Meet On The Ledge (5:14)

“Meet on the Ledge” was Fairport Convention’s second single and was released in December 1968. It is from their album What We Did on Our Holidays. Written by Richard Thompson when he was 17, it is said that Thompson was somewhat uncertain of his own vocals at the time of the first recording so Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews took the honours.

Over the years, Thompson has been evasive about the song’s actual meaning, although a schoolfriend is said to claim that Thompson had in mind a school reunion on Hampstead Heath, beneath a tree branch they knew as “the ledge”.

The song became Fairport Convention’s unofficial anthem. At their concerts and, particularly, at the ongoing Cropredy Festival, it is often performed as the last song and a signal to fans that there will be no more encores.