Meet On The Ledge - Broughton Castle, Aug 1981

[treespiritdances]

OMG!!! I was there!!! Drooool ... that was such an amazing weekend ....

[26at116]

Wow! I was there too :) I'd never heard of Fairport, and my girlfriend at the time's family were friends with the band (as the band used to practice in their village hall at Aston le Walls) so I was priviliged to hang backstage and watched the show from the wings stage left! That started a love of Fairport which lasts to this day. Im now 46... Yikes!

[wideeyedandfretless]

Whoops! I checked the pics and it was Cropredy 1980 when I was hanging in the scaffolding taking snaps! What a night - Hook Norton fueled if I recall - hitched back to Oxford, fell asleep in a ditch, finally got back to Wimbledon at about 10AM. Happy days!! Broughton Castle was pretty good as well in 81 - Theakstons was mighty fine and I went back to Oxford in the back of an MG Midget - that's the little gap behind the seats - with the hood up. I must have n=been an awful lot smaller back then!

[wideeyedandfretless]

I was there - stage right, up in the scaffolding, taking photos - and that certainly wasn't a fag - very mellow down wind.

Fun, small, laid back and local - those were the days. Just another festival now trading on past glories and padding itself out to three days with anyone who's knocking about - Status Quo? Please!?!

[12Racer99]

Pegge DOES look very mellow

[KerrAvonAlpha]

Hmm, that's not a fag they're sharing!

[stampingdragon]

I was at this gig, I camped with some friends, it was the last summer that I lived in the area, I was just finished doing o levels at the Wariner School and moving to Germany that September. Happy Memories. I remember the Theakstons wagon very well.

[strawhouse65]

I sneaked in to this gig with some of my mates from the next village. We didn't stay long but I remember that as we left we could hear some hippy guy venting his spleen against the oppulence of the castle et al. I wondered if the combination of poor security and the perceived innapropriateness of hippy sentimentality of the lord put an end to further events in broughton. Took the kids to cropredy this year but like other people have said it's not the same really. Things never are.

[RABCNESBITTT]

Nice to see Swarb and Ralph sharing a fag! and playing electric gtr

[thirdfloorit]

Thanks for putting this up

[toadjust]

Crops is still fun but it has lost it's Fairport who? intimate atmosphere. You won't be leaning over the front of the stage for a start. Part of the greatness of the early reunions was that we never knew if it would all come round again.

[folkiebassplayer]

Many thanks to Sir P Spens for posting this, I was there and remember it as a brilliant weekend.

I have no idea if Cropredy is still fun or not, maybe I should go this year and find out?

[ElvenDane]

Wondering what they were smoking - they look very happy ;-)

[toadjust]

Oh Happy Day!

Perhapse it's me, but Cropredy was more fun in those days. Even if it was at Broughton Castle.

Nice to see Swarb and Ralph sharing a fag!

[sirpatrickspens]

I wasn't at Cropredy until 1985 but even then it was more 'fun', the band appeared to be less interested in the professional appearance and more about the enjoyment of it all - but then they were a lot younger then. It all changed when Simon grew that beard - I kid you not!

[PamK36]

So if he shaved it off, it would all change back? :)