Fairport Convention / Plumhall: Tuesday 27th February 2024, The Drill, Lincoln

An e-ticket again

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Plumhall

Michelle Plum (guitar, vocals) / Nick B. Hall (guitar, vocals)

Another outfit that were unknown to me, husband and wife duo Plumhall (“It was either that or ‘The Plums’ which would have made Googling us a nightmare!”) were the support act for this Fairport tour. Midnight Mango website tells us that “Michelle Plum (Ex Chumbawamba) and Nick B Hall (Ex Magna Carta) are Plumhall, an electrifying duo from Yorkshire whose award winning original songs are earning them well deserved plaudits internationally. Plumhall pack a punch with powerful acoustic (and occasional electric) guitars, a sprinkling of electronica and luscious harmony-driven textures of original contemporary folk rock and pop.

Publicity photo

Plumhall have performed at The London Palladium with the legendary Al Stewart, cementing their fierce reputation on the UK live circuit. They have also written music for, and appeared in, a major British cinematic release called ‘The Runaways’ starring Mark Addy, Tara Fitzgerald & BAFTA winner Mollie Windsor. They have been joined on stage by Bob Dylan’s legendary guitarist Larry Campbell, and have performed with Peter Tork, Phil Beer, Ian McNabb, Chris Leslie, Dave Nachmanoff, to name a few.

Their debut album ‘Thundercloud’ (Splid Records/Proper Distribution) was voted one of The Guardian and Observer’s Hidden Gems and their second studio album ‘The Ghost Of Noise’ was released May 2020 during the first lockdown to critical acclaim. They have built a loyal international audience through their live performances online and onstage.”

Their short, 30-minute set passed the time pleasantly enough, my personal highpoint being ‘Uniondale’, a story about life in South Africa. The pair were quite chatty and entertaining.

Their final song, ‘One Star Awake’ was unusual in that it signalled the moment for Fairport Convention to arrive on stage and join in. But that wouldn’t be the last that we would see of the duo…

Setlist: Crystal Ball; Lost London Rivers; Closing Down; That Further Shore; Uniondale; One Star Awake

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Fairport Convention

The ‘Wintour’

Simon Nicol (guitar and vocals) / Dave Pegg (bass guitar, backing vocals) / Ric Sanders (violin) / Chris Leslie (fiddle, mandolin and vocals) / Dave Mattacks (drums, percussion and electric piano)

The advertising blurb for the gig read, “Fairport Convention have been entertaining music lovers for over half a century, having formed in 1967. During that time the band that launched British folk-rock has seen many changes, but one thing has remained the same – Fairport’s passion for performance. This year’s Winter Tour will present a mix of long-established Fairport favourites and some surprises from albums old and new. Fairport Convention have won a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award and Radio 2 listeners voted their ground-breaking album Liege & Lief ‘The Most Influential Folk Album of All Time’. Their story has been celebrated with television documentaries on BBC Four and Sky Arts. The band features founding member Simon Nicol on guitar and vocals, Dave Pegg on bass guitar, Ric Sanders on violin, Chris Leslie on fiddle, mandolin and vocals. Fairport will be joined on stage by former member Dave Mattacks on drums.”

“Stuffing their set with a surprising amount of new material for a vintage act, Fairport are still clearly having fun and brought the house down.” – The Guardian

“Fairport is an institution, a festival, purveyors of memories, and keepers of the folk flame. But most of all they are a brilliant live band.” – Folk & Tumble

Even with the deaths of previous members Dave Swarbrick and Sandy Denny and the later migration of bassist Ashley Hutchings and guitar maestro and lyric-writing genius Richard Thompson the current line-up of Fairport still manages to read like a ‘Who’s Who’ of folk-rock Royalty. Simon Nicol (founder member and ex-Albion Band), Dave Pegg (ex-Jethro Tull), Ric Sanders (ex-Soft Machine and Albion Band), Dave Mattacks (ex-Albion Band, and many other artists) and Chris Leslie (session artist for many including the Albion Band, Ian Anderson and All About Eve) are consummate musicians all. But I have to confess that whilst I have always been aware of the band I had never been to see them. I also know the names of the albums that they made in the 70s: ‘Unhalfbricking’, ‘Liege & Lief’ and ‘Babbacombe Lee’ for example, but I couldn’t name you a single song that they had recorded, a sad situation that has now been rectified. 🙂

With obvious links to both folk and prog there was always going to be something in there that would appeal to me, hence my decision to finally catch them at this late stage of their career. The band had been touring for a few months presenting an ostensibly acoustic set, but as this gig promised the addition of Dave Mattacks on drums to liven it up even more (who knew that he could also play the electric piano and could double up as a ‘cheap’ percussionist with a circlet of bells around his left ankle?) and was ridiculously local for me (nine miles away) I decided to strike while the iron was still relatively lukewarm.

As I have already intimated, all of the songs were new to me, and I enjoyed just about all of them, although there was the odd mournful dirge not helped by Sanders’ wailing violin. One thing you know with folk-rock is that you are always going to be able to hear just about all of the lyrics and that those words are going to make sense, to tell a story (unlike the usual drivel of both pop and rock music). More often than not the story is about life at sea in the 17th-19th centuries, or a press-ganged youth, a forlorn or jilted maiden, a wicked land-owner, the difficulties or joys of farming life, or the interfering magic of witches, sprites and elves. It’s never dull in the world of folk-rock music! And so it played out with tonight’s set.

It was an interesting handover from Plumhall who had Fairport accompany their final song, the band then staying on stage and launching into long-standing set opener ‘Walk Awhile’ and from there on every song was loud, clear and enjoyable. If each song had a back-story, then we were told it (‘Hawkwood’s Army‘ was particularly interesting, as was the Ralph McTell connection behind ‘The Hiring Fair’), and the fact that the band interacted well with the audience was a real bonus (although I could have cheerfully done without Sanders’ session of crap jokes). Highlights for me were ‘Hawkwood’, ‘Hiring’ and the brilliant ‘Matty Groves’, which Nicol described as “a bona fide folk song with nineteen verses, all in the right order if you’re lucky,  and only two chords because, let’s face it, that’s all you need.”

The set closed with Plumhall invited back on to add their voices to the encore, the well-received and obvious fan favourite ‘Meet on the Ledge’ and with that my two hours with the band had passed very pleasantly. I shall now be checking Spotify to listen to a couple of the albums before I try hunting them out at my local second-hand vinyl shop.

I’ll add photographs as and when some crop up. None at all at the moment!

Setlist: Set 1: Walk Awhile; Genesis Hall; Bankruptured; Hawkwood’s Army; Sir William Gower; The Festival Bell; Sloth; Set 2: Don’t Reveal My Name; The Happy Man; Crazy Man Michael; The Year of Fifty Nine; I’m Already There; Polly on the Shore; Steampunkery; The Hiring Fair; Matty Groves; Encore: Meet on the Ledge (w/Plumhall)

Online flyer