Beeswing: Folk Rock, Fairport And Finding My Voice 1967-75

Richard Thompson FABER

Further along the ledge.

Richard Thompson does not relish going into the attic. It’s not what he does and he knows what he will find: the story of a bunch of middle-class, well-educated North London kids who form a band in the idealism of the late 60s and bring unfashionable folk into the rock mainstream, before he sets out on his own.

It’s not a difficult story to tell, once the memories start flowing. There are descriptions of the scholarly approach they took to the ground-breaking Liege And Lief album. But he cannot explain how or why he wrote Fairports favourite Meet On The Ledge – the stirring anthem that is the finale of every Cropredy Festival – in his Brent bedsit when he was 19.

There are memories he cannot erase, such as the M1 crash as the band returned from a gig in Birmingham, killing his girlfriend and their drummer. And there are recovered memories like getting laid in Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, or the time he was nearly raped by a mentally ill fan after her minders popped out for a smoke – both episodes having been turned into songs.

The story ends with the breakup of his marriage and the tragic death of former Fairports singer Sandy Denny, by which time Thompson’s frequently dissatisfied soul has been soothed by sufism. ■■■■■■■■■■