Magna Carta
On Saturday 23rd June 2018 at 7.45pm, the legendary folk/rock band Magna Carta fronted by founder member Chris Simpson took the stage at Sharrington Village Hall.
Used to playing to hundreds if not thousands, as you’ll see from the album cover below, this gig presented a unique opportunity to see them perform in an intimate venue. It was an evening of laughter and top quality music enjoyed by a sold out audience.
The band was founded in the late 1960’s by Chris Simpson and quickly became popular. Their seminal album ‘Seasons’ attracted great admiration and has helped them to sell millions over the course of their career thus far. The members of the band have changed several times over the last 49 years and, at one point, included Davey Johnstone, a hugely talented instrumentalist. Davey played with them at The Royal Albert Hall gig they performed with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He left the band to play with Elton John and has been his lead guitarist ever since.
Many albums followed including the brilliant ‘Lord of the Ages’ hailed by Rick Wakeman, a friend of Chris’s who plays on various Magna Carta tracks, as ‘arguably one of the greatest albums of its kind ever made.’
The lineup today consists of five band members three of whom came to Sharrington. The ever present Chris Simpson was here along with Wendy Ross on electric fiddle and Ken Nicol on acoustic guitar and mandolin.
Chris Simpson (photo – David Cottridge)
Chris is a fabulous songwriter. He has the soul of a poet and his lyrics are thoughtful and perceptive. He once was a brilliantly gifted guitarist but one day whilst swimming was bitten or stung by something. The resultant swelling required substantial surgery and after that Chris found himself unable to play the guitar! However, determined to overcome this obstacle, like a seed growing through concrete, he battled through the pain (which he still endures) and relearned how to play. Sadly, he couldn’t recover all the abilities he’d lost but he has been able to resume his career and continues to entertain thousands all around the world!
Wendy has had a notable career supporting various well-known bands such as Jethro Tull. Her brilliant and emotive violin playing complemented Chris’s songs perfectly and she subsequently gained great praise from the audience.
Ken is undoubtedly one of the finest guitarists in the country, if not the world! He spent several years with The Albion Band, eight years with Steeleye Span and frequently accompanied the likes of Al Stewart amongst others. During the performance here he performed a solo piece in which he demonstrated his remarkable skills leaving the audience spellbound and hungry for more!
Ken Nicol (photo – David Cottridge)
The band’s gentle teasing of each other was very amusing and Chris involved everyone in a rousing and thoroughly entertaining rendition of Donovan’s ‘Colours’.
It was a truly memorable evening which was long remembered by both the band ana all who were privileged to be there.
Chris Simpson has now passed his 80th birthday and, very reluctantly, has retired (at least for the time being!). Magna Carta’s last British gig was at Ripley Yorkshire in 2019. A farewell tour was arranged in Holland in late 2022. However, in 2023 a box set was released entitled ‘When All is Said and Done’. This included rare and unreleased material along with their final CD, ‘Fields of Eden’ Included in the set is a DVD of the Ripley gig. Here is a review about that evening’s entertainment:
‘Appearing for the first time ever in the fabulously intimate venue of Ripley Town Hall, there’s an atmosphere of reunion in the air, almost like an episode of ITV’s Long Lost Family. The chit-chat from the stage with local musicians and friends this veteran Harrogate-born musician hasn’t seen for decades breaks the ice, though the packed crowd in this soldout gig is in no need of thawing. The music itself just flows warm and sparkling from the latest superb line-up of the ever-evolving Magna Carta. There’s many an admiring glance on stage from Chris, not a man famed for his patience, towards the likes of the accomplished, multi-talented Ken Nicol on guitar, who deservedly gets his own solo spot at one point, and the dynamic Wendy Ross on zesty fiddle. The setlist is superb, visiting the full range of the band’s lengthy back catalogue from the late 1960s to the present day, revealing Chris and his prog-folk-pop band to be one of the last greatest ‘undiscovered’ musical gems from rock’s long-gone heyday. Despite the predominantly semi-acoustic tone, it’s a head-spinning musical journey from the catchy acoustic pop of Highway to Spain off 1982’s ‘Midnight Blue’ album back to the contemplative Hungerford Bridge. The song was inspired by seeing all aspects of life while living in London in the 60s and Chris tells the rapt crowd he was once told that this sympathetic and subtle work of street philosophy from 1970 was the “best thing you’ve ever written.” There’s even time for a cover of Colours by Donovan, another acoustic artist like Chris Simpson who blended pop and folk and much else to the point where it was impossible to see the join. Songs from Magna Carta’s million-selling 1973 album Lord of the Ages such as the deliciously gentle Wish It Was and Two Old Friends go down well but no better than newer songs from Magna Carta’s most recent album, ‘Fields of Eden’ (2015) – such as the upbeat romantic pop of Walk Away From Heaven, the slinky jazz-blues of Same Rain and pastoral majesty of Greenhow Hill. The title track, in particular, an epic, elegiac story of changing times told from the point of view of a man of the rural Dales show the unique and important role Magna Carta continue to hold in British cultural history. With the soul of a poet, the heart of a farmer, the passion of a priest and the ego of a rock star, Chris Simpson remains a captivating performer at the age of 75. A lost legend found once more.’
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