Judy Dyble (British singer‐songwriter)

Judith Aileen Dyble (13 February 1949 – 12 July 2020) was an English singer and musician, 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 on 13 September 1949, at the Middlesex Hospital, central London. 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. (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. In November 1966 Ashley 'Tyger' Hutchings asked her to sing and play with Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, and himself. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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.[citation needed] 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).[citation needed] For a long time,[citation needed] 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. Occasional live appearances saw her appear at Cropredy (alongside what was virtually the original Fairport line up) in 2007. 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". It reached No.7 in the official UK Indie Singles Chart, spending 3 weeks in the top 10. The promotion for this single saw Dyble make a couple of rare live appearances, at the Harrogate International Conference Centre, and at an in-store live gig at HMV's superstore in Leeds city centre on 3 March 2008.[citation needed] Her next album, Talking with Strangers, was recorded throughout 2008 with Tim Bowness (No-Man) and Alistair Murphy co-writing and producing. Collaborators include Robert Fripp, Simon Nicol, Pat Mastelotto, Ian McDonald, Julianne Regan, Celia Humphris, Jacqui McShee, Laurie A'Court and Mark Fletcher. During work on the album, she played a rare outdoor show at the Llama festival in North Devon, in June 2008. Dyble took her place at the head of Fairport Convention's initial line up, at Witchseason's 40th anniversary celebration show at the Barbican Theatre on 18 July 2009, for the first time in nearly 40 years, excluding very brief occasional outings at Cropredy.[citation needed] Talking With Strangers was released in August 2009 becoming the recommended choice on the bbc.co.uk homepage, and receiving favourable reviews from, among others, the Mail on Sunday, Record Collector, Shindig!, R2 (Rock'n'Reel), and All About Jazz, and was described as a "sophisticated triumph" on the BBC music website. A number of radio stations aired the near 20-minute track "Harpsong" in full, and Dyble undertook a run of BBC local radio interviews, including BBC Radio Oxford, Solent, Suffolk, Devon, Cornwall, Lancashire, and Manchester. In May 2009, early review copies of the new album with Robert Fripp were sent out. Dyble's Myspace showed samplers of some of the album tracks, and directly from her, and from Tim Bowness's Burning Shed, signed numbered early release copies sold out very quickly. 27 August 2009 saw an intimate gig by Dyble at the 100 Club in London, supported by Tim Bowness, Alistair Murphy, and Simon Nicol, her first solo gig in London in over 40 years. Dutch label Tonefloat released a vinyl version of the album in 2010, and Dyble added additional vocals to the 2 November 2009 single release "Every Sentimental Moment" by UK rock band Kings Cross. Termo records in Norway announced a Scandinavian release in February 2010, with revised artwork by noted artist and children's illustrator Jackie Morris, and a bonus track from the album sessions "Fragile". This release was supported by promotional television appearances in Norway, notably on the breakfast show God