(Getting Ye Olde Band Back Together)

John Allan: January 2026

After the gluttonous excesses of the Xmas and New Year holidays, I was basking on my recliner watching the 5^th Ashes series between Australia and England. Two names were prominent on the bottom left hand corner of the television. England batsman Joe Root and Harry Brook.

In my near slumber I thought the two names together sounded like a British folk rock band of the seventies.

What Joerootharrybrook?
Sounds a bit carnal!

No. Rootbrook !

That, dear readers, is how my warped mind works.

Fairport Convention got the whole ball rolling in the late sixties. They played traditional English folk tunes with a rock band backing, a smattering of fiddle and mandolin. The fact that they had the UK’s greatest singer ever, Sandy Denny, also helped their cause immensely. Denny went on to form the short lived Fotheringay before going solo. She tragically passed away at the age of 31.

This more or less set the folk rock blueprint for the seventies that came to the general public’s attention with Steeleye Span’s “All Around My Hat”, reaching number 5 in the pop charts in 1975. Span was the brainchild of original Fairport bassist Ashley Hutchings.

Other folk-inspired bands to chart were Lindisfarne with “Meet Me On The Corner”, number 5 in 1971 and “Part Of The Union” by The Strawbs, reaching number 2 in 1973. A band Sandy Denny once performed with.

Pentangle with their unique folky jazz sound were always on the turntable in many a UK bedsit.

If you liked your folk with a medieval/renaissance bent then Gryphon was the band for you. All sackbuts and crumhorns with a rock beat. And that wasn’t the punch line to a dark ages fart joke! “Imagine Henry VIII in a rock band” was how their publicist tried to market it.

Prog rockers Jethro Tull dabbled with the genre with former Fairport Dave Pegg on bass for several years before he returned to the fold.

Rockers Thin Lizzy even got in on the act with “Whiskey In the Jar” in 1972.

Paul McCartney’s Wings, ably accompanied by the Campbeltown Pipe Band, waltzed us around in 1977 with “Mull Of Kintyre”.

Scotland too had its own brand with those bonnie lads from the Isle of Skye, Runrig being a favourite at home and beyond. I hear two of them are now Scottish politicians.

The JSD Band blended traditional Scottish tunes with a guitar/bass/drum backing.

Ireland, always a haven for good traditional music, brought us Planxty. The mix of uillean pipes, mandolin, bouzouki and bodhran was thought as sacrilegious by many a traditionalist but the young folk loved it (pun intended). Along with Sweeney’s Men they were the backbone of many future Irish artistes such as Moving Hearts, Clannad, Riverdance and the Pogues.

I had the pleasure of seeing the great Christy Moore of Planxty live in Perth WA in the 1990s. One man, one voice, a guitar and a single spotlight on a darkened stage. Mesmerising. Still get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Horslips brought their own brand of Celtic Rock to the party.

The gran and grandpas of the genre, Fairport Convention, still perform.
What started as a private function for about 750 family, friends and fans back in July 1976 in a small Oxfordshire village has grown into the annual Fairport Cropredy Convention, a three-day music festival worth adding to your bucket list if you are in the area.

From their website “Fairport did for real ale what the Grateful Dead did for LSD”

So, there is only one major artist I have missed out!

The re-mastered 1975 hit album Rootbrook Live by the legendary folk rock disciples Rootbrook, including such classics as :-

• Dingly Dell Delerium
• Fair Maidens All
• The Battle of Rootbrook Bridge
• Alack, Alas My Bonnie Lass
• Underworld
• Wizard Wilfred The Wonderful
• Alright Squire ?
• Fol-De-Rock ‘n Roller

……………and many more. Available on all good music streaming platforms now!