31 Facts About Simon Nicol

Simon Nicol was a founding member of British folk rock group Fairport Convention and is the only founding member still in the band.

Simon Nicol has been involved with the Albion Band and a wide range of musical projects, both as a collaborator, producer and as a solo artist.

Simon Nicol has received several awards for his work and career.

Simon Nicol began to play guitar at the age of 11 and left school at 15.

Simon Nicol contributed his first composition to the band for their second album What We Did on Our Holidays, the short instrumental "End of a Holiday".

Besides contributing rhythm guitar and backing vocals to this album, Simon Nicol played the autoharp on some songs.

Simon Nicol was injured in the accident that killed drummer Martin Lamble on 12 May 1969, but when he and the band recovered they recorded what is usually considered their masterpiece and the most important single album in British folk rock, Liege and Lief, which is credited as the key recording in the creation of the British folk rock genre and which helped institute a major surge of interest in British folk music.

When Thompson left soon after, Simon Nicol had to take over lead guitar duties.

Simon Nicol demonstrated that he was a multi-instrumentalist playing bass guitar, viola and dulcimer.

Simon Nicol began song writing on the next two albums Angel Delight and "Babbacombe" Lee.

Simon Nicol took over some of the production duties on Babbacombe Lee, but his efforts were not well received by the band, and this, together with unhappiness with having to fill Thompson's shoes, led him to decide to move on and in 1971 he left the band, the last of the original members to do so.

Just about the time that Simon Nicol left Fairport Convention, Hutchings had quit Steeleye Span and began to work on the first incarnation of the Albion Country Band to provide backing for his then wife Shirley Collins.

Simon Nicol joined the long list of musicians, including former Fairport members Richard Thompson and Dave Mattacks, to contribute to No Roses, often considered one of the most important British folk rock albums.

In 1972 Simon Nicol was part of the by now reduced six-piece-line up of the Albion Country Band featuring vocalists Royston Wood and Steve Ashley, Sue Draheim on fiddle, Ashley Hutchings on bass guitar and Dave Mattacks on drums.

Later that year Simon Nicol played on and co-produced the Thompsons' Hokey Pokey album.

When Hutchings tried to reform the Albion Band for an album in 1973, Simon Nicol joined again, but the resulting work, Battle of the Field, was not released until 1976.

Simon Nicol took part in some of sessions for Hutchings' next project the Etchingham Steam Band, but never formally joined the group.

Simon Nicol produced the album Rough Diamonds for the highly regarded Jack the Lad, and began to play with Swarbrick and Pegg in a low key trio, Three Desperate Mortgages, which toured student venues across Britain.

In 1976 Simon Nicol was the main guitarist on Ashley Hutchings' second Morris dance revival project, Son of Morris On.

Simon Nicol came back to work with Fairport as a sound engineer on what was originally a solo project for Swarbrick, Gottle O' Geer.

Simon Nicol played some guitar along with contributions from members of Fairport Convention and it was eventually released as a Fairport album to complete contractual obligations.

In 1977 Simon Nicol joined Hutchings' reformed Albion Dance Band for the album The Prospect Before Us and in 1978 as The Albion Band they produced arguably the finest album of the group's history, Rise Up Like the Sun.

In contrast the next two Fairport albums, The Bonny Bunch of Roses and Tipplers Tales, although well produced and played, and generally thought to have benefited from Simon Nicol's growing guitar technique and confidence in singing, sold so poorly that the record label Vertigo paid the band off.

Simon Nicol toured and recorded with Richard and Linda Thompson from 1979 to 1982 and then with Richard Thompson in 1983 and 1984.

Simon Nicol formed an acoustic duo with Dave Swarbrick, with whom he recorded three albums.

Simon Nicol continued to take part in annual reunions with Fairport, at what was by now the Cropredy Festival, to growing crowds.

In 1985 Simon Nicol joined in the recording of the Fairport album Gladys' Leap, on which, as well as playing guitar, he shared production credits, contributed the song "Wat Tyler", arranged traditional tunes and acted as lead singer for the first time.

Simon Nicol continued to undertake work with a wide variety of artists, including a tour with Art Garfunkel in 1988 and playing on albums by Beverley Craven and Beth Nielsen Chapman.

In 1997, Simon Nicol left the Albion Band and began to focus more directly on Fairport Convention, but able to share vocal duties with Chris Leslie and taking over some of the responsibility for organising the Cropredy Festival from 2005.

Simon Nicol regularly rejoins the now suspended Albion Band for their Albion Christmas tours and continues to record with Fairport and other artists.

In 2009, Simon Nicol reunited with original Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble, playing on two tracks on her album Talking with Strangers.