Seeing Fairport Convention at Bath Forum 2023

I felt a bit restless on Saturday and wanted to get out and about and do something. I looked online to see what was on locally, and lo and behold found out that Fairport Convention were playing at Bath Forum that very evening, so I bought myself a ticket. I have seen them several times over the last ten years on their annual Winter tour. The most memorable time was four years ago when their guests at this same venue were Robert Plant & Saving Grace. Saturday’s concert didn’t reach those heights but was still a very pleasant evening. I arrived at the Forum too early as usual and had a browse on the merchandise stall which was being manned by Dave Pegg and his wife. 

Dave has been the bass player with Fairport since 1969 and was also in Jethro Tull for about fifteen years. I have met Dave and other members of the band previously at gigs. We had a bit of a chat, and I took a photo and bought a book Gonna See All My Friends, A People’s History of Fairport Convention and a CD Full House For Sale which is a live performance of the 1970 album Full House recorded at last summer’s Cropredy festival. Peggy signed both of these items for me. Then it was time to take my seat for the support act Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage. I had never heard of them before, but I thought they were excellent. They are a folk duo from Cambridge who both sing and play guitars. I would describe their music as Americana.

 Hannah has a wonderful voice which reminded me at certain moments of Joni Mitchell, and the delicate guitar accompaniment compliments it perfectly. I can’t remember all their songs but was very impressed with the first song which I think was called Come All You Fair, others might be called I Gave My Love A Cherry and Polly Oh Polly. I will certainly listen to their music in the future. Fairport joined them on stage for their final song which was Reynardine. As you know Fairport included this song on their classic Liege & Lief album in 1969. Hannah and Ben then left the stage and Fairport performed Walk Awhile which they have opened their show with every time I have seen them.

Peggy.

As well as the usual suspects of Dave Pegg, Simon Nicol, Ric Sanders and Chris Leslie I was very pleased to see Dave Mattacks has returned on drums (and occasional keyboards) Dave was the drummer in the band’s glory days of the late 60s early 70s when Fairport were inventing the genre of English folk-rock. He returned to the group in the mid-80s until 1998 when he moved to the USA where he is one of the most sought-after session drummers, so it was great to see him again. I can’t tell you about every single song because I didn’t recognise all of them, but this is what I can remember. They performed Polly On The Shore from the Fairport 9 album which I believe Peggy wrote the music for. Then a song which I think was called The Year Of 59 and had a kind of doo-wop sound to it. In between the songs Ric Sanders was still telling the same old jokes from the last time I saw them, such as, 'if you can't decide what psychedelics to take, go to Trip Advisor'. He is a virtuoso on the violin though. Before the interval they played a great version of Sloth which was written by the late Dave Swarbrick for the Full House album. 

The lyrics seemed very pertinent to today’s world with the war in Ukraine dragging on. In the second half of the show I really enjoyed Banks Of The Sweet Primroses which Swarb learned from the famous Copper Family from Sussex. It was the lyrics of this song which gave Laurie Lee the inspiration for his book As I Walked Out One Midsummer's Morning. Simon then played a lively instrumental that Peggy wrote which I think was called Bankruptured. Chris Leslie then introduced a song which he wrote about the astronaut Michael Collins called Moondust and Solitude. It was brilliant and even incorporated an actual recording of Michael Collins speaking to mission control while his colleagues explored the moon’s surface. Another highlight for me was the Richard Thompson/ Dave Swarbrick composition Doctor Of Physick. Simon sang the lead vocals on The Hiring Fair, a great song given to the band by their friend Ralph McTell. I saw Ralph perform that song himself at last year’s Glastonbury. 

Matty Groves was the last song I heard because I had to rush off for my train. I missed the encore which I’m sure Hannah & Ben would have returned for which would have been Meet On The Ledge. Thank you very much Hannah Sanders, Ben Savage, & Fairport Convention for a very enjoyable evening in Bath.