This time, we rejoin John Tobler’s 1991 notes from the CD insert, where he has just finished writing about “Liege & Lief”:
“At that point, as the new decade started, Fairport lost two key members. There had been conflict between Ashley Hutchings and Sandy Denny over whether the group should further pursue the direction taken by “Liege And Lief” [sic] – Hutchings was excited by the prospect, but Denny, who had been aware of the tradition before joining Fairport, preferred to form her own group, Fotheringay, with Trevor Lucas, whom she later married. Ultimately, both the dissenters left, Hutchings to form Steeleye Span and Denny to launch Fotheringay (which was named after a song about Mary, Queen of Scots, which Sandy had sung on “What We Did On Our Holidays”). It would have been problematic to replace Britain’s foremost female vocalist, so they didn’t try, but new bass player Dave Pegg had played in several groups around the Birmingham area (including The Uglys, with Steve Gibbons), and was well regarded in the Midlands.”
As ever, far above in this blog you can find MUCH more detail about all of this.
In any event, next time, God willing, we shall resume with John Tobler’s noble notes.
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