Released in 1969, Fairport Convention’s fourth album, Liege & Lief, is generally held up as the start of English folk-rock, and the band’s sound still lingers in British music from Steeleye Span to Mumford & Sons. It can sometimes feel as if Fairport have become so influential they’re starting to sound like those who sound like them – tonight, they play the title track of their new, 27th album, Myths and Heroes, and it sounds oddly reminiscent of the Seahorses’ 1997 hit Love Is the Law.
Much water has flowed under the bridge since stellar talents such as Richard Thompson and the late singer Sandy Denny passed through their ranks. Simon Nicol – the only remaining survivor from their 1967 inception – compares the band to a ship: “Every so often, there’ll be a man overboard.” But the ship carries on, the current crew have been together longer than many 20th-century governments and seem to capture the Fairport spirit while steering into new waters. It’s certainly hard to think of many vintage acts that could stuff a two-hour set with mostly new material or songs as moving as John Condon, about a first-world-war soldier who died in the trenches aged 14.
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What happens when you mix what is - arguably - the world's most interesting record company, with an anarchist manic-depressive rock music historian polymath, and a method of dissemination which means that a daily rock-music magazine can be almost instantaneous?
Most of this blog is related in some way to the music, books and films produced by Gonzo Multimedia, but the editor has a grasshopper mind and so also writes about all sorts of cultural issues which interest him, and which he hopes will interest you as well.
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