Fairport Convention: Celebration - Granada TV 1981

Ok, since I'm still in a bit of a Richard Thompson mood today after Saturday's wonderful concert, here's a real treat. This is a British TV broadcast from 1981 of a one-off Fairport Convention reunion (they had split up in 1979) with the original Full House lineup, with Linda Thompson in Sandy Denny's role. I had no idea this had ever happened.

"The separate tracks from this programme are elsewhere on the channel in lesser quality. Now, here is the whole thing (minus ads) in its entirety as telecast on Granada TV in August 1981. Hosted by Mike Harding, this captures the "Full House" line-up of Fairport - Dave Swarbrick, Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks with guest Linda Thompson - in the period when the band was in hiatus. They reformed with a somewhat different line-up in 1985 and continue to this day.

Material is a combination of songs they recorded in 1970, then-current tunes from Swarb's "Smiddyburn" album and rarities such as Bright Lights Tonight and the then-unreleased Wall Of Death."