SUMMER memories and another great gathering of friends at Fairport Convention’s annual Cropredy Festival, near Banbury.

But I must report one highly embarrassing encounter involving the band’s only remaining founder member Simon Nicol and a companion.

I was nattering with my old cameraman chum Ian Gibb, a lensman who has been with me at just about every turn in documenting Fairport’s existence over the decades — that adds up to countless live TV items and two documentaries.

Simon and his companion spotted us and came over to chat. He introduced his chum as the legendary — in some circles, but certainly mine — singer/songwriter Alan Taylor.

I was starstruck and for some reason recalled one of his greatest songs and just started singing it at him. It was a tune called Jobsworth, a funny take on the uniformed minor officials who used to make life unbearable.

I’m halfway through the chorus and I’m being stared at. I falter, no longer quite so confident. I say: “You wrote this!” “No, I didn’t!” he says.

I am about to respond: “Yes, you did”, but stop myself because if he says he didn’t then he’s going to be right and no amount of me telling him otherwise will change it.

Nevertheless, I plough on defiantly quoting his other great songs from a previous era: Red Velvet Steering Wheeled Covered Driver, Sunday Supplement World?

“Not me,” he repeats.

Simon and Ian are now looking very engrossed in the grass beneath our feet and both give the air of wanting to be somewhere where I’m not.

I apologise but wonder how he could be so wrong about his own career.

They wander off, I am left curiously alone.

Later, Simon emails to tell me I am thinking of Jeremy Taylor, not Alan.

Too late, the damage is done. l Cropredy postscript: I had a great relationship with Fairport whereby I put them on tele at any opportunity and sometimes when there wasn’t really an opportunity; they, in turn, fixed up interviews with people I would never otherwise get to, like the Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant — he was there again this year.

I thought it would be a brilliant idea to shoot him backstage looking out to the crowd through a gap. We set up for that and Robert turned up with loads of time to spare. We positioned him and waited for our cue from the Central News gallery.

What I hadn’t thought of was that going live on air at 6.20pm meant the music had already started on the stage and this is not the sort of place where you can ask people to turn it down while you do an interview.

Furthermore, it was a loud rock band called Spank the Monkey.

The result was that I couldn’t hear a word Robert said but ploughed on with questions anyway and hoped it would all make sense. Strangely, he could hear me which, when you think about all those loud Zep concerts, is a bit weird.

I looked back at it later and thought: “What on earth did I think I was doing?”

Never mind, it’s had thousands of YouTube hits.