FAIRPORT CONVENTION - NOW BE THANKFUL

2007 sees Fairport Convention celebrating their fortieth anniversary. This uniquely British Band which started out as an English answer to Jefferson Airplane soon broke free of the conventional rock bounds by mixing traditional English folk music with rock instrumentation. In doing so the band became groundbreaking musical pioneers inventing a whole new genre called "Folk Rock". By 1970 Fairport Convention had been together as a band for some three years. During this period the band had recorded and released five studio albums with one of the albums Liege and Lief being hailed as genre defining. Some feat when you consider that most of the band were still in their early twenties! By the time of the filming of this performance the band had recorded their most recent album Full House with the line up featuring founder members Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol alongside Dave Pegg, Dave Swarbrick and drummer Dave Mattacks. This line up was, and still is considered one of the key line ups of Fairport Convention, although the band only managed one studio album and a posthumous live album before Richard Thompson departed. Apart from the footage contained on this DVD the Full House line up were never filmed commercially until reunions at the band's regular Cropredy Festival years later. The film directed by renowned British film director Tony Palmer captures the band at the Maidstone Fiesta during the summer of 1970 as they run through their set of the time which included various jigs and reels and the songs Sir Patrick Spens and Now Be Thankful. More interestingly the film also features two songs from Matthews Southern Comfort, the band led by former Fairport Convention member Ian Matthews. Matthews Southern Comfort, as well as having the Fairport connection with Ian Matthews, would also go on to have a massive hit single with a cover of the Joni Mitchell song, Woodstock, in late 1970. The film has been restored with the restoration overseen by Tony Palmer. The DVD also includes bonus footage of an exclusive interview filmed in spring 2007 with director Tony Palmer where he explains how he first met Fairport Convention and his thoughts on the band and the film over thirty five years later. This interview is a rare insight into the workings of one of the most unique and treasured of Britain's bands. Due to this DVD being the only official filmed document of the Full House line up of Fairport Convention and 2007 being the fortieth anniversary of the bands inception, demand for this DVD is expected to be high! AVAILABLE FROM www.classicfairportconventiondvd.com

Added 21 Jun 2026