Fairport Convention officially disbanded in 1979, only to become the hosts of a yearly folk festival/reunion concert every August in England. This album is taken from their August 15, 1981 show, featuring core original
Fairport members
Simon Nicol and
Richard Thompson plus original female singer
Judy Dyble, plus later members
Dave Swarbrick,
Dave Pegg,
Dave Mattacks, and
Bruce Rowland, and it's a good recapitulation of the band's style, with such numbers new to their repertoire as
Bob Dylan's "Country Pie" and
Thompson's "Woman or a Man." The presence of
Dyble alone was something of a history lesson for newer fans, most of whom were scarcely aware of her participation in the group at the start, prior to
Sandy Denny's joining --
Dyble even had to be introduced to the audience and her significance explained. And as with most of these "mega-Fairport" concerts, the cohesion of the players seems startling, considering the number of layers of different lineups and generations represented on-stage --
Thompson's presence is prominent, however, through his guitar playing and the raw, lean quality that his instrument brings to a performance that should have sounded a bit bloated, given the sheer number of musicians. It's precisely that quality that was missing from the band's official live release
A Fairport Live Convention and its remixed version (Live Convention), and helps make this reunion so rewarding, capturing an attribute of the early band's work that only the oldest fans ever got to hear on-stage.
Dyble's presence is also welcome, and the repertory -- which ranges across the group's history and extends out to folk and rock & roll standards -- is a delight as well.