In 2006 a BBC poll voted Fairport Convention's groundbreaking 1969 album 'Liege
& Lief' the most important folk album of all time, confirming their status as
the ultimate pioneers of British folk-rock. Their roots lay in the Ethnic
Shuffle Orchestra, in which Simon Nicol and Ashley Hutchings both played before
linking up with brilliant young guitarist Richard Thompson to form Fairport
Convention, named after the house where Nicol's father had his medical practice.
Initially committed to creating a UK equivalent of American West Coast rock
bands, they switched course to encompa...