Who knows whether we can expect to see so many Fairports together on a stage again, but for now what we have is a brilliant best-of collection performed with the musicianship you might expect, but a vibrancy you possibly wouldn’t from a band with a half-century heritage.

A glorious celebration of 50 years of Fairport with a family gathering of former members (and 20,000 friends in a field in Oxfordshire). This two-CD set mostly features classic music from the first 10 years of the folk-rock pioneers, but it also serves as a showcase for the current (and most enduring) lineup of the band

It was a glorious evening at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention on Saturday 12 August last year. My best mate and I stood in the crowd just a few feet away from the stage as Fairport bandmates old and even older performed a 31-strong setlist. By Fairport standards, it was relatively short: three hours and only one evening headline performance from the band. But every moment is a treasured memory.

Now that momentous concert has been whittled down to 25 tracks across two discs, is it more than a memento for the fans in the field? Well, I can’t say for absolute certain, but it still sounds pretty fine ten months later [ . . . ]

Continue at FOLK RADIO: Fairport Convention: What We Did On Our Saturday | Folk Radio