Judy Dyble - Early Years

Early Years

Dyble's first band was Judy and The Folkmen (which existed between 1964 and 1966) and made homemade demo recordings, none of which were released, but some of which are vaunted for inclusion on a mooted anthology of Dyble's career (Universal/Sanctuary 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. Ashley 'Tyger' Hutchings asked her to sing and play with him, Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol in November 1966 in some of the various band incarnations that they were all part of, including jug-bands and anything that needed a female vocal, mainly because of their reluctance to sing themselves and this became the nucleus of Fairport Convention, firstly with Shaun Frater as drummer and later Martin Lamble. The group recorded their first album with her, their repertoire at the time consisting of both American singer-songwriter works plus originals. The first single was a cover of a 1930's 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 the first Fairport album, which was self-titled.

Fairport's early live shows in London in the late 1960s saw Judy share stages with names like 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 also 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.

After her stint with Fairport Convention, Dyble (along with her then-boyfriend Ian McDonald) joined the English pop band Giles, Giles and Fripp by famously 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 (as 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. The duo split a few days before they should have headlined the now legendary 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 60's': to coincide with this, Stuart Maconie did a one hour biopic radio special on Judy's career on BBC6 programme the Freak Zone, as well as a significant piece in Record Collector.

In 1973, Judy 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 Bedoyere). 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)