A House In The Country

Fifty-two years ago, a very different Fairport Convention released Full House. Following up the genre-defining Liege & Lief was always going to be a challenge, but the band’s 1970 studio album became a pivotal point in their career. Released after both founder member Ashley Hutchings and vocalist Sandy Denny had left, it marked the arrival of bassist Dave ‘Peggy’ Pegg. To coincide with its performance in full at this year’s Cropredy Festival, Prog catches up with the album’s four surviving musicians – Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks – to uncover the story behind its creation.

Mike Barnes

“On my 22nd birthday – November 2, 1969 – I went to Mothers club in Birmingham with my ex-wife Christine to see Fairport Convention,” says the group’s current bassist Dave Pegg. “I had never seen them before but I knew [violinist] Dave Swarbrick from his work with Martin Carthy and I had played with him in the Ian Campbell Group. “It was a new approach to traditional music,” he recalls. “It was such a great band: the interplay between [guitarist] Richard Thompson and Swarbrick instrumentally, and of course Sandy Denny’s singing and the great rhythm section of [drummer] Dave Mattacks, [rhythm guitarist] Simon Nicol and [bassist] Ashley Hutchings. I was blown away and said to Christine, ‘I would love to join that band.’ And bizarrely I got a call next…

You're reading a preview of

Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 132

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.