Many ears to please

It is once again the time of year when I report that I have been to see Fairport Convention, this time on their fiftieth anniversary tour; that's a quite remarkable feat when you think about it, even if there is only one of the original members left. I've written about seeing them several times now and have rather run out of different things to say. The set list was the usual mix of the completely new, stuff they haven't played for a while and one or two that they could never leave out. It was good to see this one, with Sally Barker making a good fist of the thankless task of taking Sandy Denny's part:

And I enjoyed their version of Steve Tilston's 'Naked Highwayman', and also the story of the rather calculating way that it came to be written:

And then there was 'Matty Groves'. I've always loved this song about sleeping with other men's wives with which the band traditionally finish the show - make of that what you will - but I think we can all get special amusement at the moment from the fact that the elderly rich man who is cuckolded by his trophy wife is called Lord Donald. Of course in the song he then lashes out violently to compensate for his diminishing virility, so perhaps we shouldn't laugh too hard.

Here's to the next fifty years.