Fairport Convention Autumn Tour 2024 – Victoria Hall, Settle: Live Review

By At The Barrier on 17th October 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Fairport Convention – Victoria Hall, Settle – 16th October 2024

a new tour

It’s the second date of the Fairport Convention Autumn jaunt, and so far, so we’re told, all is going well. The theatre is full and there’s a warm glow inside while outside the severe weather warning threat suggest that many may need to catch a ferry home.

Exactly one year ago we were in Settle’s Victoria Hall (world’s oldest music hall) for the Fairport Autumn Tour. The backdrop curtains remain in place and Ric Sanders may have even been wearing the same Grateful Dead T shirt. They even started with Walk Awhile, ended with Matty Groves and encored with Meet On The Ledge with regular visits to Banbury dotted about. There was even a band and entourage trip to the regular Bradford curry house on the way from Sheffield apparently. Deja Vu?

Not really, as amongst the first names on the teamsheet (or songs on the setlist) there’s plenty of variation to ensure that the band’s second annual tour is a popular draw. A time when the core quartet can sit down and present a more sedate and relaxed set having worked up some variations on a selection of the vast repertoire.

The Victoria Hall is an acoustically friendly venue and ideal for the warm melodic tones, which for approximately 2 hours gave us a much needed dose of Fairport therapy. Just the tonic after driving through biblical rain storms and floods. With Nigel Schofield the FC biographer in attendance in the VIP area and chipping in with factual knowledge, even the lads can’t remember (or don’t mention) how he helped introduce the their first single Now Be Thankful.

traditions and tweaks

As usual the FC set includes songs gifted to them by guest writers, those penned by messrs Thompson and Swarbrick from yesteryear and more recently by Peggy himself. Ric’s instrumentals are always a delight and of course a generous helping comes from the songwriting machine of Chris Leslie. His dreamy delivery on The Fossil Hunter told the tale of paleontologist Mary Anning whose achievements were very much unrecognized at the time. It’s a beautiful song which is perfect fare for the acoustic format. Fourth song in, it also saw Chris on his second wind instrument of the evening.

Staples amongst the current and old setlist were Dr Of Physick and Banks Of Sweet Primroses (again adding to the air of gentility and a contrast to the “don’t have nightmares” warning of the former), which is as close to traditional folk as FC get as they have always maintained they are not a folk group. They have been labelled (maybe branded) with the folk rock tag since Leige & Lief, which married their brand of rock to folk music, and from it came their lovely acoustic version of Crazy Man Michael.

Chris and Simon shared the main lead vocal role with a feature of tonight’s performance being a regular burst of song from Chris linked to his hometown, Banbury. His memories of seeking love came through on Banbury Fair, his UFO experiences in the rock n roll Year Of 59 and his song of two brothers who envied each other’s lifestyles in the haunting melody of I’m Already There. Ric’s fiddle work on I’m Already there is exemplary; his two breaks upping the tempo from the low key verses.

highlights and highlights

The acoustic tour always shows the strengths of Simon Nicol’s singing with songs like Cider Rain and Simon Marson’s Over The Lancashire Hills, probably a bit of risk on t’other side of the Pennines…… but he survived. The intro (“a jolly nice tune“) to the latter saw him wresting the capo while Chris adjusted his man bun; for some of us in the seats, the thought that as we’d travelled over them, it seemed a highlight of the set.

Another highlight of the evening was the violin virtuosity of Ric in Steampunkery and with a stunning duet (or is it a duel?) with Chris in John Gaudie. Peggy revealed his composition skills with the complex Bankruptured where he again called upon Simon’s intricate guitar fingering skills. While these two tunes may be almost expected, the inclusion of a cover version isn’t a common feature in the FC set. Acknowledging James Taylor’s The Frozen Man (as the man himself has even done) Simon refers to how it’s “a sore thumb – but a happy sore thumb,” whilst commenting how it’s a song that they feel is hard to do justice. “It’s bloody difficult to play!” he adds.

The traditional, in more than one sense, ending of Matty Groves (long on verses short on chords) brought the evening to an end and of course the chance for us all to participate on Meet On The Ledge, which was much enjoyed. And so the tour catches the wind. Watch out for further reports from down the road as the FC bus rolls on.