If FAIRPORT CONVENTION were the foremost folk-rock ensemble in England in the ’70s, the next decade found them at a loss, August 4th, 1979 marking the band’s farewell performance – staged at the village of Cropredy where they promised to reunite every summer afterwards and followed up on that promise, thus establishing an annual festival which would pull a lot of punters. Except for this Convention, the first few years of the ’80s felt rather lean for the musicians and they seemed happy to reform in 1985 and reshape the line-up familiar to fans from 1971’s “Angel Delight” by replacing Dave Swarbrick with Ric Sanders who joined Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks, and thus the collective’s current cast came to exist. As a result, underestimating the deceptively paltry period should be a great mistake – one to be corrected on July 26th with the issue of a new box set, although 11 CDs and DVD comprising “It All Came Round Again: Onstage & On Air – 1982-1990″ are aimed at the faithful, so there’s a case of preaching to the choir.
