Editing Fairport Convention (section)

{{short description|British folk rock group}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{for|the album|Fairport Convention (album)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name              = Fairport Convention
| image             = Fairport Convention 2023 (cropped).jpg
| landscape         = yes
| caption           = Fairport Convention performing in 2023
| background        = group_or_band
| alias             = Fairport
| years_active      = {{hlist|1967–1979|1985–present}}
| genre             = {{hlist|[[British folk rock|Folk rock]]|[[Contemporary folk music|folk]]}}
| origin            = London, England
| label             = {{hlist|[[Polydor Records|Polydor]]|[[Island Records|Island]]|[[A&M Records|A&M]]|[[Vertigo Records|Vertigo]]|[[Rough Trade Records|Rough Trade]]|[[Transatlantic Records|Transatlantic]]|[[Woodworm Records|Woodworm]]|[[Matty Grooves Records|Matty Grooves]]}}
| spinoffs          = {{flatlist|
*[[The Albion Band]]
*[[Fotheringay]]
*[[Matthews Southern Comfort]]
*[[Plainsong (band)|Plainsong]]
*[[Steeleye Span]]
}}
| current_members   = * [[Simon Nicol]]
* [[Dave Mattacks]]
* [[Dave Pegg]]
* [[Ric Sanders]]
* [[Chris Leslie (musician)|Chris Leslie]]
| past_members      = * [[Richard Thompson (musician)|Richard Thompson]]
* [[Ashley Hutchings]]
* Shaun Frater
* [[Martin Lamble]]
* [[Judy Dyble]]
* [[Iain Matthews]]
* [[Sandy Denny]]
* [[Dave Swarbrick]]
* Roger Hill 
* Tom Farnell
* [[David Rea (musician)|David Rea]]
* [[Trevor Lucas]]
* [[Jerry Donahue]]
* Paul Warren
* [[Bruce Rowland (drummer)|Bruce Rowland]]
* [[Dan Ar Braz]]
* Bob Brady
* Roger Burridge
* [[Maartin Allcock]]
* [[Gerry Conway (musician)|Gerry Conway]]
| website           = {{URL|fairportconvention.com}}
}}

<!--THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN IN BRITISH ENGLISH, WHICH TREATS COLLECTIVE NOUNS LIKE "BAND" AS PLURALS (i.e. "Fairport Convention ARE a band"). PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THIS.-->
'''Fairport Convention''' are an English [[British folk rock|folk rock]] band, formed in 1967 by guitarists [[Richard Thompson (musician)|Richard Thompson]] and [[Simon Nicol]], bassist [[Ashley Hutchings]] and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by [[Martin Lamble]] after their first gig).<ref name=":0" /> They started out influenced by American [[folk rock]], with a set list dominated by [[Bob Dylan]] and [[Joni Mitchell]] songs and a sound that earned them the nickname "the British [[Jefferson Airplane]]".<ref name=":1"/> Vocalists [[Judy Dyble]] and [[Iain Matthews]] joined them before the recording of [[Fairport Convention (album)|their self-titled debut]] in 1968;<ref name=":2"/> afterwards, Dyble was replaced by [[Sandy Denny]], and Matthews later left during the recording of their third album.<ref name=":3"/>

Denny began steering the group towards [[British folk music|traditional British music]] for their next two albums, ''[[What We Did on Our Holidays]]'' and ''[[Unhalfbricking]]'' (both 1969); the latter featured [[fiddle]]r [[Dave Swarbrick|Dave "Swarb" Swarbrick]], most notably on the song "[[A Sailor's Life]]", which laid the groundwork for British folk rock by being the first time a traditional British song was combined with a rock beat.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/inside-fairport-conventions-liege-lief-crusade-77150 |title=Inside Fairport Convention's Liege And Lief: "We were on a crusade..." – Page 2 of 6 |date=3 June 2016 |website=Uncut |language=en-US |access-date=26 December 2018}}</ref> Shortly before the album's release, a crash on the [[M1 motorway]] killed Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn, Thompson's girlfriend; this resulted in the group retiring most of their prior material and turning entirely towards British folk music for their seminal album ''[[Liege & Lief]]'', released the same year. This style has been the band's focus ever since.<ref name=":4" /> For this album Swarbrick joined full-time, alongside drummer [[Dave Mattacks]]. Both Denny and Hutchings left before the year's end; the latter replaced by [[Dave Pegg]], who has remained the group's sole consistent member to this day; Thompson left after the recording of 1970's ''[[Full House (Fairport Convention album)|Full House]]''.

The 1970s saw numerous lineup changes around the core of Swarbrick and Pegg – Nicol being absent for the middle of the decade – and declining fortunes as folk music fell out of mainstream favour. Denny, whose partner [[Trevor Lucas]] had been a guitarist in the group since 1972, returned for the pop-oriented ''[[Rising for the Moon]]'' album in 1975 in a final bid to crack America; this effort failed, and after three more albums minus Denny and Lucas, the group disbanded in 1979.<ref name=":5" /> They played a farewell concert in the village of [[Cropredy]], Oxfordshire, where they had held small concerts since 1976, and this marked the beginning of the [[Cropredy Festival]] (since 2005 known as Fairport's Cropredy Convention) which has become the largest folk festival in Britain, with annual attendances of 20,000.<ref name=":6" />

The band was reformed by Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks in 1985, joined by [[Maartin Allcock]] (guitar, mandolin, keys, vocals) and [[Ric Sanders]] (fiddle, keyboards), and they have remained active since. Allcock was replaced by [[Chris Leslie (musician)|Chris Leslie]] (mandolin, violin, vocals) in 1996, and [[Gerry Conway (musician)|Gerry Conway]] replaced Mattacks in 1998. Their 29th studio album, ''[[Shuffle and Go]]'' was released in 2020, and they continue to headline Cropredy each year.

Despite little mainstream success – their only top 40 single being "[[Si Tu Dois Partir]]", a French-language cover of the Dylan song "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" from ''Unhalfbricking'' – Fairport Convention remain highly influential in British folk rock and British folk in general. ''Liege & Lief'' was named the "Most Influential Folk Album of All Time" at the [[BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards]] in 2006, and Pegg's playing style, which incorporates [[jig]]s and [[Reel (dance)|reels]] into his basslines, has been imitated by many in the folk rock and [[folk punk]] genres.<ref>Fairport Convention, ''The Cropredy Box'' ([[Woodworm Records|Woodworm]], WR3CD026, 1998) disk 2.</ref> Additionally, many former members went on to form or join other notable groups in the genre, including [[Fotheringay]], [[Steeleye Span]], and [[the Albion Band]]; along with solo careers, most notably Thompson and Denny.<ref name=":7" /> Sandy Denny, now regarded as being amongst Britain's finest female singer-songwriters, died in 1978; her song "[[Who Knows Where the Time Goes?]]" – recorded by Fairport on ''Unhalfbricking'' – became a signature song for herself and the band.