The fatal crash that forever changed Fairport Convention and British folk rock
(Credits: Far Out / Fairport Convention / AVRO) Mon 12 May 2025 14:00, UK "In 1969, no one thought of counselling or therapy," Richard Thompson wrote in his 2021 memoir Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975, "With British[1] fortitude, you soldiered on".
Thompson, at 76, is one of the finest living British guitarists and singer-songwriters, with close to 40 albums to his credit across his time with the pioneering folk-rock band, Fairport Convention[2] - a 1970s recording partnership with his then wife, Linda Thompson - and a long and heralded solo career. That entire journey, however, was very nearly cut short in its infancy when one fateful drive home from a Fairport gig in 1969 ended in tragedy and a total re-alignment of Thompson's life and career trajectory. "Two people died and four were injured," the London Evening Standard reported on May 12th, 1969, "When a mini-bus carrying the Fairport Convention pop group crashed on the M1 today...
The two who died were Martin Lamble, the group's 19-year-old drummer, and an American girl, Jeannie Franklyn." The 26-year-old Franklyn, who had just started dating Thompson a few weeks earlier, was known as 'Genie the Tailor' back in Los Angeles, where she ran a fashion boutique that boasted David Crosby, Mama Cass, and Donovan among its clientele. Thompson, who had only just turned 20 himself, later recalled how, after being thrown from the crashed minibus, he suddenly regained consciousness and went in search of his girlfriend and bandmates.
"I was finding it hard to breathe, and was almost blinded by the pain in my head," he wrote. "I looked around and saw Jeannie lying a few yards away, upside down, where the embankment sloped down from the road towards a golf course. I slowly crawled over to her. She was unconscious, but frowning, as if she was struggling to remember someone's name, but it was on the tip of her tongue.
There were small trickles of blood coming from her nose and in the corner of her mouth. Otherwise, she looked like she was sleeping peacefully. I felt for a pulse.
It was hammering incredibly fast. This did not seem like a good sign." Paramedics soon arrived on the scene, and Thompson, who had suffered broken ribs and a concussion, was loaded into an ambulance, separate from his friends.
It was only later that he learned that Franklyn and Lamble hadn't survived. The crash had come at a time when "life seemed good, and things were going well with Fairport", Thompson wrote, noting that the band's third album, Unhalfbricking[3], was about to be released. After a concert at a club called Mothers in Birmingham, however, the long, late-night drive home to London led to disaster, as Fairport's road manager, Harvey Brahan, fell asleep at the wheel.
Unfortunately, Thompson's attempt to grab control couldn't prevent the vehicle from careening off the road. The surviving band members all suffered serious injuries, except for singer Sandy Denny, who had travelled separately with her boyfriend and wasn't in the minibus. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were among the groups who sent flowers to the hospital.
Once everyone had recovered physically, Thompson, Denny, guitarist Simon Nicol, and bassist Ashley Hutchings met to discuss the future of Fairport Convention following Lamble's loss. "We were basically not very good at anything apart from being a band," Thompson wrote in Beeswing. "We had to go on--for the memory of Martin and Jeannie, if nothing else... However, we knew things would have to change.
We didn't want to play the songs that we'd played with Martin--it would be too painful. We decided that maybe this was the time for a new project. We had been moving towards the British tradition--perhaps now we should embrace it fully and make an album of traditional songs played with bass, drums and electric instruments."
That album, alongside the added talents of fiddler Dave Swarbrick and drummer Dave Mattacks, was Liege and Lief[4], a record still often cited as the launch point for modern British folk rock.
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References
- ^ British (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
- ^ folk-rock band, Fairport Convention (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
- ^ band's third album, Unhalfbricking (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
- ^ Liege and Lief (faroutmagazine.co.uk)