FAREWELL, FAREWELL

It seems astonishing now that this was indeed intended to be Fairport Convention's final ("Farewell") album. Certainly their days as a studio recording act were largely (but not completely) behind them, but the band continues to exist even today. At the time of its release, Dave Sawbrick's hearing problems had got so bad that he was intent on quitting amplified music all together. The band were without a recording contract, so they released "Farewell farewell" themselves, fully intent on disbanding.

Recorded during their 1979 UK tour, the line up at the time consisted of Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg and Rowland. Some of the vocals were re-recorded later at Chipping Norton Studios, but by and large the recording is untouched.

The album opens with one of Fairport's best known songs, "Matty groves". No Sandy Denny vocals here of course, and Dave Swarbrick's violin is even more up front than on the studio original. His solo on the latter half of the track is somewhat different too, leading into a spirited run through the classic "Orange Blossom special". After a faithful rendition of "John Lee" with Swarb on vocals, we have an amusingly incompetent version of "Bridge over the river Ash", complete with ad-libs by the band, and duly re-titled as usual to the name of a river near the venue.

The album continues with a good cross section of songs from the band's history, "Walk awhile" being an undoubted highlight. We close with the requiem for a former member "Meet on the ledge", which at the time had even greater poignancy, apparently standing as the band's own epitaph.

As live Fairport albums go, this is a fine representation of the band as they were live in the late 1970's. "Farewell Farewell" has since been re-issued as "Encore Encore" with many more tracks from the tour included.

The final venue on this "Farewell" tour was a field in Cropredy in England. This of course became the destination of an annual pilgrimage for Fairport fans, as the band re- convenes there yearly.