> Sandy Denny > Obituaries, Interviews and Articles > A curse on the house of Fairport?

A curse on the house of Fairport?

From the magazine Go Set, 29 June 1974

SANDY DENNY talks to TONY STEWART

THE FACTS are simple. Sandy Denny has gladly re-joined Fairport Convention, and now there's six of them again - for the first time since December, 1969.

The significance of the renewed alliance is naturally open to various interpretations. From Sandy's point of view, no doubt there's the advantage that she'll be able to see more of her hubby, Trevor Lucas. But obviously there's more to it than that.

The band's current musical stature means she's not stepping down from a promising solo career - of which Sandy is sufficient evidence - but moving over laterally, which certainly means no loss of face. And you can tell she's pleased about it by the way her infectious chuckle swells up and punctuates her sentences. There's forever this sly smile curling her lips into her cheeks.

“It's been in the air for a long time,” she says. “But last year it was out of the question because I had so many things to do - and so had they. So we didn't have any time to rehearse.”

“Then I went on tour with them at Christmas, because I thought it would be the best thing to do … I wouldn't have done, actually, if it hadn't been for the fact that the release date of my album was late. I decided that the gigs I hold for myself were a bit superfluous, because the record company likes you to do a lot of dates when you're promoting an album.”

“Anyway,” and she laughs, “Fairport were going to be away for two months and as I hadn't seen Trevor very much I thought I'd go with them.”

“We did quite a lot of gigs together and it just followed on from there. But we just couldn't get organised enough to make it a formal announcement.”

“But that isn't the only reason. It seemed a shame that we didn't pool all our qualities, and this is what we've finally decided to do. I've always liked Fairport as a band, and in their own form they're the best band in the country.”

“I always thought that anyway, and it was a drag they hadn't got me - then they would be the best band (chuckle), so I decided to do them a good turn.”

“Personally I've always felt it should be a six-piece, which it is now. And I think that after I left they should have got somebody to sing - but they never did.”

“I'd pride myself that they didn't want anybody else. I used to say, ‘Why don't you get yourself another singer? You need to be a six-piece’. And they'd say ‘Well, who can we get’, and I'd say (going coy), ‘Oooh, shucks’.”

Obviously Fairport now feel this is the best format to project their music, even though the band appears to be a mongrel of Fotheringay and Fairport - with Sandy, Trevor and Jerry Donahue from the former, and the three Daves (Swarbrick, Pegg and Mattacks) from the latter.

But even though it's a “successful combination”, as Miss Denny (otherwise known as Mrs. Lucas) explains, the reunion was far from easy.

“But if you're happy with the way things are musically.” she says, “then you're half walf to beating all these people who tell it's going to cost £85.000 million to go to the Isle of Wight for two days, and you're never gonna make any money - all this kind of stuff.”

“It gets really sick after a while, and you have to try and ride it out. At this particular moment all the musicians would like this to be permanent.”

“The past months have been a very heavy time. It's been hard for everybody to even survive and just smile through it. Everybody knows Fairport's a good band, but whether it can withstand any more of the stress that's being pressured on it is up to the individual members, and how liable they are to crack at any given moment.”

“But the band has incredible stamina. That's been proved in the last few months. I feel it's up to us to latch on to our own security.”

“We are a stable group of people, and for musicians to be quite stable, is quite something.”

However, as Sandy has already stated, Fairport are not clear of the problems they've frequently encountered during their existence.

Some of these problems, dating back to the death of their drummer Martin Lamble in June '69, have a sinister air. And this prompts for the following question.

Do you believe in the supernatural?

“Yes”, she replies.

Is there a curse on Fairport?

“Yes.”

“Well, I've said it, and I've said it to them in fact,” she elaborates, “But I believe there's no reason why we can't overcome it. I've suggested changing the name, I can take anything like that, because it doesn't matter to me. But I feel it would help them if they weren't called Fairport Convention.”

Always assuming they're not all killed in an air crash (still a phobia of Sandy), her feelings about rejoining Fairport are much more joyous than it sounds from all the talk of curses and hassles.

“It's like do or die”, she says with another chuckle. “The band have all gone through so much, and they nearly all got committed to an insane asylum. But they decided to have another bash. Why not?”

“I'd rather go and lose a million pounds a tour than go and sit behind four walls. Wouldn't you? I mean (laugh) we're trying to think up a way to lose our next million, which should be fun.”

Beneath the humour is a serious determination to see things through.

“I just think that I need them and they need me.” she states.

“We have a wonderful time together. Now it's just more natural. We've all got a bit older and gone through a few more marriages and few more divorces, and evolved.”