SIMON NICOL
Interviewed by Andy Bassett via email in June 1998
Having missed out on the chance to interview Simon during Fairport's 1996 visit to NZ, I took the opportunity to do so via email, when we were briefly in contact to attempt to cost out an NZ tour for the band.
AB: I was one of the 25,000 at Fairport's 30th anniversary celebration at Cropredy 97. That has to be one of the highlights of Fairport's career and obviously an emotional occasion all round. How did it feel being up there, going through such a musical history?
Nicol: Hard Work! The preparation was lengthy and exhaustive: and when it came to the day, one just looked at the list and worried about the next cue, the next bit of Ashley’s narrative, the next change of line up and whether the next guest was ready in the wings. Remembering the actual arrangements of rarely- performed songs was relegated to a minor detail in the light of the bigger picture and its smooth operation. As it happened, everyone really pulled their weight and worked hard to make it musically a success as well as a seamless, quasi-theatrical event. The Festival set is obviously always the high spot of the year, but we did recognise how ambitious we were setting out to be in attempting to represent the 30 years in the 61 songs. (Of which I had four off! - but DM only had One!!) As ever the actual time flew by - while at the same time the list seemed never to be getting any shorter. And starting in daylight, where you can see virtually every face in the field and then watching the circle of illumination shrink to the first thirty rows or so while the natural intimacy of the event develops and you begin to really feel the genuine affection people in the ranks there assembled there is a seriously gratifying experience.
Aside from that festival, is there any one moment which stands out to you as your highest point with Fairport?
Not a particular single event, no. My life in the band has been a continuum of experiences, some better than others but always worthwhile. Maybe getting a copy of the very first album, back in ‘67 was a watershed moment. And debuting the reborn line up after the crash, the reformation, and recording Liege and Lief at the Festival Hall in ‘69 felt cathartic.
When you left Fairport in late 1971, you were the last founding member to leave. What were your thoughts about Dave Pegg and Dave Swarbrick carrying on as Fairport Convention without any original members?
I wished them good luck and God speed, of course. Up until the time of my departure, Dec 4, 1971 (National Stadium, Dublin), I had never understood what it was that had caused members to become ex- members. It just had happened to me a couple of months prior, when half way through Sloth, on stage in San Antonio Texas, I’d suddenly thought "I don’t want to be doing this any more." To make things easier for us all, I finished the US tour and did the UK gigs that were in the diary. But if by your question you’re imputing preparatorily [I think he means proprietorial.] attitudes to me over the name and nature of the band you’d be well wrong.
Whatever happened to the proposed single of "She Is Woman" in 1984? (I saw you perform it at the Wimbledon Theatre once and, as I recall, it was hilarious)
The release of this song, a version of which I recorded at the time of the "Before Your Time" cd in 1986 using just self and over-the-top keyboards from the ineffable Peter Vetesse, was blocked by the writers, Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. (They later went on to find success with the "Red Dwarf" TV series.) At the time they were writing for Radio 4, and the song was originally broadcast on a satirical review programme, sung in the first person by a girl entrant in a kind of "Song for the Year of the Woman" contest . You must remember that active feminism was a living issue back then, and they objected to the song being taken out of context. Despite it having gone to air on the BBC, their claim to still hold the Copyright on it was upheld and we had to accede to their ban.
I continued to perform it from time to time through the 80’s, and it went down best in places like Yorkshire and Texas. Eventually, my wife’s objections to it ground me down and the song was retired.
During the 1970s, Swarbrick became synonymous with Fairport. When you, Pegg and Dave Mattacks reformed Fairport in 1985, were you concerned at how fans would react to a Fairport without Swarbrick?
When we reformed in ‘85, you must remember that it was on the back of the "Gladys’ Leap" album which both had excited us all and everyone we’d played it to prior to its release. Swarb himself had been quite unpleasant about it, and had at Cropredy of that year flung his weight about in a manner that didn’t endear him to us any, insisting we didn’t play any of the songs off the album, for instance. Our confidence in the quality of the new line-up and our faith in the loyalty of those we see as ‘our public’ plus the knowledge of the band’s record of surviving - sometimes thriving on the aftermath of- changes was quite sufficient to send us out to our first gigs with a spring in our collective step.
You recorded Kristina Olsen's "Dangerous" last year. I know Fairport and Kristina have a good relationship. Can we expect more Kristina covers from Fairport?
We’re always on the lookout for good songs. Sometimes our ‘pet’ writers - Ralph McTell, Huw Williams, Steve Tilston etc., actually write songs with us in mind. Maybe Kristina, if she ever stops touring for long enough, will do the same.
After 12 years without a personnel change, you've had two in the past 18 months. Chris Leslie appears to have fitted into the band very easily, following Maartin Allcock's departure. And now Dave Mattacks has become, by my reckoning, the only member of Fairport ever to have left three times (1972, 1975, 1998). You've elected not to replace him. With two fiddlers and no permanent drummer, where is Fairport's music heading now? (God, that was a long lead-up to a short question...)
That’s a hard one, and it is every time anyone asks it, as they do every time there’s a line-up change. We’ll always be bigger than the sum of our parts, that’s for sure. The observable difference this time is that instead of running, or attempting to run, two bands in parallel, one a 4-piece for smaller (or more distant)venues, the other a grander 5-piece with a broader musical palette, we are now rationalised to a permanent 4-piece which on occasion will employ a drummer.
Postscript: Dave Mattacks was eventually replaced by former Fotheringay drummer Gerry Conway, making Pat Donaldson the only member of Fotheringay never to have been in Fairport Convention.