DAVE PEGG

Bass Guitar – 1979-1995

ALL ABOUT DAVE

Dave “Peggy” Pegg was born in Birmingham, England on November 2nd 1947. Music was in the Pegg blood, Dave’s grandfather having been a mean banjo player and his father, a singer.

He took up the guitar while at school, and with the help of the ’60s British Guitar Bible – Bert Weedon’s “Play in a Day”, graduated to the school, and then local, bands.

After leaving school, he worked in an insurance office for about a year, but was soon motivated to take up music professionally by the sound of R&B and the Blues, especially as played by the then contemporary Birmingham local heroes, The Spencer Davis Group, featuring the sixteen year old Steve Winwood.

Dave then switched styles to work with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, learning to cope with the double bass, and learning the mandolin. This move produced an on-going love for traditional Folk Music but the invitation to join Fairport Convention in 1969 came at just the right time to allow Dave the opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds of Folk and Rock music.

After touring and recording numerous albums within the context of the somewhat declining fortunes of the ’70s Fairports, Dave was asked to join Tull in 1979 to replace the ailing John Glascock, whose health, following heart surgery, had never returned to full strength. For the next fifteen years, Dave was the stalwart bassist for JT, touring countless times in the USA and throughout Europe and most of the rest of the world. He is featured on the “A” album, “Broadsword”, “Under Wraps”, “Crest of a Knave”, “Rock Island”, “Catfish Rising”, and “”Roots to Branches”, as well as numerous live recordings, including “A Little Light Music” also featuring his Fairport buddy, Dave Mattacks.

Dave was responsible, during this lengthy career with Tull, for re-forming the Fairports, first through their annual get-together at the Cropredy Folk Festival which he and the band still promote and organise, and then with new records made in Dave’s own Woodworms Studio. More and more Fairport tours were on offer and Dave began to find life a little stressful, unhappily balancing the demands of both groups.

In the process of recording the 1995 album, “Roots to Branches”, Dave began to feel the choice had to be made between his first love FC and the Tull band which had brought him so much enjoyment, friendship and wonga (dosh) over the years. The presence on some of the tracks of US bassist Steve Bailey who had been brought in to cover for Dave while he was touring with FC, made it seem easier to make the move then, although it was Jonathan Noyce who eventually took over the position.

Having bid farewell to Tull boys, Dave began to enjoy a little more time off but was soon succumbing to the pleasures and pains of more FC tours and recordings, as well as continuing to put together the growing and demanding Cropredy Festival event.

With a lifelong commitment to nurturing the legacy of British Folk Music, Peggy continues to perform with Fairport, dividing his time bewtween his homes in Brittany, France and Banbury in England.

Website: http://www.fairportconvention.com

After touring and recording numerous albums within the context of the somewhat declining fortunes of the ’70s Fairports, Dave was asked to join Tull in 1979 to replace the ailing John Glascock, whose health, following heart surgery, had never returned to full strength. For the next fifteen years, Dave was the stalwart bassist for JT, touring countless times in the USA and throughout Europe and most of the rest of the world. He is featured on the “A” album, “Broadsword”, “Under Wraps”, “Crest of a Knave”, “Rock Island”, “Catfish Rising”, and “”Roots to Branches”, as well as numerous live recordings, including “A Little Light Music” also featuring his Fairport buddy, Dave Mattacks.