Judy Dyble

The first single was a cover of a 1930s American song, "If I Had a Ribbon Bow".

The band covered and re-worked numerous American recordings with the band members choosing some tracks to work with from manager Joe Boyd's record collection.

The band also picked up on the works of Joni Mitchell before she was known in the UK, and covered two of her songs on their first album, Fairport Convention.

Judith Aileen Dyble (pronounced Die-bull; 13 February 1949 – 12 July 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, most notable for being a vocalist and a founding member of Fairport Convention and Trader Horne.

In addition, she and Ian McDonald joined and recorded several tracks with Giles, Giles and Fripp, who later became King Crimson.

These tracks surfaced on the Brondesbury Tapes CD and Metaphormosis vinyl LP.

Dyble was born at the Middlesex Hospital, central London.

Fairport's early live shows in London in the late 1960s saw Dyble share stages with acts such as Jimi Hendrix, and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd.

Famously, she sat on the front of the stage at the Speakeasy Club knitting, while Hendrix and Richard Thompson jammed.

Her first band was Judy and The Folkmen (which existed between 1964 and 1966).

They made homemade demo recordings, none of which were released, but some are included on a mooted anthology of Dyble's career.

In November 1966 Ashley 'Tyger' Hutchings asked her to sing and play with himself, Richard Thompson, and Simon Nicol.

This became the nucleus of Fairport Convention, initially with Shaun Frater as a drummer and later Martin Lamble.

The group recorded their first album with her, their repertoire at the time consisting of American singer-songwriter works, plus originals.

Dyble guested on The Incredible String Band's 1968 album The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (on "The Minotaur's Song"), and on G. F. Fitz-Gerald's 1970 album Mouseproof (on "Ashes of an Empire").

Writing on her own website, of her departure from the band, Dyble later said she had been "unceremoniously dumped".

After her stint with Fairport Convention, Dyble (along with her then-boyfriend Ian McDonald) joined the English pop band Giles, Giles and Fripp by advertising in Melody Maker.

Dyble contributed to demo recordings for the group, but left after her relationship with McDonald ended.

Giles, Giles, and Fripp – retaining McDonald – would later evolve into the foundation progressive rock band King Crimson.

Dyble would go on to become one half of the duo Trader Horne, with ex-Them member Jackie McAuley.

Pete Sears was originally the third member of the band, but flew to the United States before recording began.

The group took its name from John Peel's nanny Florence, called "Trader" Horne—a reference to explorer Trader Horn.

The duo signed to Dawn (a subsidiary of Pye Records) releasing one album, Morning Way, in 1969, and two highly prized, collectible vinyl singles.

Dyble wrote the title track, "Morning Way", and co-wrote "Velvet to Atone" with Martin Quittenton for the album.

The pairing shared stages with acts such as Humble Pie, Yes, and Genesis.

They split a few days before they were due to headline the Hollywood festival in Newcastle-under-Lyme that saw Mungo Jerry first come to public attention.

In 1973, Dyble left the music business to work with her husband, DJ and scenester Simon Stable (who had played bongos on albums by Bridget St John and Ten Years After under his real name, Count Simon de la Bédoyère).

Later on, Dyble (by now a mother) worked as a librarian.

At the 1981 Fairport Convention Annual Reunion (held that year at Broughton Castle), Dyble appeared on stage as a surprise guest: backed by Fairport's Full House lineup, she sang Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides, Now" and The Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved".

She also appeared as a guest in 1982 (A Week-End in The Country), 1997 (30th anniversary), 2002 (35th anniversary) and 2007 (40th anniversary).

For a long time, the only Dyble recordings available in the retail trade had been the first Fairport Convention album but Morning Way was reissued on CD in November 2000.

In 2003, almost a decade after the death of Stable, Dyble began writing and performing again.

She released the first of several new works – Enchanted Garden – in 2004, followed by Spindle and The Whorl in 2006.

The last two albums received only limited releases with little if any distribution.

(Sanctuary Records set a release date in 2007 for this, but the release was cancelled when Sanctuary was taken over by Universal.) She then became the original vocalist with Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1968.

Occasional live appearances saw her appear at Cropredy (alongside what was virtually the original Fairport line up) in 2007.

In 2008, Trader Horne was featured in Kingsley Abbott's book, 500 Lost Gems of the 60s; to coincide with this, Stuart Maconie did a one-hour biopic radio special on Dyble's career on his BBC6 radio programme the Freak Zone, as well as a piece in Record Collector.

She also worked with Lol Coxhill, Phil Miller and his brother Steve in a group called DC & the MBs (Dyble, Coxhill and the Miller Brothers) or Penguin Dust.

Dyble released a single on 3 March 2008 with northern indie/folk band The Conspirators through independent label Transcend Media Group.

It was a double A-side featuring Dyble's vocals on a remake of Fairport Convention's song "One Sure Thing" and The Conspirators song "Take Me To Your Leader".