FFA caught up with Simon Nicol, founder member of Fairport Convention; acknowledged as major innovators of Folk Rock and one of the most influential British bands ever, for an in-depth discussion about the band, Cropredy, and the Fairport family in all its guises. FFA found his insights fascinating. See what you think……

FFA – Let’s start with Cropredy -  Over the years the musical scope has widened to include many  different genres and the audience has progressively grown from less than a thousand to around twenty thousand…. was that a deliberate policy and how has that impacted the audience?

Cropredy is the highlight of the year – it’s got motive power – it’s an engine … it ignites everyone who comes to it in a frenzy of Fairport related stuff. It reinforces the loyalty and strength and depth of our core audience … but we’re not just a bunch of exclusive people playing to a cadre of like-minded, similar aged people. We run the festival as a way of introducing a broad church of music to the widest range possible of fun loving festival going people…. within a family basis – the majority are not there as singletons – many are there as part of vertically extended families – so a lot of people at the festival now were introduced to the band as children. There are also a lot of neighbourly groups and friendship clubs and the like who know that they can come and camp with one another and have a really fabulous 3 or 4 days.

A lot of people are not really bothered whether Fairport are on or not to be honest! They know that Cropredy is a lot more than the sum of its parts. Mind you – being our festival we always put ourselves top of the bill! (laughs). It is very hard work because you’ve always got to top last year or match the best years in peoples memory. It’s made easier because we deliberately avoid any pigeonholing – we don’t call it a folk festival – or an ‘anything’ kind of festival … it’s just musical entertainment….. We can always do better – but we can never do worse!

FFA - This year’s festival features the likes of Alice Cooper & 10cc …. Do you see that has further pushing the boundaries?

If you look down the roster of acts that have appeared down the years I think the only things they all have in common is the excellence of what they bring to the party, and their own abilities at the top of their fields….. but also the fact that we all find, as band members, something very inspiring in their performances.  

So to be on the Cropredy stage we’ve got to:  A/ respect what you do, and B/ like what you do….those are the yardsticks we apply.

FFA - So you wouldn’t rule anyone out who fitted those criteria then?

 ….. Certainly not anyone we could afford! (laughs). We actively pursued the likes of Steve Winwood and Status Quo for many years before we finally got there. There are others that still remain on the wish list year on year on year….. I won’t mention their names as that might queer the possibility completely (laughs again).

We hoped, but never expected, to get Alice Cooper because I know what a sensational festival act he is. People queried why we got Status Quo as they could see no cross-over … but after their first number they have everyone on the end of the hook!

You obviously have to have those kind of ‘billboard names’ just to alert the media and make peoples ears prick up a bit, but that’s not necessarily where the value of the weekend can come from – because it’s really the unknown acts, the surprises, that get people. I’m thinking of acts that walk on stage with about 50 people in the audience being aware of them and within about five minutes they’d made about 10 thousand new friends. It really can happen – The Travelling Band has that effect. Brother and Bones are another.

FFA - Most festivals these days have more than one stage, have you ever considered more stages at Cropredy?

We keep bashing this idea around every year. It’s my strong belief that it’s a fine idea but with multiple stages people always have their heads in a programme, they miss full band sets, there are people in motion all the time, and, for three days, do you really want non-stop music? I think you want a break – so we have leisurely change overs, we’re very strict with the timings, and we deliberately give people time to decompress between acts. And we are very fortunate of course that if people do want more hustle & bustle all they need to do is walk 5 minutes into the village and there is a whole fringe festival going on, which is organised and run by the villagers themselves, and have that kind of atmosphere there. For instance both the village pubs have stages.

FFA – like the scene in the Brasenose car park for instance? 

Absolutely! This is a tremendous benefit for the band because if people want a break, they can have a little walk and it’s completely ‘other’ to the festival site and so everyone gets their own options.

FFA - Musically Fairport have obviously evolved too – over the years the introduction of say Jerry Donahue introduced more of a country feel & Ric Sanders more of a jazz fused influence. Again, was that a deliberate policy, or organic?

It’s organic – it’s the people first. When Jerry joined for instance, the direction he steered the music was a really interesting direction and it re-charged and gave direction to a band which was possibly feeling a little bit stodgy and less vibrant - and that was a good thing. It’s terrific that he’s remained a good friend. The ‘big feature’ items that he played – obviously well there is only one Jerry Donahue – well the band isn’t going to go on stage and tackle a tune like ‘Tokyo’ (laughs again). Fairport is a broad envelope and even when a similar repertoire has remained through many different line-ups - every time a different manifestation or incarnation of the band has tackled those songs; whilst the song remains the same - the approach, the style, the flavour of it, changes with the individual makeup.

If we were a band living on a musical past of a sequence of hit records in a short period of time, which is the fate of many bands who formed a long time ago and are still treading the boards, then the ethos would be to slavishly represent, and re-present, those performances – in effect you’d become your own tribute band. You’d be trying to re-create the person you were a generation and a half ago – now that’s not something Fairport would ever do. One of the many reasons we can’t do that of course is that we don’t have that catalogue of hits! (laughs)…. So we’ve avoided the trappings of success! (laughs louder).

FFA – So would you say you were a core band of current members at the hub surrounded by satellites of like-minded artists where there is great scope for collaboration?

Yes, and, it’s terrific that that includes ex band members as well, like Richard Thompson, like Ashley Hutchings, like Jerry Donahue, who can come back and make their flavours mix in with the current one. I’m deeply grateful, and recognise my good fortune, in having a hobby that I love which has turned into a job and then a career…. But still seems to be able to still make a living – how did that happen! He chuckles.

FFA - In 2003 you played at the Cambridge Folk Festival as a last minute replacement for Linda Thompson who was ill. Is there any reason it took so long for you make your first appearance at Cambridge?

We’d never played it as ‘Fairport’ but we’d all obviously been there in different colours as side men in other bands. In fact when Ken Woollard was running it he’d send us a bunch of tickets and people just used to go – even if it was just to paper the car park with adverts for Cropredy! ….We’d obviously not undertake festivals in this country if we feel that it would damage the value of our own appearance at Cropredy… that’s one of the reasons. 2003 was an exception because, as you say, Linda Thompson was ill, and we were offered the slot at short notice. Both festivals were about a week apart and both had virtually sold out so there was no obvious conflict – so we said that would be lovely. …. And we had a really nice time!

FFA – But you’ve made some other rare summer festival appearances in the UK over the years?

We’d played Beautiful Days, but that was largely a done deal as the Levellers had played at our own festival the year before. The other exception is Glastonbury of course, which is such an unusual place – it’s a world of its own. We don’t feel it’s our place to over-expose ourselves in the summer in this country …. We do enough of that in the winter! He laughs.

FFA - Talking of touring - what can we expect on your forthcoming acoustic tour?

I’m not really sure – I haven’t written the list yet! We had a very successful winter tour – one of the best in many years…The main different between the two will be that this is a much smaller venue tour, and we are not touring with our own production – so it’s much more loose limbed and it’s a little bit more less structured if you know what I mean. We can be much more flexible, certainly more relaxed – we tend to sit down – it’s more conversational. Fairport have never been a band to live on its mystique – we always been both sides of the footlights – we try and destroy that barrier. We’ve always been a band that is approachable.

FFA – yep – I think you usually spend the first 10 minutes of a set waving to people in the crowd that you recognise. You’ve also acknowledged the bond with the crowd by playing songs selected by fan feedback?

A year or so ago we brought out ‘By Popular Request’ and the songs on that were chosen by, well, popular request – we did an email survey and that was a salutatory and interesting lesson, and it’s led on to some good returns to the repertoire from some songs we may not have otherwise approached. So we’ll certainly extend this – we always receive requests for songs with great interest. If a song rises to the top of the list or whatever, we’ll have a look at it and see what comes out… but we certainly won’t be doing an ‘all request’ show!

FFA – Finally, does being regarded as the founders of English Electric Folk / Folk Rock create its own burden for the band - as you are always under the microscope and there are constant comparisons with past versions of Fairport?

I don’t find that burdensome at all because I’m not in competition with my past, and I’m not a slave to it…. But I’m very honoured that it’s there and people remember it. As far as being referred to as ‘the elder stateman’ … I don’t care what they call me so long as they spell my name right!

FFA assured Mr Nickholls that we’d at least get that one correct and said our goodbyes to this charming and thoughtful gentle man who has influenced so much of the development of the music scene over many a decade.

Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2013 returns to Cropredy in Oxfordshire Thu 8th to Sat 10th August 2013 – details HERE.

Details of Fairport’s May - June UK Tour HERE.

Read more about the band HERE.

Article by Barrie Dimond