Fairport Convention star on charity single – ‘Meet On The Ledge’

Meet On The Ledge
Photograph by Dai Jeffries (2012)

Folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention feature on a new ensemble recording of their classic song ‘Meet On The Ledge’. The song is released today (26 August 2020) as a charity single. Proceeds from downloads will be donated to Help Musicians UK, formerly the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund.

The single features all five current members of Fairport Convention plus Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Ralph McTell, Moya Brennan, Chris and Kellie While, Rosalie Cunningham, Emily Barker, Martin Joseph, Graeme Taylor, Joziah Longo, Rob Allum, Ollie Knights, Scott Doonican, and Maddie Morris. With twenty performers this line-up is being billed as ‘Fairport’s Cropredy 20’.

Most of the musicians on the single had been due to perform at Fairport’s annual three-day festival at Cropredy in Oxfordshire in August 2020. But like so many similar events the festival was postponed because of the Covid 19 pandemic.

The festival’s finale would’ve seen most of the line-up joining Fairport on stage to sing ‘Meet On The Ledge’. The idea of creating a virtual replacement for this ensemble performance came from BBC Radio Oxford producer Will Banks. He invited the musicians to film themselves performing to a guitar guide track. The resulting videos were stitched together to form a high-quality audio and video stream which was first broadcast on Radio Oxford on Saturday 15 August.

Fairport’s singer/guitarist Simon Nicol says: “Help Musicians UK has been doing its best to support people through the Covid 19 crisis so it is the logical choice of beneficiary. Those on the single are professional musicians themselves so this is something by musicians for musicians.”

The single is available now from iTunes at this link:
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/meet-on-the-ledge-single/1529135148

The single is also available from Amazon Music.

Anyone wanting to make a donation to Help Musicians UK should follow this link: http://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/fairport 

Artists’ website: https://www.fairportconvention.com/

Fairport’s Cropredy 20 – ‘Meet On The Ledge’: