Folk-rockers’ welcome return (From Salisbury Journal)

Folk-rockers’ welcome return

4:53pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Entertainments

LEGENDARY folk-rockers Fairport Convention made a welcome return to Salisbury last Thursday, the third date on a tour of 40 gigs and the bulk of their set was from their new album, By Popular Request.

Fairport’s career spans more than 40 years and takes in many changes of line-up and style, and as a result there is a huge back catalogue to call on. They asked their fans which songs they would most like to hear reworked and the new album is the result of that poll, with old favourites like Crazy Man Michael and less obvious choices such as the traditional, Sir Patrick Spans. Their current style is quite laidback and folky, so it was interesting to hear some of the old material adapted to suit it.

Their overall approach may be mellow but they can still bite when they need to. The splendid Julie Matthews composition, Jewel in the Crown, was delivered with real venom. The song is a biting criticism of imperialist hubris and feels more relevant today than ever.

The song Matty Groves, an everyday story of upstairs-downstairs infidelity and multiple murder is one of their signature numbers.

Lead singer/guitarist Simon Nicol was a founder member of Fairport and must have sung it thousands of times but he still managed to summon real passion at the denouement.

Ralph McTell wrote two great songs for the band, The Hiring Fair and Red & Gold and their performance showed that great music in the right hands still has the power to suspend the flow of time.

The evening opened with a short set from Irish singer/songwriter Kieran Goss. His sensitive songs and gently self-deprecating between- ong chat did a grand job of warming the place up for Fairport.

Words/pictures by John Palmer