The 550 capacity venue (incongruous by approach in its laddish hyper-corporatism but opening up into a very pleasing environment for folk) is relatively light in attendance – but then London is notoriously fickle.
It’s a Friday and day two of a six-date tour, the line-up augmented by PJ Wright (The Dylan Project and Little Johnny England), Kathryn Roberts (Equation, Sean Lakeman) and Sally Barker (The Poozies – plus TV’s ‘The Voice’).Ī crowd of devotees now white-haired with a sprinkle of younger enquirers of the genre have gathered to drink at the font. Scratch the surface of a Galley Beggar or Trembling Bell and a Fairport or Steeleye, a Fuschia or Tree, reveal.Ī super-group yet a commercial slight in the day, Fotheringay has been stilled for some 45 years now.Ĭlosed down by founder and ex-Fairport Convention singer Sandy Denny after only one album in 1971, she and husband/co-member Trevor Lucas tragically long dead, its revival seemed unlikely.Īnd yet – doubtless prompted by the publication of Sandy’s latest biography, Mick Houghton’s impressive ‘I’ve Always Kept A Unicorn’ and Universal’s four-disc collection, ‘Nothing More: The Collected Fotheringay’ (a mopping up of the live and unreleased), the three surviving members of the original band – Jerry Donahue, Gerry Conway and Pat Donaldson – emerge somewhat self-consciously onto a stage beneath Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge ground in London. Most are faded, without light since the glory days of the early 70′s, some weathered but kicking hard at the traces.
The re-ascendancy of folk rock continues apace and unsurprisingly its antecedents are dusted down, peered at, prodded. Share the post "Gig review: FOTHERINGAY – Under The Bridge, London, 19 June 2015"