LOST ANOTHER ONE THEN?:
The sad news on the radio that we lost Dave Swarbrick hit me,
driving back from the studio. It was the album Full House that
first introduced me to Dave & Fairport Convention. Still my
favourite folk rock album, though tut-tutted by my die-hard
Fairport mates, every track on that record is a gem, especially
‘Flowers Of The Forest’. It had a profound influence on me,
showed me how to create melodies out of a drone, something I
would call on again & again when Underworld began making club music.
At a time when modulation in the bass just wouldn’t have cut it, yet
at the same time we were searching for ways to introduce melody t
through voice, it was the Fairports I would constantly return to for
inspiration. I will miss Dave’s inimitable electric fiddle playing,
& wish the electric violin was being explored more today in
contemporary music. What a fantastic sound, an over driven
electric fiddle.
(K)
Karl Hyde 
Again the light’s a little bit dimmer, some battles can never be won but the legacy lives on, timeless and eternal.
Sad news indeed. I belatedly became a Richard Thompson fan through his 90s material, but I didn’t know Fairport, sorry to say.
But the electric violin, YES! One of my most-cherished concert memories was a solo performance by Laurie Anderson in 1994; I just decided to close my eyes and sway on those waves of sound. Yeah, I looked like an idiot, so what. 🙂
Don’t get me started on Ms. Anderson unless you’ve got a month or so to spare. I’m usually wary of putting people on too high a pedestal, but I truly admire that woman. I’ll leave you with my favorite recorded solo of hers. Goosebumps.
Thanks for sharing Karl. As a big fan of both Fairport and Underworld, and not being too aware many others, I am delight that there are crosscurrents and song lines that connect 2 of my favourite groups of musicians.
I shall miss Swarb, and miss the pure energy of his playing. The pure joy of dancing to his tunes in a Oxfordshire field back in the 80s was a very similar experience to dancing to Underworld at the Brixton Academy 20 odd years later…