Fairport Convention play in Red and Gold Quiz

Answer: Set Me Up

The song "Set Me Up" is about a failing relationship, a common theme for songwriters. The chorus "There's no logic can be used to explain. How we made this situation. No answers, is it only a game. I'm choking on the seeds of doubt.", gives a fair taste of the theme of the song.

Apart from "On Morecambe Bay", the songs are all products of songwriter Dave Whetstone and all have been recorded by Fairport Convention. "Set Me Up" is obviously on this album, "Sock in It" is on "The Five Seasons" and "Head in a Sack" is to be found on the album "Gladys' Leap".

The song "On Morecambe Bay" was written by Kevin Littlewood and is about the tragedy in 2004 when twenty one (possibly more) Chinese cockle pickers were drowned by the incoming tide. This also means it has to have been written long after this album was recorded.

Answer: Hedge Cutting

The song is about the Battle of Cropredy Bridge in 1644, part of what is referred to as "The" English Civil War. I think we have had several more over the years, none of them particularly civil. This one was about whether the king should be in charge just because his father was. He lost, Oliver Cromwell took charge, and appointed his son as successor, no hypocrisy there.
In the song William is busy going about his work, cuts his hand and faints. When he comes to, he sees the battle raging a few fields away. The song describes the battle from his point of view.

Answer: Green & Brown

The relevant line is "Red and gold are royal colours, peasant colours are green and brown". This starts the refrain that opens the song and then appears at various points during the song. The lyrics also note that despite the different colours, "the blood they spilled was coloured just the same".
The song was written by Ralph McTell about the Battle of Cropredy, in 1644. Cropredy is also the site of the annual Fairport Reunion festival. In the lyrics booklet Ralph states that he conceived the song whilst in the festival audience "...watching the sun go down and the colours in the fields changing from green and brown to red and gold."
Of the other options, there is a song "The Scarlet and the Blue ", part of the soundtrack to the play Warhorse. Having listened to the song, to me it seems to be a reworking of the traditional Irish song "Off to Dublin in the Green".

Answer: Beggar

The title of the song tells all, "The Beggar's Song". Comparing the benefits of being free of all responsibility with those of being subjected to the duties of a monarch.
Although Fairport are classified as folk rock, for a more rocked up version I recommend seeking out the Bellowhead interpretation of the same song. Bellowhead did have the advantage of 11 musicians instead of five and included a brass section as part of their line-up.

Answer: The Winter Turning

The song starts with the lines; "Deep & dark are my true love's eyes. Blacker still is the winter turning." The phrase "the winter turning" I believe refers to the longest nights of the year, when most of the time is dark and dismal. The rest of the lyrics indicate that it is a song of love and remembrance, of sorrow at parting from one's love.
The song itself is a translation of an old Gaelic song. No record of the original tune was known but the translators' mother apparently agreed that the tune used was close to the version she remembered.

Answer: The Bonny Black Hare

"The Bonny Black Hare" is a song from the Fairport Convention album "Angel Delight". Of the three tunes on "Red and Gold", two of them are written by Ric Saunders whilst the third one "The Noise Club" is written by Martin Allcock.
Martin states in the lyric booklet that "The Noise Club" was also the name of his daughter's bedroom, (presumably 30+ years later this is no longer the case). Sadly Martin, also known as Maartin, died in 2018 from liver cancer. He was a member of Fairport Convention for over 10 years and also part of Jethro Tull.

Answer: Hartzover

The song is written by and about being a merchant seaman. The lyric, "I signed for a while on the old Hartzover" is the only point a ship is named. The story is set in the early to mid-twentieth century, "Signed to my master in the 1930's" and includes a visit to the West Indies where we are informed that the rum mucked up the singer's kidneys.

Answer: 3 (You and your lady and me)

All revealed at the start of the song; "All on a Saturday, bright as a bell. Early and just for the ride. We took a trip cycling down to the sea. You and your lady and I".
A song of idyllic peace, the lull before the storm that became World War 2.
Of the other options, solo is a reference to Sandy Denny's song "Solo". Sandy sang with Fairport Convention on several albums in the 1960s and 70s. The charabanc is a reference to Ralph McTell's song "Maginot Waltz" which is set just prior to World war 1, while the line of 6 names starting with Pugh, comes from the BBC children's programme, Trumpton.

Answer: Whitsun

If we consider summer to be the months of June, July and August then only one of these ever falls in summer and that is Whitsun. The first line establishes it as a Saturday and combined with the last two lines of the first verse "One day at Whitsun, the sea and the shore. The summer before the war." It can be seen that this is the Saturday of the Whitsun weekend.
Whitsun is the seventh Sunday after Easter and in the Gregorian calendar the range of dates for Easter is 22nd March to 25th April. Hence Whitsun is between the 10th May and 13th June. Prior to the start of World War 2 the Saturday of Whitsun weekend fell on the 27th May 1939 and 4th of June 1938. So if the song is meant to reflect a particular year it must be 1938. On the other hand it could just be convenience of the songwriter to regard the end of May as summer.
The songwriter responsible for this, Huw Williams, also wrote the song Ginny, which Fairport recorded on their album "The Five Seasons" and "Travelling by Steam" which appears on the Fairport album "Jewel in the Crown".

Answer: Homer

All of these names appear in titles on the "1975 Basement Tapes" album, but the relevant one is "Open the Door, Homer". Apart from Homer becoming Richard there are a few other minor changes in the lyrics from the version on the Bob Dylan website.
Fairport have recorded a number of Bob Dylan songs over the years, three appear on the album Unhalfbricking, including a French translation of "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" entitled "Si tu dois partir".