Sandy Denny Saves Zigzag!

I spent a couple of weeks last month reading Mick Houghton's excellent new biography of Sandy Denny - I've Always Kept A Unicorn (Faber) and reviewed it for Caught By The River - http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2015/03/ive-always-kept-a-unicorn-the-biography-of-sandy-denny-mick-houghton/. Discerning music lovers of my generation whose tastes were broadened and developed in the mid-to-late sixties will hold a special place in their hearts for Denny and Fairport Convention from that era. Not to deride the current Fairport line-up but the Fairport Convention of the late sixties that made What We Did On Our Holidays and Unhalfbricking were a truly remarkable band and if tragedy hadn't struck and events conspired to change the course of their history then one can't help feeling that Sandy Denny might have achieved more acclaim and success than she ultimately did. Even today, almost thirty eight years later, her death and music's loss is still too harrowing for many to re-visit. Zigzag founder Pete Frame - one of the first writers to recognise Denny's talent, reminded me that we both owe a debt to Denny and Fairport that we'll never be able to repay. In its early days Zigzag, like almost every magazine that is independently funded, went through severe financial difficulties and it was a benefit concert, headlined by Fairport Convention and also featuring Mighty Baby, that raised the cash for the magazine to stay afloat and allowed Pete to continue to edit it. The photo at the top of this piece shows the cover of the very first issue of Zigzag with Sandy Denny on the cover alongside an ad for the benefit concert that appeared in issue number six. If Zigzag hadn't survived then my life might have been completely different as well. I wouldn't have succeeded Connor McKnight as editor and would have had to settle for a proper job. Perish the thought.