Fairport Convention

Few British groups have shaped their sound as thoroughly as Fairport Convention. Formed in 1967 around guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, with bassist Ashley Hutchings, the band began by drawing on North American folk rock, with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs dominating their set list, a leaning that earned them the nickname 'the British Jefferson Airplane'. Then a turn towards traditional British music, pushed by vocalist Sandy Denny, redrew their identity entirely.

The turning point came with Unhalfbricking in 1969, where 'A Sailor's Life' paired a traditional British song with a rock beat, a move the source credits with laying groundwork for British folk rock. Shortly before that album appeared, a crash on the M1 killed drummer Martin Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn, and the group committed wholly to British folk for Liege & Lief, a focus they have kept ever since. Their farewell concert in Cropredy, Oxfordshire, in 1979 gave rise to the Cropredy Festival, now Britain's largest folk festival, with annual attendances of around 20,000. The band reformed in 1985 and released their 29th studio album, Shuffle and Go, in 2020.