in opposition to it. Liege & Lief was launched with a sell-out concert in London's Royal Festival Hall late in 1969. It reached number 17 in the UK album chart, where it spent fifteen weeks.

1970s: A time of change

Disagreements arose about the direction of the band in the wake of this success. Ashley Hutchings wanted to explore more traditional material and left to form two groups that would rival Fairport for significance in English folk rock: Steeleye Span and the Albion Band. Sandy Denny also left to found her own group Fotheringay. Dave Pegg took over on bass guitar and has been the group's one constant ever since, in an unbroken membership of over four decades. The band made no serious attempt to replace Denny, and, although she would briefly return, the sound of the band would now be characterised by male vocals.
Despite these changes the band produced another album, Full House×Full HouseJuly 1970 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 7 tracksA1Walk Awhile3:57A2Dirty Linen4:17A3Sloth9:19B1Sir Patrick Spens3:30B2Flatback Caper6:24B3Doctor of Physick3:37B4The Flowers of the Forest4:04 (1970), which was remarkably successful as a project. Like its predecessor, it combined traditional songs, including a powerful rendition of "Sir Patrick Spens", with original compositions. The latter benefited from the writing partnership of Thompson and Swarbrick, most obviously on "Walk Awhile", which would become a concert favourite. Despite the loss of Denny the band still possessed four vocalists, including the emerging voices of Nicol and Swarbrick, whose tones would dominate the sound of this period. It was favourably reviewed in Britain and America, drawing comparisons with the Band from Rolling Stone magazine who declared that "Fairport Convention is better than ever". The album reached number 13 in the UK Chart and stayed in the chart for eleven weeks. The same year the band released a single, "Now Be Thankful×Now Be ThankfulOctober 1970 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksANow Be ThankfulBSir 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", and made its American debut, touring with Traffic and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

In the recurring pattern, soon after the album's release Thompson left the band to pursue other projects and eventually his solo career. This left Simon Nicol as the only original member, and Dave Swarbrick emerged as the leading force in the band. In 1970 the members and their families had moved into The Angel, a former pub in Hertfordshire, and this inspired the next album Angel Delight×Angel DelightJune 1971 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracksA1Lord Marlborough3:21A2Sir William Gower4:54A3Bridge Over the River Ash2:12A4Wizard of the Worldly Game4:05A5The Journeyman’s Grace4:31B1Angel Delight3:34B2Banks of the Sweet Primroses4:12B3Instrumental Medley: The Cuckoo’s Nest / Hardiman the Fiddler / Papa Stoor3:25B4The Bonny Black Hare3:04B5Sickness & Diseases3:47 (1971) the band's first to chart in the US, peaking at number 200 on the Billboard 200 and their only top ten album in the UK. The next project was an ambitious folk-rock opera developed by Swarbrick, based on the life of John "Babbacombe" Lee, "the man they couldn't hang" and released with the title Babbacombe Lee (1971). The concept format, originally without clear tracks, excited considerable press interest, and it received good air play in the United States where it reached number 195. A version was produced by the BBC for TV in 1975 with narration by Melvyn Bragg. These two albums were also notable as the first time that Fairport had recorded consecutively with the same line-up, but inevitably stability did not last; Simon Nicol left early in late 1971 to join Ashley Hutchings' Albion Country Band, and he was soon followed by Mattacks.
Only Pegg and Swarbrick remained, and the following few years have been dubbed 'Fairport confusion' as a bewildering sequence of band members came and went, but by 1973 Mattacks had returned and two former members of Sandy Denny's Fotheringay had joined the band, Denny's Australian husband Trevor Lucas on vocals and guitar, and American Jerry Donahue on lead guitar. From these line-ups the band produced two studio albums: Rosie×RosieFebruary 1973 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracksA1Rosie3:39A2Matthew, Mark, Luke & John3:56A3Knights of the Road3:56A4Peggy's Pub2:26A5The Plainsman3:20B1Hungarian Rhapsody3:14B2My Girl5:14B3Me With You3:40B4The Hens March Through the Midden & The Four Poster Bed2:50B5Furs & Feathers4:34, notable for the Swarbrick-penned title track (1973) and Nine (1974), the ninth studio album by the band. The last of these contained writing contributions by Lucas to five of the nine tracks, which together with Donahue's country influences and outstanding guitar pyrotechnics gave the album a very distinctive feel.
Denny rejoined the band in 1974, and there were considerable expectations, both artistic and commercial, placed on this line-up. Denny was featured on the album Rising for the Moon×Rising for the MoonJune 1975 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracksA1Rising for the Moon4:09A2Restless4:07A3White Dress3:45A4Let It Go2:01A5Stranger to Himself2:53A6What Is True?3:34B1Iron Lion3:29B2Dawn3:43B3After Halloween3:38B4Night-Time Girl2:57B5One More Chance7:52 (1975), which became the band's highest US chart album when it reached number 143 on the Billboard 200 and the first album to reach the top hundred in the UK since Angel Delight, reaching No. 52. During the Rising sessions, Mattacks fell out with producer Glyn Johns and was replaced by former Grease Band drummer Bruce Rowland. Poor UK sales for Rising did not aid morale and, despite the relative success of the line-up, Lucas and Donahue left the band, as did Denny in 1976. She died aged 31, in 1978, of a cerebral haemorrhage after falling down a flight of stairs.

Rowland, Pegg, and Swarbrick fulfilled their remaining contractual obligations to Island Records by turning what had originally been a Swarbrick solo effort into the album Gottle O'Geer (1976) under the name 'Fairport' (as opposed to Fairport Convention) in the UK, and as 'Fairport featuring Dave Swarbrick' in the US, and with various session players and production by Simon Nicol, who subsequently rejoined the band. They then signed with Vertigo, but record sales continued to decline; after producing the first two of four albums for which they were contracted, The Bonny Bunch of Roses×The Bonny Bunch of Roses1977 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Jams O'Donnell's Jig2:33A2The Eynsham Poacher2:24A3Adieu Adieu2:26A4The Bonny Bunch of Roses12:27B1The Poor Ditching Boy3:57B2General Taylor3:10B3Run Johnny Run4:35B4The Last Waltz3:00B5Royal Selleccion Number 134:12 (1977) and Tipplers Tales (1978), Vertigo bought them out of their contract. It is claimed by members of the band that this was the only recording money they had seen up to that point.

1979–1985: The Cropredy era

By 1979 the mainstream market for folk rock had largely disappeared, the band had no record deal, and Dave Swarbrick had been diagnosed with tinnitus, which made loud electric gigs increasingly difficult. Fairport decided to disband. They played a farewell tour and a final outdoor concert on 4 August in Cropredy, the Oxfordshire village where Dave and Christine Pegg lived. The finality of this occasion was mitigated by the announcement that the band would meet for a reunion.
In August 1979, the band played at Knebworth Festival in England. The headline act at both their appearances at the festival, over two consecutive Saturdays on 4 and 11 August, were Led Zeppelin.
No record company wanted to release the live recordings of the tour and concert, so the Peggs founded Woodworm Records, which would be the major outlet for the band in the future. Members continued to take part in occasional gigs, particularly in festivals in continental Europe, and after a year they staged a reunion concert in Cropredy which became the annual Cropredy Festival. Over the next few years, it grew rapidly and emerged as the major mechanism for sustaining the band. In August 1981, the band held their annual reunion concert at Broughton Castle, rather than the usual Cropredy location. The concert was recorded, and released on the 1982 album Moat on the Ledge×Moat on the Ledge1982 · Album · LiveSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Walk Awhile4:08A2Country Pie3:23A3Rosie4:15A4Matty Groves9:30B1Both Sides Now3:25B2Poor Will And The Hangman5:37B3The Brilliancy Medley / Cherokee Shuffle2:37B4Woman or a Man3:20B5High School Confidential4:20.
The Peggs continued to record and release the Cropredy concerts as 'official bootlegs'. These were supplemented by New Year's gigs in minor locations including the Half Moon at Putney and the Gloucester Leisure Centre. In 1983 the magazine Fairport Fanatics (later Dirty Linen), was created: a testament to the continued existence of a dedicated fan base.
The Angel Delight lineup of Simon Nicol, Dave Swarbrick, Dave Pegg, and Dave Mattacks played a number of gigs in the UK in the early 80s, then toured extensively in the UK and the US in 1984 and 1985. Band alumni like Richard Thompson and Bruce Rowland would occasionally join in.
The remaining members pursued their own lives and careers outside of the band. Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks had recorded and toured with Richard and Linda Thompson at times in the 1970s, and did so again during this period, culminating in their appearance on the Shoot Out the Lights album and tour in 1982. Bruce Rowlands gave up the music business and moved to Denmark and as a result Dave Mattacks returned as drummer for Fairport's occasional gigs. Dave Pegg was the first of several Fairporters to join Jethro Tull which gave him well-paying steady employment. Simon Nicol had teamed up with Dave Swarbrick in a highly regarded acoustic duo, but this partnership was made difficult by Swarbrick's sudden decision to move to Scotland, where, from 1984, he began to focus on his new project Whippersnapper.

In 1985, Pegg, Nicol and Mattacks found that they all had some free time and an available studio belonging to Pegg. They decided that they needed some new material to add to the catalogue that had been suspended in 1978. As Swarbrick was unavailable, the selection of traditional tunes was more difficult than for past albums and there was a need for a replacement fiddle player and some vocals. Pegg and Nicol took over arranging duties on an instrumental medley and the band turned to sometime Albion Band members: jazz and folk violinist Ric Sanders and singer-songwriter Cathy Lesurf. They also had the help of ex-member Richard Thompson. Thompson and Lesurf contributed songs and took part in the recordings. Also important to the album was Ralph McTell who contributed one song and co-wrote one track each with Nicol and Mattacks; the latter of these, "The Hiring Fair", would become a stage fixture of Fairport.
The resulting album Gladys' Leap (1985) was generally well received in the music and national press, but caused some tension with Swarbrick who refused to play any of the new material at the 1985 Cropredy Festival. Nevertheless, the decision to reform the band, without Swarbrick, was taken by the other three remaining members. Ric Sanders was invited to join, along with guitarist, composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Maartin Allcock. Nicol, with his developing baritone voice, took over the main share of the vocal duties. This line-up was to last eleven years, the longest period of membership stability in the band's history so far.

1986–1997: Stability

The new band began a hectic schedule of performing in Britain and the world and prepared material for a new album. The result was the all-instrumental Expletive Delighted! (1986). This showcased the virtuosity of Sanders and Allcock, but perhaps inevitably was not popular with all fans. This was followed by the recording In Real Time: Live '87 which managed to capture the energy and power of the new Fairport on stage, despite the fact that it was recorded in the studio with audience reactions dubbed on.
In this period the band were playing to larger and larger audiences, both on tour and at Cropredy, and it was very productive in terms of recording. Fairport had the considerable composing and arranging skills of Allcock and, to fill the gap created by a lack of a songwriter in the band, they turned to some of the most talented available in the contemporary folk scene. The results were Red & Gold (1989) The Five Seasons (1990) and Jewel in the Crown (1995), the last of which was judged "their bestselling and undoubtedly finest album in years."
At this point, with Mattacks busy with other projects, the band shifted to an acoustic format for touring and released the unplugged Old New Borrowed Blue as "Fairport Acoustic Convention" in 1996. For a while the four-piece acoustic line-up ran in parallel with the electric format. When Allcock left the band, he was replaced by Chris Leslie on vocals, mandolin and fiddle, who formerly worked with Swarbrick in Whippersnapper, and had a one-off stint with the band replacing Ric Sanders for 1992 Cropredy Festival. This meant that for the first time since reforming, the band had a recognized songwriter who contributed significantly to the band's output on the next album Who Knows Where the Time Goes?×Who Knows Where the Time Goes?June 1997 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1John Gaudie5:082Sailing Boat5:273Here's to Tom Paine5:164The Bowman's Retreat3:045Spanish Main4:316The Golden Glove6:057Slipology3:038Wishfulness Waltz5:449Life's a Long Song2:3810Dangerous4:3911I Heard It Through the Grapevine3:5312Who Knows Where the Time Goes?6:32 (1997), particularly the rousing "John Gaudie". By the time of the 30th anniversary Festival at Cropredy in 1997, the new Fairport had been in existence for over a decade and contributed a significant chapter to the history of the band.

1998–present

Dave Mattacks moved to the US in 1998, and Gerry Conway took over on drums and percussion. Fairport produced two more studio albums for Woodworm Records: The Wood and the Wire×The Wood and the Wire1999 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1The Wood and the Wire4:112The Dancer4:233Wandering Man4:524The Heart of the Song3:435A Year and a Day4:146The Game Pieces4:147Close to You4:228Still a Mystery2:419Banbury Fair4:3710The Lady Vanishes4:5411The Good Fortunes4:0212Western Wind5:1013Don't Leave Too Soon4:2814Rocky Road5:02 (2000) and XXXV (2002). Then, for Over the Next Hill (2004) they established a new label: Matty Grooves Records. In this period the band toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Australasia, Europe, the US and Canada, and staged a major fund raiser for Dave Swarbrick at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. In 1998, members of the band began their association with the Breton musician Alan Simon. Working in collaboration with numerous others, members of Fairport (predominantly Nicol and Leslie) have performed in and participated in the recordings of all Simon's rock operas, including the Excalibur trilogy (1998, 2007, 2010) and Anne de Bretagne (2008).
2007 was their fortieth anniversary year and they celebrated by releasing a new album, Sense of Occasion×Sense of Occasion12 February 2007 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1Keep on Turning the Wheel4:102Love on a Farmboy's Wages4:033The Bowman's Return4:124South Dakota to Manchester4:055Spring Song4:286Polly on the Shore4:557Just Dandy2:478Tam Lin7:229In Our Town3:2410Edge of the World4:0311Hawkwood's Army4:2212The Vision4:1313Your Heart and Mine3:4114Untouchable4:1515Galileo's Apology3:0016Best Wishes4:50. They performed the whole of the Liege & Lief album live at Cropredy, since 2004 renamed Fairport's Cropredy Convention, featuring the 1969 line-up of Dave Swarbrick, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, with singer-songwriter Chris While taking the place of Sandy Denny. Footage of the festival, although not the Liege and Lief performance, was released as part of a celebratory DVD.

The band's first official YouTube video appeared in April 2008. Edited from footage shot for the DVD, the nine-minute mini-documentary includes interviews with Lulu, Jools Holland, Seth Lakeman, Mike Harding, Geoff Hughes and Frank Skinner.

In 2011 the band released a new studio album Festival Bell×Festival Bell11 April 2011 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Mercy Bay6:472Rui's Guitar4:393Danny Jack's Chase3:554Reunion Hill4:525Wouldn't Say No4:206Around the Wild Cape Horn5:077Celtic Moon5:108Ukulele Central4:179Albert & Ted2:3810Darkside Wood4:4911London Apprentice / Johnny Ginears3:5012Rising for the Moon4:3113Danny Jack's Reward4:3714The Festival Bell2:59, the first new album in four years. This was followed in 2012 by Babbacombe Lee Live Again recorded live during the 2011 tour revisiting the Babbacombe Lee album first issued in 1971. In 2012, the band also released By Popular Request, a reworking in the studio of a number of the most popular songs in the band's repertoire (as determined by a mysterious consultation and voting process conducted by the band with its fans).
As of 2020 the band continues to write and record music, regularly producing new studio albums, the most recent releases being 2015's Myths and Heroes×Myths and Heroes2 March 2015 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Myths and Heroes3:212Clear Water4:003The Fylde Mountain Time / Roger Bucknall's Polka3:094Theodore's Song4:555Love at First Sight3:536John Condone5:547The Gallivant4:598The Man in the Water3:579Bring Me Back My Feathers3:5810Grace and Favour4:2311Weightless / The Gravity Reel4:0312Home4:1513Jonah's Oak3:57, 2017's 50:50@50 and 2020's Shuffle and Go. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted significantly on their ability to tour, and their 2022 tour was initially cut short after several of the touring team developed Covid.
In 2022, Gerry Conway made the decision to leave the band after 24 years, and it was announced that the band would continue as a four piece. Conway did not make public that he left because he was suffering from motor neurone disease from which he was to die in April 2024.
On the band's Winter 2023 UK Tour, they were joined by a returning Mattacks on drums and percussion who also returned for the 2024 winter tour.

Public recognition

The mainstream media has increasingly recognized Fairport Convention's historical importance. They received a "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the 2002 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In the same year Free Reed Records, an independent label, released Fairport Unconventional, a four-CD boxed set of rare and unreleased recordings from the band's 35-year career. At the 2006 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards they received an award when their seminal album Liege & Lief×Liege & LiefDecember 1969 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracksA1Come All Ye4:55A2Reynardine4:33A3Matty Groves8:08A4Farewell, Farewell2:38B1The Deserter4:10B2Medley: The Lark in the Morning / Rakish Paddy / Foxhunter’s Jig / Toss the Feathers4:00B3Tam Lin7:20B4Crazy Man Michael4:35 was voted 'Most Influential Folk Album of All Time' by Radio 2 listeners. At the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Fairport Convention received an award recognising the late Sandy Denny and the band for "Favourite Folk Track of All Time" for "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?×Who Knows Where the Time Goes?June 1997 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1John Gaudie5:082Sailing Boat5:273Here's to Tom Paine5:164The Bowman's Retreat3:045Spanish Main4:316The Golden Glove6:057Slipology3:038Wishfulness Waltz5:449Life's a Long Song2:3810Dangerous4:3911I Heard It Through the Grapevine3:5312Who Knows Where the Time Goes?6:32".

Members

Current members
Simon Nicol – guitar, dulcimer, lead vocals, keyboards (1967–1971, 1976–1979, 1985–present)
Dave Mattacks – drums, percussion, keyboards, bass guitar (1969–1972, 1973–1975, 1985–1997, 2023–present)
Dave Pegg – bass guitar, mandolin, backing vocals, guitar, fiddle, drums (1969–1979, 1985–present)
Ric Sanders – fiddles, keyboards, ukulele, backing vocals (1985–present)
Chris Leslie – mandolin, fiddle, bouzouki, vocals, guitar, flute (1996–present)