Ashley Hutchings, the Godfather of folk rock, celebrates a huge milestone with a star studded show at Birmingham Town Hall.

Birthday parties, penchants and pecadilloes

They like birthdays and anniversaries, do folk-rockers, especially if ex-Fairport folk-rockers. And perhaps the one who likes them most is Ashley Hutchings, the dapper bass player of their first expansive flush, as he set about inventing folk-rock within a peculiarly English framework. Not Joni, Dylan and the Byrds, though, of course, that was where they started the band off with. Folk where that meant broadsheets and ballads, rock where it meant, well, him, Mattacks, Thompson, Nicol, Swarb and Sandy.

With his inexhaustible appetite for invention, from Fairport he launched Steeleye Span, staying for three records ahead leaping off and heading forward and past, simultaneously, for umpteen Albion Country, Albion Dance and plain old Albion Bands, with innumerable other projects crowding alongside. Adding in the dynasty of Morris On albums, the Ashley Hutchings All-Stars, his Big Beat Combo and Rainbow Chasers, let alone myriad one-offs exploring his penchants and peccadilloes, around Englands that are no more. You can see just how his catalogue contains upward of a hundred releases.

THE LAST BIG BASH

Still, back to birthdays, many may recall, even own, memories of his last Big Bash, similarly at Birmingham’s Town Hall, then to celebrate his 50th birthday. I wasn’t there, but I have the cassette, and it is a fine record of his journey thus far. Now 30 years later, much of the same cast were duly reassembled, together with all those getting on the bus in the subsequent 3 decades. So much to be remembered, and so little time, the evening comprised 3 sets, each of roughly 45 minutes, starting, promptly at 7 and closing 15 minutes shy of 11pm. A near capacity Town Hall was crammed with long time fans, there for the long haul, stretched and faded T shirts revealing quite at which point of the journey they had come on board.

Fairporters convene and albions arrive

How to start, and the beginning seemed a fair place. Clearly not every member of the venerable family tree of Fairport could be present, with Hutchings’ intro giving a roll call of those lost along the way, Martin Lamble, Swarb, Sandy, with a specific mention also for one living member, unable to be present here this night, Dave Mattacks. But we could see already who was there, a broadly grinning Richard Thompson and the inscrutable yet perma-bemused Simon Nicol, the first two musicians who teamed up with the slightly older bassist, as they rehearsed at Fairport, Nicol’s family home, back in 1967.

It was straight into a brace of Liege and Lief-ers, Come All Ye and The Deserter, that they began. Two fiddles, courtesy Ric Sanders and Joe Broughton, came with drums from Guy Fletcher, all Albion-eers or Morris On Band at some stage, and bass from the Guv’nor himself. Mother and daughter, Chris and Kellie While provided the vocal front line. It was magnificent, both faithful and embellished. Sparing the birthday boy, Banter‘s Mark Jolley took over the bass for the second song, so as to protect the great man’s fingers. No fluffs or nerves apparent, Nicol and Thompson sparred the dynamic excellently, on electric and acoustic respectively.

ALL CHANGE

It was all change next, all but the fiddlers and Jolley leaving the stage, with replacements provided by Ken, no relation, Nicol, on a natty green electric guitar, and the drum seat now taken by Neil Marshall. For those unfamiliar, like many other Hutchings compositions or co-writes, Wings is an autobiographical song, dropping Swarb’s name into a lyrical history of early Fairport. Blair Dunlop, aka Hutchings junior, the brains behind the show’s organisation, also appeared now, for the first time, as too did Becky Mills.

What followed was a brief chat, the first of three similar short interludes, the first being with a man introduced as a legend, whom he has first seen, at folk clubs, in 1962. Cue Martin Carthy, who then sang Old Joan and the Mike Waterson penned A Stitch In Time. The first he accompanied with his still distinctive and rhythmic guitar style, the second acapella. Sadly, until the very end, that was the last of him we saw.

Bob who?

Anyone who has visited the Hutchings website, or seen the advertising for this show, cannot be but unaware of the link to one Bob Dylan, and how he and Hutchings have become great pals of late, through the medium of e-mail, with quotes from Dylan littering the programme too, at Dylan’s direct request.

One of Hutchings more recent projects has been the Dylancentric band, formed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dylan appearing at the Isle of Wight festival. So we got a brace of Dylan’s, with Maggie’s Farm and Sooner Or Later (One Of Us Must Know), with Dunlop and Ken Nicol back on stage, along with a few younger musicians that I, and to be fair, Hutchings seemed a little unfamiliar with. Irrespective, cracking versions both, with Hutchings plugging away manfully on bass for the first.

So much to do and so little time, swiftly on to a couple of songs from the early to middle Albions, with Cathy LeSurf dragged out of retirement to sing Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow and an epic The Shipwreck. Apologising for rustiness, the singer was in fine fettle, and, as many commented, that residual shrillness of 40 years back has now dissipated, leaving for, actually, a better than then experience. These songs needed and got Phil Beer on, playing a classic hollow frame guitar, together with John Shepherd on twinkling keys. Dave Whetstone, nominally more a dance Band than plain, added melodeon, with the Fletcher/Jolley reliable keeping the frame main. It was a perfect place, following the soaring climaxes of Shipwreck, for the first set to finish.

a splendid racket

A swift swallow saw yet another Albion iteration on stage. With no mention of “the crumhorn problem”, Hutchings described his then love for ancient music, and Halek Brawl demonstrated that perfectly, even without any woodwind, via the splendid racket cooked up by a returning Ric Sanders, Pete Bullock, a remaining Whetstone and the mighty Michael Gregory on drums and, as ever, red Chelsea boots. Who have I missed? And yes, of course, Graeme Taylor, on incandescent guitar, the yin to the earlier Thompson yang. As we were clearly fast approaching Tams time, a short conversation with John Tams followed, although he was not yet ready for singing, the Rise Up Like The Sun era put on hold for a little yet.

With little regard for chronology, it was the Rainbow Chasers period that came up next, with Ruth Angell, Jo Hamilton, Mark Hutchinson and Joe Topping, a unit that, said Hutchings, drew insufficient acclaim in their day. With stunning ensemble vocals, I think they prove him right, The River and About Dawn was all we got, but I feel sure many of the more grizzled veterans in the audience, those more Fairport/Steeleye/Albion aligned, may have found something they missed earlier.

JIM Points to Gloucester

I am uncertain the link, if any, between Jim Moray and Hutchings, other than mutual appreciation, that perhaps sufficient for him to be granted a solo spot, delivering a stellar Young Henry Martin. Maybe it was to group together the next tranche of musicians. By Gloucester Docks is Hutching’s own favourite of his releases, and, in the endless procession of consummate and seasoned vocalists, Polly Bolton now provided exquisite testimony thereto, with To Ireland I Made My Way and Brief Encounters. She was joined, for the second by Becky Mills, returning to the stage. The band mixed and matched many who had appeared already, with Taylor again a stand-out. With Michael Maloney reading out/acting out some Chekov, to acknowledge the spoken word aspect of the Hutchings oeuvre, the second set finished with the very Come And See Me ambience of Thirty Two Years And A Lifetime, Ken Nicol now trying to remind all with how good a guitarist is he too. (He is!)

Headingley heaven (other traditions available)

So much fun was I having, I had quite forgotten another diamond up Hutching’s cuff, namely the noble art of Morris. He hadn’t, and so there was, to open act 3, the wonderful spectacle and sound of John Kirkpatrick and Thompson, R, reuniting after rather too long. Sanders and Beer together played Barry Dransfield, on fiddle, with Fletcher/Jolley the engine room. This had followed a final of the 3 chats, Hutchings with Kirkpatrick, prompting memories also of The Compleat Dancing Master.

As the musicians launched into Princess Royal, lo and behold, on came a suitably bedecked Simon Care, both dancing and playing his melodeon, simultaneously. In Headington heaven, they then played a tight and solid Willow Tree Set, it so lovely to see Kirkpatrick and Thompson together, playing off one another, and enjoying each others company. Unmissable.

With Willows still in mind, Hutchings’ tribute to all things arboreal, Sway With Me, now got some attention, with Julie Matthews’ electric piano setting of The Willow, sung, beautifully, as on the record, by Judy Dunlop, mother of Blair. Go North paired Matthews back up with Chris While, and daughter Kellie, backed by Care, Beer, Nicol, K, and Marshall. Aka The Albion Acoustic Band, in its own many variations. Oddly, The Party’s Over did not then feature Tams, but. with singing from Beer, amongst others, it was more than satisfactory. Where the Tam? Well, he was still standing, to give a rousing Poor Old Horse. By now the stage was filling with all and sundry, but with Simon Nicol, Sanders, Bullock and Gregory all present from the epochal band that played on the original, it was a stonker. As was a terrific Time To Ring Some Changes, with verses, in turn, from Thompson, Nicol, S and Tams, featuring also a blistering guitar duel between Thompson and Taylor.

Who Knows?

That seemed to be the end, some shuffling off stage, whilst others were still too lit up to follow suit. “I think this is the encore,” said Kellie While, and indeed it was, for perhaps one of the more moving renditions of Who Knows Where The Time Goes? yet played, and there have been a lot, especially from the many and various present here tonight. With Thompson echoing the sound of the original Fairport version, Kellie While sang like an angel, to a roomful of wet cheeks and shiny faces. Unless there is a 90th, we won’t see the likes of this again, but never say never.

What a night, what a celebration and what wonderful times we have been given these past six decades. Thanks, Ashley!!

Of course people had their phones out, with thanks to Chris Wright for showing quite where the time did go…

Ashley Hutchings: Website

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