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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Union Chapel, Islington, London
February
7th 2009 |
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| I
have decided, Serge, that for many enthusiasts,
watching Fairport
Convention is a bit like stamp collecting.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the most
popular hobby in the world, a pastime fit for pauper
or even premier. It just seems to me that it might
be a tad backward-looking, a touch retrospective
rather than futuristic, or head-in-the-sand rather
than head-in-the-clouds. |
| Something
that might be considered to turn Great Men of Deeds
into country postmasters, fussily rearranging forgotten
jars of jam and marmalade on dusty shelves. Look,
for example, at the way Fairport obsessives dissect
the minutiae of every tour: “What’s
the set list going to be this winter?”, “Will
this Autumn’s T-shirt be as awesome as the
Cropredy one from the year before last?”,
“Did anyone notice Ric’s hat?”,
“How grumpy was Simon Nicol?”. These
and other questions of mind-numbing irrelevance
dominate the virtual
Fairport firmament, where hordes of soon-to-be
ex-public service workers share their fanatical,
almost philatelic, infatuations with like-minded
souls; clearly their other point in common is having
far too much time on their hands. It’s as
if all they’re really interested in is finding
that rare and unimagined imperfection, something
that no one else can possibly have. Rather like
John Fowles’ Collector. Spooky. |
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Left
to right: Dave Pegg, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie. |
| It
is a shame, since going to see the Fairports is
still rather fun (as it should be) and especially
with Jozzer, who may know a little too much about
them for his own good: I’m told he goes to
sleep humming ‘Matty Groves’ . But his
maniacal ranting (“did you know that Dave
Swarbrick once played ‘Rosie’ in Leicester’s
De Montfort Hall with a bucket full of cigarette
ends on his head?”) has been dulled by a vast
plateful of Rock Salmon and Chips at the you-know-where,
washed down with a handy bottle of something blanc
from the hugely un-customer-centered Budgens store
down the road (just past the famous Hope and Anchor).
So he’s perched on his church pew, gently
dozing with head resting on Trizza’s shoulder,
while I’m left taking notes nowhere near as
copious or detailed as those of almost everyone
else in the place. |
| But
I simply recorded a few facts. The show was opened
by the unlikely pairing
of Steeleye Span guitarist Ken
Nicol and comedian Phil
Cool. Nicol, says the notebook, delivered some
great guitar playing, and Cool a truly wonderful
Paul McCartney impersonation – his George
Bush wasn’t bad either. |
| The
Fairports joined them on stage for their last song,
and then began their set with ‘Ye Mariners
all’. Notable in this first set was Ric Sanders’
fiddle playing on ‘The Fossil Hunter’,
his soaring notes seeming to fill every corner of
the Union Chapel’s great high ceiling. Leslie
sang a haunting ‘Reynardine’ from Liege
and Lief, accompanied by the sirens of police cars
charging round Highbury Corner while Nicol provoked
a short debate on blood sports in his introduction
to ‘Reynard the fox’ (to his disgust
but Leslie’s delight, the fox lived to fight
another day). And my notes noted, as they have before,
that even if I can’t describe how irritated
I’m made by Dave Pegg’s face-pulling,
thumbs-up blokiness, his bass playing really is
very good. |
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| In
the second half – and this was a real curiosity
for the collectors – they played a pleasing
mini-version of their often disregarded 1971 ‘folk-opera’
Babbacombe Lee telling the story of the man they
couldn’t hang, convicted murderer John ‘Babbacombe’
Lee. Interesting, if not a bit 1960s. This was followed
by a rather strained ‘Who knows where the
time goes’, and the inevitable ‘Matty
Groves’ (at which point Jozzer nodded off
for good). For encore, before the mad rush to the
merchandising store for the T-shirts and trinkets
there was a weak ‘Ukulele central’,
(involving lots of ukuleles and larking about) and
finale ‘Meet on the ledge’ which was
notable for guitar playing by Ken Nicol who’d
joined the band on stage along with Cool. |
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As
the collectors compared notes and swapped facts,
we rudely stirred Jozzer from his slumbers and
crept out into the cold snowy night. Did I mention
that we’ve had snow in London? - Nick
Morgan (photographs by Kate)
Listen:
Fairport
Convention on MySpace
Ken
Nicol on MySpace
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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