Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention, back in the van with a bag of toffees

Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention, back in the van with a bag of toffees

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold January 22, 2026 Duration: 37:15

Fairport tour again in 2026 and are playing their annual Cropredy Convention in August, its 50th year. The rolling Kent landscape behind him, co-founder Simon Nicol looks back at almost six decades in the line-up, the first shows he ever saw and played, why he can’t wait to get back on the tour bus again, and …  

 

… the intoxication of live music – “lost in a moment that’s never happened before and won’t be repeated”

 

… Count Basie at the Astoria, aged 7 – “the moulded Turkish ottomans! The massed ranks of brass!”

 

… December 4 1972, the day he left the band (and why)

 

… “we’ve been self-governing since we were kicked out in 1979”

 

… the Ravens in Muswell Hill the night they became the Kinks: “frock coats and hunting boots”

 

… Professor Bruce Lacey, the mad scientist-inventor celebrated in a Fairport song

 

… Ashley Hutchings’ Little Black Book where band line-ups were assembled: “like an executive chef who chose the ingredients but didn’t wash up”

 

… playing Mississippi Fred McDowell and country blues in the Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra

 

… narrative songs and the “shoulders-down” rhythms on Music From Big Pink and how Fairport found their identity

 

… finding obscure Phil Ochs, David Ackles and Joni Mitchell songs for early Fairport

 

… and the first Cropredy in the village hall in 1976: you can still arrive by barge!

 

Fairport Convention tour tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/gigs-tours/

 

Cropredy 2026 tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/tickets/

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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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