Fairport Convention
Fillmore West
San Francisco, CA
1970-08-31

Dave Swarbrick-fiddle, mandolin, vocals
Richard Thompson-guitar, vocals
Dave Pegg-bass, vocals
Simon Nicol-guitar, vocals
Dave Mattacks-drums

source/lineage-cd-r trade of VG audience capture recorded on unknown equipment> EAC> Audacity> TLH > DIME

01 Fillmore FC intro 0:15
02 Walk Awhile 3:49
03 RT and SN microphone complaints and banter 1:39
04 Dirty Linen 3:57
05 More Stage shenanigans 3:35
06 Staines Morris 3:51
07 More Stage stuff and banter 0:49
08 The Lark in the Morning > Rakish Paddy > Foxhunters' Jig > Toss the Feathers 3:54
09 Confused introductory remarks for.... 1:28
10 Now Be Thankful 2:28
11 Yet more stage stuff 1:18
12 Matty Groves 8:40
13 Banter and tuning 1:59
14 Banks of the Sweet Primroses 4:20
15 Tuning, more banter 4:21
16 DM drum intro to 1:22
17 Flatback Caper 6:01
18 Band members introduce each other 1:18
19 Sloth 12:16
20 Banter and Musical interlude while DP had a Pee Break 7:14
21 Tam Lin (cuts) 8:47
22 Final silliness 1:29
23 Sir Patrick Spens 3:36

The last 2 days of August, and into early September of 1970, Fairport was in the middle of a bill at the Fillmore West headlined by Savoy Brown, with Chicken Shack as the openers. To give an idea of life on the road for rock bands then, Savoy and Fairport were on a bill at the Fillmore East in NYC for 3 nights immediately prior to this run in San Francisco. Fleetwood Mac was also on that NYC bill, and sets by all 3 bands from one of those NY nights have circulated pretty often as "A Night at the Fillmore". Not so, for this one set from Fairport in San Francisco. If the dimebot archive is accurate on this point, this only ran once on EZT in 2004 when it was shared by garion221, and hasn't appeared since. I got my copy in a cd-r trade. Thanks to whoever had made it available to me, and to whoever it was that recorded this Fairport set.
This is an audience recording of a fine set by the Full House version of the band (with Richard Thompson). It's a very loose set, relative to attitude, but the music is wonderful, and some sonic tools from Audacity were applied for this current share to make it sound a bit better than it had (check the samples below). It was also found to have a few digi-gaps (one of which you'll still hear in a "before" section on a sample below). I found as many as I could in the musical tracks, and repaired them with Audacity. That's to say, I didn't examine all of the "banter" tracks, so it's possible that a couple of digi-gaps might still reside in them.
There are people who go to a show who seem to want the band to "Get on with it! Just play.". There are those who see that approach to live playing as a mark of professionalism. On the other hand, there are, and have been, bands that are quite relaxed onstage in that time in between songs and sometimes make it appear that there's no particular hurry to jump into that next piece of music. Once upon a time before the advent of locked tuning systems on stringed instruments and accurate digital tuners, that might've had a lot to do with tuning issues and swapping something like a fiddle for a mandolin on the next tune. I've seen Fairport many times going back to a couple of months before the show in this particular share, and on up to trips across the pond to their Cropredy Festival (not since 2009, I'm afraid). I have to say that they're a chatty group onstage, and that those who go to see them seem to appreciate that. Some seem to even find it to be endearing (I do). That's all being mentioned because the chattiness in this Fillmore show almost reaches an extreme and absurd point at times here (e.g. Dave Pegg's pee break!). About 20 minutes of this hour and a half show is what I've christened "stage shenanigans" (for the title of track 5). Some of that is in reference to sound and equipment. Why is the vocal missing for a verse on Walk Awhile? The answer seems to be that a microphone hadn't been set up for one of the vocalists! Other parts have to do with filling up dead air during tuning, or just for the sake of sharing a joke from Swarb.
The great news though, is that musically the band delivers in a BIG way. The performances are terrific, and the sonic enhancements here make this quite listenable. You'll even get a chance to hear Simon Nicol introduce his fellow guitarist as Henry, the Human Fly (to preview a future RT album title). If you're a fan of the early Fairport days, you'll enjoy this one.


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