Folk rock legends Fairport Convention have released a new ensemble version of their 1969 classic Meet On The Ledge as a charity single. Proceeds from downloads will be donated to Help Musicians UK, formerly the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund.
“Help Musicians UK has been doing its best to support people through the Covid-19 crisis so it is the logical choice of beneficiary," says Fairport singer SImon Nichol. "Those on the single are professional musicians themselves so this is something by musicians for musicians.”
You can watch the ensemble video in full below, which reunites the song's writer Richard Thompson with his old Fairport band mates as well as drummer Dave Mattacks who drummed on the Liege And Leaf album which featured Meet On The Ledge.
Also featured are Rosalie Cunningham, Clannad singer Moya Brennan and a host of singer songwriters from the folk world including Ralph McTell, Chris and Kellie While, Martin Joseph, Emily Barker, Maddie Morris, Rob Allum of Turin Brakes and more.
The festival’s finale would’ve seen most of the line-up joining Fairport on stage to sing Meet On The Ledge at Fairport’s annual three-day festival at Cropredy in Oxfordshire in August 2020. The idea of creating a virtual replacement for this ensemble performance came from BBC Radio Oxford producer Will Banks who invited the musicians to film themselves performing to a guitar guide track. The resulting videos were stitched together to form a high-quality audio and video stream which was first broadcast on Radio Oxford on Saturday 15 August.
