Unhalfbricking

Unhalfbricking, released in 1969, was the third album by British band Fairport Convention. It reached number 12 in the UK album charts and marked a departure from the label of “the English Jefferson Airplane”.

After their previous album had seen original singer Judy Dyble replaced by Sandy Denny, the group’s male vocalist Iain Matthews also left, and Denny took a more central role. Although covering then unreleased tracks by Bob Dylan, Denny’s “Autopsy”, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” (which would become her signature song), and the lengthy “A Sailor’s Life”, set the tone for the future of British folk rock. Allmusic’s Richie Unterberger described Unhalfbricking as “a transitional album for the young Fairport Convention, in which the group shed its closest ties to its American folk-rock influences and started to edge toward a more traditional British folk-slanted sound”’

Shortly before the album was released, while returning from a gig in Birmingham, a serious road accident claimed the lives of drummer Martin Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn, a noted dress designer and guitarist Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Unhalfbricking appeared, therefore, at a difficult time for the group, but was enthusiastically received. After a period of intense reflection about their future they decided to pursue the folk rock idea further and violinist Dave Swarbrick was invited to join full-time for the follow-up, Liege & Lief.

The title Unhalfbricking arose from a word-game played by the band while travelling to and from gigs. The sleeve design featured neither title nor band name, but simply a picture of Denny’s parents, Neil & Edna Denny, standing outside the family home in Wimbledon, south London, with the band distantly visible through the garden fence.