On Your Marks… Get Set… Go! The annual Fairport Convention Winter Tour is here again.
The 2025 Wintour is a veritable marathon – 27 shows, covering all points of the compass, from Edinburgh to Worthing and Exeter to Southend. DM’s back and the chaps have a few pleasant surprises in store…
A NEW YEAR OF FAIRPORT ACTIVITY
They really mean it – it all comes round again. The launch of Fairport’s Wintour means that it’s time to forget Christmas and start looking forward to a new year of activity from camp Fairport. In the Fairportian calendar, Wintour gets things a-rolling, the Spring Tour keeps the wheel in motion and heightens our anticipation of Cropredy – the festival that is, of course, the highlight of our year – before the year is wound down, gently, with the band’s low-key autumn jaunt. It’s a sequence of events that we wouldn’t change for the world.
WINTOUR 2025
This year’s Wintour kicked off on 31st January at the Playhouse Theatre in Nottingham – a regular stopping point on Fairport’s UK itineraries (and a mere stone’s throw from the libatory delights of the Olde Trip to Jerusalem) – and runs until 2nd March, when the tour will wind up at – where else? – The Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury. It’s an extensive affair this year, and, that means that the tour will be visiting somewhere near YOU, so get yourself along to show (full itinerary here).
And extensive is the right word – 27 shows in just 31 days, with only Mondays off for good behaviour and to, in Dave Pegg’s words: “Change our skids.” Dave Mattacks has, once again, made the trip across the Atlantic to rejoin Simon, Peggy, Ric and Chris and, as Fairport’s vast congregation are all well aware, whenever DM sits behind his drumkit – or his keyboard – the sparks start to fly.
GLADYS’ LEAP – AND MORE…
This year, the Fairport rumour mill has been in overdrive, with talk of a few special surprises in store for the tour. 2025 sees the 40th anniversary of the band’s Gladys’ Leap album, the album that, in 1985, transformed Fairport back into an active touring entity after six years of semi-retirement. It was the first Fairport album to feature Ric Sanders on fiddle and the bright, immediate sound that the band achieved signaled a new, vibrant direction.
The songs still sound fantastic – The Hiring Fair is, of course, a permanent fixture in Fairport’s Cropredy set and it’s always nice to hear other favourites from the album: How Many Times, Bird From The Mountain, Honour and Praise, Instrumental Medley ’85 and Wat Tyler amongst them, whenever they’re wheeled out. And the rumours emanating from that aforementioned mill suggest that several of these gems will get an airing during the tour.
What’s more, the word is out that Fairport will be taking a few more deep dives into their extensive back-catalogue. Mouths are watering at the very prospect…
DANNY BRADLEY
As always, Fairport have selected a remarkably talented act to open their shows for them. This year’s honour goes to Danny Bradley. The Liverpudlian singer-songwriter is busy making a name for himself around the circuit. Danny is a finger-guitarist who, in 2021 won the Liverpool Acoustic Judges’ Award and who has already distinguished himself by opening for Martin Carthy, Tony McManus, John Gomm and Jeffrey Foucault.
He’s just completed his debut album, Small Talk Songs, and he’ll be featuring a selection of songs from that album, before being joined, onstage, by Fairport at the climax of his act. I’ve been attending Fairport’s Winter Tour shows since the early 1980s and their choice of opening act has never failed to delight me. Make sure that you don’t miss Danny Bradley.
GET YOUR TICKETS…
The shows are selling really well. Indeed, the gigs at Milton Keynes on 4th February and at Bridgnorth on 1st March are already sold out so, if you haven’t yet got your tickets for the show near you, we suggest that you act quickly – neither we nor Fairport want anyone to be disappointed. There has been a late change to the originally-published itinerary; the 20th February show, originally scheduled to take place at Stratford Playhouse will now take place at Leamington Spa’s Royal Spa Centre, as the Stratford venue has been temporarily closed.
This late change does mean that there are still a number of seats available at the Leamington venue so, if you’re still wondering which show to attend, why not pop along to Leamington? The town is handily-placed, right in the heart of England – and it’s just up the road from Cropredy, too, if you want to see what the village looks like when it’s not subjected to festival fever.
CROPREDY AHOY!
And, that brings us to Cropredy…
This year’s festival takes place between 7th-9th August in everyone’s favourite field at Home Farm, Cropredy, Oxfordshire. Fairport have taken the difficult – but sensible – decision to make this year’s festival a lower-key event than it had become over the past ten years or so. The COVID-enforced shut-downs of 2020 and 2021, coupled with significant rises in costs have had a devastating effect upon the UK festival industry and the organisers of many big-name festivals – most recently and, perhaps, surprisingly, Cambridge Folk Festival – have decided that the financial risks associated with holding their events are just too great. Thankfully, Fairport’s cautious approach means that this most-loved festival of all is living to fight on.
6,500 festival tickets have been offered for sale and I understand that around 1,000 of those remain available. The Festival ticket sales will, obviously, receive a boost from the Wintour so, again, our advice is – if you’re intending to go to Cropredy (and I, honestly, can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t) – order your tickets now – they’re available via this link.
MOUTHWATERING
There might be fewer people in attendance than the more recent converts to the Cropredy cause may be used to but, in all other respects, the festival will be just as we know and love it. The quality of food, drink, the toilets, the emporia and, most especially, the music, will be as good as ever (City Funk Orchestra! Trevor Horn! King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys! Rosalie Cunningham! Bob Fox & Billy Mitchell! Albert Lee! Plumhall! the list goes on and on..) and, if you’re a veteran of a certain age who remembers the festivals of the 80s and 90s, you’ll know that having a little extra space in which to move around is no bad thing, either! See you in the field!!
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