Fairport Convention Celebrate 40th Anniversary with Acoustic Tour of the U.K. May 2008

Fairport Convention were the first British electric folk band, spearheading an explosion in the late 60’s and early 70’s with bands like Steeleye Span, The Incredible String Band, Pentangle, The Strawbs and many more.

In their early days they were dubbed ‘The British Jefferson Airplane’ a title that perhaps says more about the ignorance of American promoters than the music itself.

Despite electric guitars Fairport and their contemporaries are much more closely aligned to traditional music than the folk of 1960’s USA.

Liege and Lief (1969) is probably their best loved album voted the 'most important folk album of all time' by BBC 2 radiolisteners in 2002, and 'Most Influential Folk Album Of All Time' for the BBC 2 Folk Awards in 2006.

It reached number 17 in the UK album charts.

Fairport Convention are still going strong to this day and despite many line-up changes celebrate their 40^th Anniversary this year.

They kicked off celebrations with a UK tour in Febuary and have just announced a new “acoustic’ tour planned for May, 2008.

All the current members of the band will be in attendance: Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie and Gerry Conway.

Tour commences May 1 in Shrewsbury and ends May 31 in Chipping Norton.

More info: http://www.fairportconvention.com

Image: Courtesy Atlantic