End of a Holiday

that is Fairport Convention playing, that is not Fairport Convention in the photograph

Meet On The Ledge

If Fairport Convention have a theme tune, this is it, Richard Thompson's masterpiece.

We used to say that come the day
We'd all be making songs
Or finding better words
These ideas never lasted long

The way is up along the road
The air is growing thin
Too many friends who tried
Blown off this mountain with the wind

Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again
Yet now I see I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again
Yet now I see I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again
Yet now I see I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

[Richard Thompson]

(Copyright © exists)

She Moves Through the Fair

My young love said to me "My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind"
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"

And she went away from me and moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she went onward, just one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came that her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"

[Padraic Colum/trad]

(Copyright © exists)

Tale In Hard Time

music by Fairport Convention, pictures by William Blake
and you can't say fairer than that!

Take the sun from my heart
Let me learn to despise
I'll show you another who cannot tell lies

The blind man can't see
Who demands to his eyes
I'll show you another who sings as he cries

I cannot be whole
As the beggar who sighs
I'll show you another who knows as he dies

[Richard Thompson]

(Copyright © exists)

Nottamun Town

In Nottamun Town not a soul would look up,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
To show me the way to fair Nottamun Town.

Met the King and the Queen, and a company more
Come a-walking behind and a-riding before
Come a stark naked drummer a-beating the drum
With his hands on his bosom, come marching along.

Sat down on a hard, hot cold frozen stone,
Ten thousand stood 'round me, yet I was alone
Took my hat in my hands for to keep my head warm,
Ten thousand got drownded that never was born.

In Nottamun Town not a soul would look up,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
To show me the way to fair Nottamun Town.

[Trad. arr. Fairport Convention]

(Copyright © exists)

I'll Keep It With Mine

You may search at any cost
But how long can you search for what's not lost?
Everybody will help you
Some people are very kind
But if I can save you any time

Come on, give it to me
I'll keep it with mine

I can't help it, if you might think I'm odd
If I say I'm loving you, not for what you are, but for what you're not
Everybody will help you
Discover what you set out to find
But if I can save you any time

Come on, give it to me
I'll keep it with mine

The train leaves at half past ten
But I'll be back tomorrow at the same time again
The conductor, he's weary
He's still stuck on the line
But if I can save you any time

Come on, give it to me
I'll keep it with mine

Copyright © 1965, 1968 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993, 1996 by
Special Rider Music

No Man's Land

Hey, come and make it easy
Hey, come and make it black
It's no use to be free
If lies are all the truth they see
They'll screw up what you do
When you're through

Hey, come and make it easy
Hey, come and make it black
If you need a friend
And you need a way to loose the end
You know a place for you
When you're through

Hey, come and make it easy
Hey, come and make it black
It's no use to be free
If lies are all the truth they see
They'll screw up what you do
When you're through

[Richard Thompson]

(Copyright © exists)

Book Song/Eastern Rain

If she knew what I’ve seen while I’m watching
Would she know where to smile, what to say?
When she leaves from her book to be with me
Where’s her mind as she stands while I play?

She left behind names in the pages
And the time she took out, they stayed in
Now she thinks that she maybe should tell them
Of my book and the places she’s been

Now she’s looking at me while I’m writing
Does she know where to smile, what to say?
When she leaves from her book to be with me
What’s she thinking about while I play?

[Ian Matthews/Richard Thompson]

(Copyright © exists)


Eastern Rain

Rain comes from the east one night
We watch it come
To hang like beaded curtains till the morning sun
Water dripping from our clothes
You, with raindrops on your nose
Ask me sadly, "Please don't go away, love"
"Till the rain is done," I say, "I'll stay now"

Rain outside but inside we don't mind at all
Shadows by the fire
Slowly climb and fall
Kisses fade and leave no trace
Whispers vanish into space
None will send me on a chase to nowhere
What matters if I were the first to go there?

Morning comes up from the east
We watch it come
And far away now rolls the angry rain god's drum
You, with daybreak in your eyes
Afraid to speak for telling lies
I watch you search for some reply to lend me
But when the rain is done we'll stop pretending

[Joni Mitchell]

Mr Lacey / Some Sweet Day

Bruce Lacey is a well known English "barmpot" who got up to all sorts of eccentric things

Please Mr Lacey, let me work your loving machine
Please Mr Lacey, let me work your loving machine
Will you let me control the handles,
you know it's the best thing I've ever seen

Well Mr Lacey, where'd you learn just what to do?
Well Mr Lacey, where'd you learn just what to do?
Can you fix me up now with a teacher,
I wanna become an inventor too

Why Mr Lacey, why d'you do the things you do?
Why Mr Lacey, why d'you do the things you do?
It's true no one here understands now
But maybe someday they'll catch up with you

[Ashley Hutchings]

(Copyright © exists)

Some Sweet Day

Some sweet day, some sweet day
I'm gonna hold you like I want to
I'm gonna kiss you like I want to
I'm gonna love you like I need to
Some sweet day

Some sweet day you will say
That you have started dreaming of me
That you love no one else above me,
I'll find a way to make you love me,
Some sweet day

I hope it won't be long
Till I can take you and make you my very own
Cause can't you see I get so tired
Of wishing and dreaming alone

Some sweet day, some sweet day
You'll get that twinkle in your eye, love
You're gonna look at me and sigh, love
And then you tell me that you're my love
Some sweet day

Some sweet day, some sweet day
You'll get that twinkle in your eye, love
You're gonna look at me and sigh, love
And then you tell me that you're my love
Some sweet day

[Felice & Boudleaux Bryant]

There are at least three Fairport Convention recordings of this song:

1. The oldest version dates from 1967 and has Judy Dyble singing harmony vocals. It can be found on Ashley Hutchings' 1994 anthology The Guv'nor Vol 1.

2. On May 28, 1968, they recorded it in BBC Studio 1, 201 Piccadilly, for John Peel's Top Gear radio show. It was produced by Bernie Andrews and broadcast on June 30, 1968. The track was released on the Heyday cassette and both of its CD versions and in 2007 on the 4CD set Live at the BBC.

3.The third version was recorded on January 16, 1969 as a possible single release but dropped in favour of Meet on the Ledge. It was finally made available as bonus track of the 2003 CD reissue of What We Did on Our Holidays.

mucho thanks go out to Reinhard Zierke for the notes

Fotheringay

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, born at Linlithgow, 8 December, 1542, She was
the only legitimate child of James V of Scotland. Mary was imprisoned for 21 years in the castle of Fotheringhay by Queen Elizabeth I for conspiring to overthrow Elizabeth and was executed there, in 1587.



How often she has gazed from castle windows o'er,
And watched the daylight passing within her captive wall,
With no-one to heed her call.

The evening hour is fading within the dwindling sun,
And in a lonely moment those embers will be gone
And the last of all the young birds flown.

Her days of precious freedom, forfeited long before,
To live such fruitless years behind a guarded door,
But those days will last no more.

Tomorrow at this hour she will be far away,
Much farther than these islands,
Or the lonely Fotheringay.

[Sandy Denny]

(Copyright © 1967 Warlock Music)

What we did on our holidays

What We Did on Our Holidays
Fairport Convention

Island ILPS 9092 (LP, UK, January 1969)

recorded: June-October 1968 at Sound Techniques and Olympic Studio No. 1, London except Track 4 recorded at St. Peter's Church, Westbourne Grove, West London. Further work done at Morgan Studios.

produced by: Joe Boyd for Witchseason Productions

front cover photograph: blackboard at Essex University
assaulted by Fairport Convention. photograph taken by Annie Brown

Alexandra Elene Mclean Denny, vocal;
Ian Matthews, vocal;
Martin Lamble, drums;
Simon Nicol, guitar;
Ashley Hutchings, bass;
Richard Thompson, guitar, vocal

Guests:
Bruce Lacey and his robots (track 2)
Claire Lowther, cello (track 3)
Kingsley Abbott Coins (Track 4),
Backing Vocals (Track 11)
Paul Ghosh, Andrew Horvitch,
Marc Ellington Backing Vocals (Track 11)

tracks

side 1

1. Fotheringay
[Denny] (3:04)

2. Mr Lacey
[Hutchings] (2:52)

3. Book Song
[Matthews/Thompson] (3:13)

4. The Lord Is in This Place
..."How Dreadful Is This Place"*
[Thompson/Hutchings] (1:58)

5. No Man's Land
[Thompson] (2:29)

6. I'll Keep It With Mine
[Dylan] (5:53)

side 2

Eastern Rain
[Joni Mitchell] (3:35)

Nottamun Town
[Trad. Arr.] (3:10)

Tale in Hard Time
[Thompson] (3:26)

She Moves Through the Fair
[P.Colum/Trad.] (4:11)

Meet on the Ledge
[Thompson] (2:49)

End of a Holiday
[Nicol] (1:07)

* "The Lord Is In This Place...
How Dreadful Is This Place" is
based upon "Dark Was The Night,
Cold Was The Ground" by
Blind Willie Johnson