Editing Fairport Convention (section)

===1967–69: The first three albums===
Fairport Convention were soon playing regularly at underground venues such as [[UFO Club|UFO]] and The Electric Garden, which later became the [[Middle Earth (club)|Middle Earth club]].<ref name=":0">[http://www.fairportconvention.com/simon_nicol_on_fairport.php Simon Nicol, Fairport Convention Official Website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211171452/http://fairportconvention.com/simon_nicol_on_fairport.php |date=11 February 2009}} retrieved 14 January 2009</ref> After only a few months, they caught the attention of manager [[Joe Boyd]] who secured them a contract with [[Polydor Records]]. Boyd suggested they augment the line-up with another male vocalist. Singer [[Iain Matthews]] (then known as Ian MacDonald) joined the band, and their first album, ''[[Fairport Convention (album)|Fairport Convention]]'', was recorded in late 1967 and released in June 1968. At this early stage Fairport looked to [[American folk music|North American folk]] and [[folk rock]] acts such as [[Joni Mitchell]], [[Bob Dylan]], and [[The Byrds]] for material and inspiration. The name "Fairport Convention" and the use of two lead vocalists led many new listeners to believe that they were an American act, earning them the nickname 'the British [[Jefferson Airplane]]' during this period.<ref name=":1">[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1240058,00.html ''Observer Music Monthly'', retrieved on 14 January 2009].</ref> Fairport Convention played at the [[Isle of Wight Festival#1968|first Isle of Wight Festival]], in August 1968, when Jefferson Airplane headlined.<ref>[[Ray Foulk]], 2015, Stealing Dylan from Woodstock, Medina Publishing, Surbition.</ref>

After disappointing album sales they signed a new contract with [[Island Records]]. Before their next recording Judy Dyble left – she described it as being "unceremoniously dumped" <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.judydyble.com/content/2nd-band-%E2%80%93-fairport-convention-%E2%80%93-1967|title=2nd Band – Fairport Convention – 1967 &#124; Judy Dyble|website=Judydyble.com|access-date=26 August 2021}}</ref> – and was replaced by the band with [[Sandy Denny]], a folk singer who had previously recorded as a soloist and with [[Strawbs]]. Denny's arrival encouraged the band to consider integrating British [[Traditional music|folk music]] into what had previously been an American-influenced sound, and her distinctive voice (described by Clive James as "open space, low-volume, high-intensity") characterised the two albums which Fairport Convention would release in 1969, ''[[What We Did on Our Holidays]]'' and ''[[Unhalfbricking]]''.<ref>C. James, [http://www.peteatkin.com/sandy.htm "In a lonely moment"]. Retrieved on 14 January 2009].</ref> These recordings marked the growth of much greater musicality and song-writing ability among the band. The first of these featured the Thompson-penned "[[Meet on the Ledge]]", which became their second single and eventually the band's unofficial anthem. 

During the recording of ''Unhalfbricking'', Matthews left after having sung on only one song, eventually to form [[Matthews Southern Comfort]].<ref name=":3">Humphries, p. 27.</ref> He was not replaced; the other male members covered his vocal parts. The album featured a guest appearance by [[Birmingham]] folk fiddler [[Dave Swarbrick]] on a recording of "[[A Sailor's Life]]", a traditional song brought to the band by Denny from her folk club days. The recording of this track marked an important turning point for the band, sparking an interest in traditional music in Ashley Hutchings that led him to detailed research in the [[English Folk Dance and Song Society]] Library at [[Cecil Sharp House]]; this theme would become the basis for their next, much more ambitious, recording project.<ref>Hinton and Wall{{page needed|date=January 2013}}</ref>

These two albums began to gain the band wider recognition. Radio DJ [[John Peel]] championed their music, playing their albums on his influential [[BBC]] shows. Peel also recorded a number of sessions which were later released as the album ''Heyday'' (1987). They enjoyed some mainstream success when they entered the singles charts with "[[Si Tu Dois Partir]]", a French-language version of Bob Dylan's "[[If You Gotta Go, Go Now]]". The record just missed the top twenty, but secured the band a slot on ''[[Top of the Pops]]'', Britain's most popular television pop music programme at the time.<ref>Humphries, p. 37.</ref> In 1969 four members of the band, one uncredited and three under pseudonyms, featured as backing musicians on the album ''[[Love Chronicles]]'' by Scottish folk artist [[Al Stewart]].

====Developing British folk rock====
On 12 May 1969, on the way home from a gig at [[Birmingham]] venue [[Mothers (music venue)|Mothers]],<ref name="RTSL">{{cite episode |title=Richard Thompson: Solitary Life |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074nw0 |access-date=14 September 2012 |network=BBC |series=BBC Four}}</ref> Fairport's van crashed on the [[M1 motorway]]. [[Martin Lamble]], aged only nineteen, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson's girlfriend, were killed. The rest of the band suffered injuries of varying severity.{{sfn|Sweers|2005|p=89}} They nearly decided to disband. 

However, they reconvened with [[Dave Mattacks]] taking over drumming duties and Dave Swarbrick, having made contribution to ''Unhalfbricking'', now joined as a full member. Boyd set the band up in a rented house in Farley Chamberlayne near [[Winchester]] in Hampshire, where they recuperated and worked on this integration, which would result in a new sound and style manifest on their fourth album ''[[Liege & Lief]]''.<ref name=":4">Hutchings, Ashley. ''Liege and Lief''. 2002, [[Island Records]] reissue, IMCD 291 / 596 929-2, [[liner notes]].</ref>

Usually considered the highpoint of the band's long career, ''Liege & Lief'' was a huge leap forward in concept and musicality. The album consisted of six traditional tracks and three original compositions in a similar style. The traditional tracks included two sustained epics: "[[Tam Lin]]", which was over seven minutes in length, and "[[Matty Groves]]", at over eight. There was a medley of four traditional tunes, arranged, and, like many of the tracks, enlivened, by Swarbrick's energetic fiddle playing. The first side was bracketed by original compositions "Come all ye" and "Farewell, Farewell", which, in addition to information on the inside of the gatefold cover on Hutchings' research, explaining English folk traditions, helped give the record the feel of a [[concept album]]. "Farewell, Farewell" and the final track "Crazy Man Michael", also saw the full emergence of the distinctive song writing talent of Thompson that was to characterize his contributions to the band and later solo career. The distinctive sound of the album came from the use of electric instruments and Mattacks' disciplined drumming with Swarbrick's fiddle accompaniment in a surprising and powerful combination of rock with the traditional. The entire band had reached new levels of musicality, with the fluid guitar playing of Thompson and the "ethereal" vocal of Denny particularly characteristic of the sound of the album. As the reviewer from [[AllMusic]] put it, the album was characterised by the "fusing [of] time-worn folk with electric instruments while honoring both".<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r7059|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic retrieved on 14 January 2009].</ref>

A few British bands had earlier experimented with playing traditional English songs on electric instruments, (including [[Strawbs]] and [[Pentangle (band)|Pentangle]]), but Fairport Convention was the first English band to do this in a concerted and focused way.<ref>R. Unterberger, ''Eight Miles High: Folk-Rock's Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock'' (Backbeat Books, San Francisco, 2003), p. 157.</ref> Fairport Convention's achievement was not to invent folk rock, but to create a distinctly English branch of the genre, which would develop alongside, and interact with, American inspired music, but which can also be seen as a distinctively national reaction in opposition to it.{{sfn|Sweers|2005|p=4}} ''Liege & Lief'' was launched with a sell-out concert in London's [[Royal Festival Hall]] late in 1969. It reached number 17 in the UK album chart, where it spent fifteen weeks.<ref name=officialcharts>{{cite web |title=Fairport Convention &#124; full Official Chart History |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/13725/fairport-convention/ |website=Official Charts Company |access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref>