When I was a kid, playing my second-hand bass in the folk clubs of southern England, with a shonky lineup of other kids, the band we wanted to be was Fairport Convention. Originating in Muswell Hill, in long-ago 1967, they were local (we were from East Barnet, a couple of miles from there), and so musically unfashionable as to have a cachet all their own.

During the 1970s, they'd actually broken up in a series of acrimonious disagreements, resignations, bummer albums, and rock'n' roll behavior. By the end, none of the original members was still playing in the band, and two had died. Members included singer Sandy Denny, who sang on Led Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore" and with The Strawbs, and who had, herself, a loyal following, up to her death in 1978; Iain Matthews, who's still writing and performing; founder and bass player Ashley Hutchings, who went on to form Steeleye Span, then The Albion Band; replacement bassist Dave Pegg, who wound up as part of Jethro Tull; legendary fiddle player Dave Swarbrick, who's still recovering from a series of organ transplants, and about a dozen other musicians of note.

There followed a succession of annual reunions, allowing the band to explore their extensive past and, inevitably, to re-form and tour in the mid-1980s. They've been touring and releasing recordings ever since.


The Cropredy reunion is a convention in its own right. In addition to being a three-day rock festival devoted to celebrating a single band, it must be one of the only such events on the planet to which people can travel by narrowboat. This year, the boats were moored for over a mile on either side of the village, and all 20,000 tickets were sold out weeks in advance.

Given the national disaster that has been this summer in the UK, and that tickets for the three days cost up to £75 plus camping fees, there's some indication of the loyalty of Fairport's fanbase. In fact (and typically), the wettest summer since records began relented for the entire show, baking the capacity crowd into a loved-up, alcoholic stupor.


Booze (particularly 'real ale') has played a key role in the forging of Fairport's oeuvre and audience; one past album was entitled Tippler's Tales; and another, Angel Delight, charted a spell Fairport spent living in a pub. The Wadworth Bar, on the festival field, has become something of an institution, growing in size year on year, this year jutting out into the audience and serving thousands of drinks per hour. No bar is provided backstage, so musicians and public mix. It's possible to find yourself talking to one of the heroes of the British folk-rock movement over a pint.