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Robin Lynam

FROM THE VAULT: 1969

Fairport Convention

Liege and Lief

(Island)

By 1969, so far as most of the rock audience was concerned, folk rock had had its day. It had always been an essentially American phenomenon, and its leading lights, Dylan and The Byrds, had moved on to country.

On the other side of the Atlantic, The Beatles were on the verge of breaking up, heavy metal was on its way in, and the last thing hippies or hipsters were expected to be interested in was jigs and reels. Then Fairport Convention released Liege and Lief.

Defiantly unfashionable, it became the band's biggest seller by some distance - and one of the most influential of its era. While  West Coast electrified folkies had done little more than adapt a few traditional tunes to jangling guitars, Fairport immersed themselves in the traditional music of the British Isles and reworked it in a challenging way,  lyrically and musically. Liege and Lief paved the road to, among other landmark albums, Led Zeppelin III and Lindisfarne's Fog on the Tyne, as well as the band's chief songwriter Richard Thompson's dark, edgy solo work.

Folk really met rock on equal terms for the first time on the epic Matty Groves, and was defined instrumentally with the medley of traditional tunes with which Dave Swarbrick carved out new territory for the violin in rock.

Thompson begins to show signs of his vast potential as a songwriter, and of his quirky originality, with Crazy Man Michael, co-written with Swarbrick.

Sandy Denny sings the heart out of Tam Lin, and throughout, the rock-steady but endlessly inventive rhythm section of Dave Mattacks - replacing original drummer Martin Lamble, who had been killed in a road accident - bassist Ashley Hutchings and rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol underpins the solo flights of Thompson, Swarbrick and Denny.

Thompson's girlfriend had been killed in the same accident as Lamble, and a shared sense of shock and loss seemingly pulled the band together. They were inspired  to play better than they ever had before - or ever would again. The 2002 reissue includes two bonus tracks (previously unreleased versions of Sir Patrick Spens and  a cover of Richard Fari?a's Quiet Joys of Brotherhood).

Hutchings and Denny left shortly afterwards, and although Fairport with  their annual Cropredy Festival have gone on to become an institution, they never sounded quite so fresh or innovative. On the other hand, few bands have ever broken as much ground on a single album.



Fairport Convention