Post by Rabbit on Oct 13, 2013 14:12:45 GMT
Fairport Convention are a wonderful British folk rock band whose output is enormous. They go back a long way and are such a friendly bunch of guys. I have seen them many times live and meet them after their shows for a chat where the converstations continue on from the last time.
Chris Leslie is a really friendly chap who plays like a genius and doesn't read a note of music. In fact they're all really nice people who make themselves availble to their audiences after all their shows.
Another absolutely brilliant fiddle player who is ex- Fairport is Dave Swarbrick. A genius of folk music. Chris has a voice that reminds me of Dave in many ways - a beautiful folk tenor voice and he sings so beautifully in tune as well. So Chris and Dave are two greats in my mind. Chris in particular is a really friendly guy. Dave was reported as having died a few years back but he is still very much alive and playing in a wheelchair; working in the field of more traditional folk music.
Well, following recent events here on DIYAH, I mentioned Babbacombe Lee. I have actually been down to the place where John Lee lived and was sentenced to death by hanging, in Devon. (Near Torquay) He was arrested for a murder that he may not have done.
Fairport wrote an unusual album (for them) - Babbacombe Lee which tells his story and there is something about this album that is really haunting. The original isn't brilliantly recorded but the quality of the album's songs is wonderful. They developed it as a concept type album and it kind of builds and builds to the point of his hanging with some really awful feelings depicted leading up to him being taken out to the scaffold.
They tried to hang him three times. The scaffold refused to work each time they put him in place and the law in those days only allowed 3 attempts before the convicted person was allowed to go free.
So John Lee was not hanged in the end but this album gets quite tense and then the last song with the hook 'Dying's very easy, waiting's very hard'. They describe his feelings as they attempt to hang him. The instrumental solos rock around each verse and then the carpenters were called. They claimed that rain had warped the timbers. He still couldn't be hanged so Lee was set free.
This is a great album and worth listening to the words. Even the hangman was apologising to Lee for not being able to get it over with. Lee was only in his twenties when this happened. His life makes an interesting read.
This album is terrific and worth a listen. So are Fairport's other albums including ....
Babbacombe Lee, The Bonny Bunch of Roses, Fame and Glory, Festival Bell, The Five Seasons, Jewel in the Crown, Liege and Lief, Nine, Over the Next Hill, Red and Gold, Tippler's Tales, Who Knows Where the Time Goes, The Wood and the Wire, XXXV
Many others too.
Chris Leslie is a really friendly chap who plays like a genius and doesn't read a note of music. In fact they're all really nice people who make themselves availble to their audiences after all their shows.
Another absolutely brilliant fiddle player who is ex- Fairport is Dave Swarbrick. A genius of folk music. Chris has a voice that reminds me of Dave in many ways - a beautiful folk tenor voice and he sings so beautifully in tune as well. So Chris and Dave are two greats in my mind. Chris in particular is a really friendly guy. Dave was reported as having died a few years back but he is still very much alive and playing in a wheelchair; working in the field of more traditional folk music.
Well, following recent events here on DIYAH, I mentioned Babbacombe Lee. I have actually been down to the place where John Lee lived and was sentenced to death by hanging, in Devon. (Near Torquay) He was arrested for a murder that he may not have done.
Fairport wrote an unusual album (for them) - Babbacombe Lee which tells his story and there is something about this album that is really haunting. The original isn't brilliantly recorded but the quality of the album's songs is wonderful. They developed it as a concept type album and it kind of builds and builds to the point of his hanging with some really awful feelings depicted leading up to him being taken out to the scaffold.
They tried to hang him three times. The scaffold refused to work each time they put him in place and the law in those days only allowed 3 attempts before the convicted person was allowed to go free.
So John Lee was not hanged in the end but this album gets quite tense and then the last song with the hook 'Dying's very easy, waiting's very hard'. They describe his feelings as they attempt to hang him. The instrumental solos rock around each verse and then the carpenters were called. They claimed that rain had warped the timbers. He still couldn't be hanged so Lee was set free.
This is a great album and worth listening to the words. Even the hangman was apologising to Lee for not being able to get it over with. Lee was only in his twenties when this happened. His life makes an interesting read.
This album is terrific and worth a listen. So are Fairport's other albums including ....
Babbacombe Lee, The Bonny Bunch of Roses, Fame and Glory, Festival Bell, The Five Seasons, Jewel in the Crown, Liege and Lief, Nine, Over the Next Hill, Red and Gold, Tippler's Tales, Who Knows Where the Time Goes, The Wood and the Wire, XXXV
Many others too.