Cropredy

Dave Pegg

Folk-rock's founding fathers - FAIRPORT CONVENTION - arrive in the North
West this weekend for a triple bill of shows at the start of their
annual UK winter tour.
Fairport, which last year celebrated 35 years in the business, is today
a five-piece electric band that mixes traditional folk songs,
self-penned numbers and other modern songs and tunes into a set that
carries their hallmark of quality musicianship, passion and gentle humour.
Dave Pegg, the bass player and organisational head of the
Oxfordshire-based band, says that the current line-up - himself; Ric
Saunders (violin); Simon Nicol (guitar and vocal), Gerry Conway (drums
and percussion) and multi-instrumentalist and singer Chris Leslie - is a
happy and content unit. That's something of a novelty for a band which,
in its three and a half decade history, has had more line-up changes
than some football teams!
Dave said: "It's good and everyone's happy. We worked so hard last year,
touring here, in America, Australia, Europe and the Far East. We took on
too much really, and then Chris Leslie was ill. It was traumatic having
to go to Canada without Chris."
This year they are 'taking it easy' with just a UK tour, an American
tour, various individual dates ... and headlining their own three-day
festival in August! The Cropredy Festival is an annual event, organised
by Dave Pegg and his wife Christine for the past 24 years.
For a band with so much history - past members include undisputed
geniuses Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick - it's
important to all the current Fairports that they do not become a tribute
band to their own past. Fairport Convention is very much alive and kicking!
"We enjoy playing new stuff. It's important for us to our own new
material as well as versions of the band's old stuff," says Dave.
"We've got a new instrumental from Ric, and we are covering some songs
we recorded on our 2001 album The Wood And The Wire but never played
live, like The Game Pieces, Western Wind and Don't Leave Too Soon.
"We'll be making a new album when we have got enough new music. There's
no deadline. It's always been the case that Fairport makes albums as
much for ourselves as for the fans. It's not important to have a new
product to push on the tour, or anything like that."
Unsurprisingly, Fairport is never short of new material to choose from.
Both Leslie and Sauders are writers, and they also draw songs from old
friends too, such as Ralph McTell and Steve Tilston. Then there are the
songs that come through the letterbox.
Dave says: "I get sent over 600 CDs a year, mostly because people want
to be on at Cropredy. Some times you can get a great song that people
have sent in. Some times you get utter rubbish! After Cropredy I go away
to Brittany for a month and take all the CDs with me and listen to them there."
Dave added: "Cropredy this year is something of a retro-festival, with
Lindisfarne and Procul Harum headlining the other two nights. We haven't
gone for very many folk acts this time, it's more of a general music
thing - but there's lots of up-beat stuff that people can dance to,
because we don't do a lot of that. Fairport have lots of serious songs,
but not that much in the way of what I call 'banana content' - where you
can get up and boogie!"
One guest just announced is former Dr Hook frontman, Dennis Locorriere.
"Dennis wanted to be a surprise special guest and come on as part of our
set, but when I went to see him play I thought he was so good that we
squashed everyone up a bit so he can have his own slot, just before
Fairport come on.
"Booking the music for Cropredy is the easy bit. Christine does all the
hard work, organising everything else you need to run a festival. I
choose artists that I like. I don't really care what other people think,
because if you ask 10 people you will get half of them saying so-and-so
is rubbish and half who think they are the best thing since sliced
bread! So whose opinion do you trust? You have to go with your own.
"I ask the other guys in the band, obviously; they all get the chance to
say who should be on. But at the end of the day I book people who I
like. Sometimes I get it wrong. I loved the Leningrad Cowboys, but a lot
of people didn't get that they were meant to be funny.
"Musafir was a big mistake. They blew us away when we saw them, but that
was up-close in a big tent. It didn't translate to a big field. Unless
you could see what was going on it was pretty awful, and a lot of the
audience just went off and got something to eat! But at least that's
something you can do at a festival. There's always something to do.
"The Incredible String Band were another disappointment. They died on
stage, and I had to hide! I watched the first three numbers and then
couldn't stand it anymore. It was embarrassing.
"But then some bands work that other people don't think will. People
asked me why I had booked The Dubliners or Richard Digence, but both of
them ripped the place apart. People loved them. A lot of the same people
who had complained to me before the festival came up to me afterwards
and told me how good they were. I said 'I know - that's why I booked them!'.
"It's terrifying following some bands on stage, because they are so
good. We don't book bands to make us look good. We have to follow really
good bands, and the irony is that Fairport isn't really a festival band
- even though we've got our own festival! We do a three hour set and
you can't just play jigs and reels all night, because it's too exhausting.
"The big anniversary years like last year's 35th are easier to arrange,
really. You know which ex-members of the band will be there. You know
which songs you have to cover. But the other years are more difficult,
so we are trying to work some new songs into the set.
"As I say, we have boxes of stuff - songs and demos - and we dig them
out and go through them from time to time. But it's down to Simon and
Chris, because they have to sing these songs. It's not enough for me to
like a song; the vocalists have to actually feel what they are singing
for it to work properly, so they choose most of the songs that go into
the set."

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